Hi, Heather!
No, we didn’t like Tabitha’s Travels quite as well. It’s still an involving story–it’s just that by the third book it began to us to seem a little bit “forced”-the constant interplay between the three characters’ stories. Unless you were rolling in money, I’d recommend waiting–they’ll surely reprint it or prices may very well go down in, say, February as opposed to November, considering this is such a seasonal item.
Of COURSE I have other suggestions. 🙂 None of them are quite as much a self-contained “story” but these are some other Advent products we have used and loved:
Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas, and Joy to the World–Stories Behind Your Favorite Christmas Carols–these are better for older families. We “plumped” these by playing the songs, finding scriptures to go along with them, and doing a few crafts
The ADVENTure of Christmas, by Lisa Whelchel–this book is adorable. Very enjoyable and good for all ages.
My favorite, probably–The Handel’s Messiah Family Advent Reader–we loved this! Composer study, devotional and advent resource all rolled into one, with a CD to play.
Other things we have done–we take all our favorite Christmas picture books, write their titles on pieces of paper, and draw one per day to read. Then we again find carols, scriptures and crafts to “go along”
There are also Advent activity calendars on the internet. Try googling “advent activity calendar” and you’ll find all kinds. We’ve done ones on Christmas traditions in other countries, Old Testament prophecies, and a number of other things.
Another idea is to google “Christmas stories” and print one that you like, off for each day to read. I’ve even made up little booklets for all the children of the ones we’ve read.
I hope others have lots of ideas too! If you have young children, don’t discount the idea of simply beginning again with Jotham, we’ve read them more than once.
Michelle D
