The Adventure of Christmas by Ed Drew

This Advent devotional is 25 short devotions for the days in December leading up to Christmas and a final one for Christmas Day. Each day starts with a “Where are We Going Today?” section that gets our minds in the right place as well as a short prayer to open. This is followed by “Ask a Quick Question” which links to the scripture reading. There is the “Today’s Story” section which asks and answers some questions about the reading and gives ideas for working with younger children. This is followed by the scripture section for the day. Finally, there are questions to reflect that are divided up into age-appropriate categories. It ends with a prompt to “Think and Pray” about what was just read.

There are also optional extra activities you can add to each lesson. Some of the extras include baking, playing games, more discussion questions, crafts, and prompts for adults. If you did not do any of the extra activities, it would probably take you between five and ten minutes a day to complete. Extra activities will vary depending on which is chosen. There is also an Advent calendar that can be purchased to go alongside the devotional.

Ages: Written to be accessible for families with children of any age, but probably best suited for school-aged children.

This devotional was well crafted to give a customizable time commitment for each family. Whether you only have five minutes to spend or want to spend at least half an hour every night, this devotional can be adjusted nightly to work for your family’s schedule. I appreciate that scripture is read every night and then discusses and reflected upon together as a family.

The illustrations are few, but a rather unique style that I didn’t particularly love. Also, while most of the extra activities are well thought out, there are a few that are a bit of a stretch- mostly the baking ones. For my American friends, there may be a couple of instances that the British English could be misunderstood, (jelly instead of jello and biscuits instead of cookies) but they are very minor. Overall, this is a well-done devotional that will point your family to the true meaning of the season!

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