This song was written and submitted by a reader, Alexandra Montano, and it is so cute! I love singing little songs with Catholic kids, and kids remember things so well when they are in songs. Insert something really smart and Scientific here about why that is true. lol. My kids love singing this Advent song and I hope your kids enjoy it, too! Be sure to check out the rest of my Advent resources for families here.
And after years of having this song posted here and singing it with my kids, I finally made a video of the actual song! So now your kids and listen and learn as they sing along. Check it out here or see The Advent Song on my YouTube channel.
The Advent Song
Tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”
Advent is a time to wait, (hold hand up as you say “wait)
Not quite time to celebrate, (shake head and wag finger from side to side)
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Count the candles 1 by 1, (put 4 fingers up, one at a time)
Until Advent time is done. (wave hands, palms down)
Day by day we work and play, (stack fist on top of fist, back and forth)
To prepare for Christmas day! (put arms on shoulders and hug yourself)
(Updated with hand motions from a reader- Thanks!) Songs are such a great way to minister to kids! It doesn’t involve any prep work, supplies, clean up, etc. Also, songs really stick in kid’s brains and we can reach them with such great information.
How do you get the idea of “waiting” during Advent across to your kids? Tell us in the comments!
ugh! good reminder to us all! it is sad when it’s not even christmas and you are sick of all the sweets already. I know Catholics used to fast during Advent…seems like I need to incorporate a little of that! Anyway, very sweet song 🙂
How do you teach kids to wait for Christmas (or wait in general for that matter)?
I don’t decorate the house in red or green. It is my plan to start decorating in purple during Advent and red and green on Christmas Eve. We set up our manger sets and hide all of the baby Jesus’. We set up our Advent wreath and “light” a candle each week. We put up the Jesse tree and hang ornaments each day along with reading a bible passage. We do the Holy Heroes program each morning. We don’t watch any cartoons during Advent that put the focus on Santa or gifts or anything that diminishes the real meaning of Christmas. We make a birthday cake for baby Jesus and have a special birthday party for him on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. This year we are giving a small amount of gifts to the children to take the focus off of gifts and put it on the reason for our celebration. We are keeping Advent and Christmas simple and stress free to really enjoy being together and to use this time to grow together as a family and to grow closer to God.
I taught Kindergarten in a Catholic elementary school for ten years, am nowAdministrator for Children’s Faith Formation in my parish. I used this Avent song every year with my students, never knew where it came from, found it on the internet!
Thanks for sharing it with your subscribers. You do a great job in sharing the faith for us all.
Mary Linge
It’s hard! There is so much to do during Advent, that it feels like celebrating. Jesse tree, advent wreath, O Antiphons, St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucy Day. I was trying to figure out what I could do to make the 12 days of Christmas feel more like the Christmas Season. With 5 kids, it’s been hard to find time to cook or bake so I asked each family member to pick one dinner and one dessert that I would try to incorporate into the menu during the 12 days of Christmas. The responses were interesting. I got Spaghetti, Waffles, Eggs, Grilled Pork Chops (DH), and some Israeli food since Bethlehem is in Israel, for dinner requests and for dessert, I got hot chocolate, cookies, and apple pie. We are also setting aside a couple of presents for Epiphany. I would like some more ideas about how to make those 12 days seem more celebratory.
Another version:
Advent is a time to wait, (hold up hand as to say “wait”)
Not quite time to celebrate. (Shake head and wag finger side to side)
Light the candles one by one, (put up four fingers one by one)
Till this advent time is done. (wave hands side to side palms down)
Day by day we work and play (put fist on top of fist back and forth)
To prepare for Christmas day. (cross arms over each other and give self a hug)
Two versions I haven’t heard, and yet I will post the one we used this advent:
Advent is the time to wait
Not quite time to celebrate
light the candles one by one
til the advent time is done
christmas day will soon be here
time for joy and time for cheer
I like this version!
We’ve used this song at our co-op (Little Messengers) and at home now for a couple years, and the kids love it. I found it on the catholicblogger site. We sing it in conjunction with the lighting of our Advent Wreath “ceremonies” before going to bed. We also sing O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and say a simple prayer (a different one for each week). I also create an activity calendar for Advent so that we focus on something related tot he season and/or feasts during the season almost every night.
I could not agree more about songs being a special way to help students/adults remember truths taught. “Kids” I taught 30 years ago can (and do) sing back to me the songs I taught them so long ago!
My theory is that the melody & rhythm help carry the words with them. . .
Using familiar melodies makes it easier to learn the new words. Another good example of this is the song “Holy, Good St. Nicholas” from the website StNicholas.
The St. Nicholas website I mentioned is
saintnicholascenter.org
Just to share: My daughter accidentally changed “play” to “pray” (she was a toddler and could not quite get the ‘L’ and ‘R’ sounds right at the time) but I thought it was quite an appropriate change so we have been doing that for the past couple years! We added an action where we put our hands together like we’re praying and we do this immediately following the stacking fists.
Cute variation! So perfect!
I have been using this song for going on 20 or so years, but recently also added showing the students the Cookie Monster youtube about waiting and not eating the cookies just yet.
Not very “religious” but …definitely a way to talk about waiting…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PnbKL3wuH4&list=PLqQkHQilyqnsPrYlc3z6PBNufhTNaQzUc&index=33
This is hilarious! Love it!
That’s hilarious! I’m going to use this as well.
That song was amazing. It’s really perfect for advent. Thanks for sharing this.
We must have very similar minds. I love to write “learning lyrics” to tunes kids already know. I wrote virtually the same words you did to the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star tune for Advent! Thank you for sharing your version with the world!