The Advent Project | 25 Days of Photo & Video | Day 1

Christmas is coming. We go a little crazy in the preparations. Let’s document the craziness this year. Here’s the challenge. Each day take a photo and/or video footage. In the end we’ll create a video storybook of our holiday preparations.

Here are some possible targets of your creative bug:

• video of Christmas tree shopping
• a tight close-up photo of the first ornament you unwrap to hang
• video of hanging the lights
• a wide-angle shot of the stockings hung with care
• video of the kids opening gifts
• a super tall photo of the Christmas tree taken from the floor

This site is full of creative projects to help your family celebrate the season of Advent.

Here’s a creative video of Christmas preparation found on Vimeo:

d90 Christmas Preparation from Jason Cohen on Vimeo.

This project is easily adaptable for the 8 days of Chanukah. Here are some thought starters to get your creative juices going:

• video of your eldest child reciting the Shehecheyanu
• a photo taken in macro mode with the flash off, of the Menorah, from one end peering down to the other end
• video of your children opening their gifts each night
• a wide-angle shot of your front window with the Menorah lights glistening

This site has wonderful tips for celebrating an enjoyable Chanukah.

Here’s a beautiful photo from Small the Beetle on Flickr:

And here’s my input for Day 1. We’re in the upper midwest, so Advent is also known as set-up-the-hockey-rink season.

it's not pretty, but it's life

It’s not what I would call an emotionally-charged photo, but it’s a pretty good representation of Advent at our home. Preparing the ice rink, with a cup of hot cocoa to follow. Aren’t we missing something? No ice rink yet, but the tarp to keep the sun from melting the ice is up and ready. I’m guessing we’ll see a nice, framed up ice rink tomorrow.

Let your wacky life shine through in your Advent or Hanukah diary. Snap photos and/or video each and every day, I dare you.