Activity and coloring pages for Armenian Christmas / Epiphany

Here we are, on the 1000th day of winter break, just now approaching our big celebration of the season – Armenian Christmas. Armenians celebrate Christmas along with Epiphany on January 6th each year – having never changed the date of Christmas like other Christian denominations did. More on “Why January 6th?” here: https://armenianchurch.us/the-lord/nativity-and-theophany-of-our-lord-and-the-feast-of-the-naming-of-jesus/

I put together a dozen or so activity pages for my kids to do over the next few days, anticipating lots of time in church. While I’d love for them to focus on the service and icons and hymns… they’re 3, 4, and 6, and I’ll be watching them solo while family serves in other places, so back-up activity pages it is. They’re geared towards a younger set of kids. Mine haven’t tried these yet, but they’re similar to the wedding activity pages I made a few months ago, which were a hit.

I also previously posted a coloring page for Christmas, for more advanced coloring.

Krisdos dznav yev haydnetsav!

Armenian Christmas and Theophany, activity pagesDownload

Armenian Advent Calendar Page

Here’s what we’re using instead of the Countdown to Christmas advent paper chain this year. Our youngest is 3 and a total hellion, so there’s no way we can keep a paper chain intact/intentionally used for 50 days.

I’d love something sturdier like this advent calendar from Draw Near designs, but they’re on a different calendar than us so I can’t just buy that one, and I don’t sew well enough to make my own. Maybe someday. For now, sticker chart!!

For more on Armenian advent in general, see: What is Advent? from the Eastern Diocese’s website.

Hisnag calendar, Armenian Advent countdownDownload

Armenian Advent / Hisnag, countdown to Christmas paper chain

Zabel, adjusting the countdown paper chain on our mantel.

Here’s something we did last year to mark advent. It’s a paper chain countdown, with the numbers 1-50 in Armenian. We cut the strips out, taped them together, and then the kids ripped one link off the chain each day until January 6th. I don’t know if we’re going to do a countdown chain again this year or something else (the fast of advent begins today, so we’d better figure something out quickly). If we do the chain again, I’ll add star stickers onto Armenian Christmas and American Christmas… Our kids got to Dec. 25th and it felt like we should mark it in some way on the chain.

hisnag-countdown-chain-2-alternating-colors-1Download
Hisnag countdown chain 2, alternating colorsDownload

^ There are two different versions of the document, with different fonts. Enjoy!

edited later to add… Another Advent countdown, but more manageable = https://hye.home.blog/2024/11/20/armenian-advent-calendar-page/ = on a single page.

Armenian wedding activity pages for kids

My brother-in-law got married this past weekend, and they had invited a lot of kids to the wedding. I made a bunch of activity pages and coloring pages to keep kids occupied during the service and speeches, etc. A lot of the wedding activity pages you can find on Etsy or other sites are for Americanized weddings, and I wanted things that felt a little more appropriate for an orthodox wedding. The ones I made for my brother-in-law and his new wife (yay!) were more customized to their names, occupations, etc. But since I made them, I’ll share them!

Armenian wedding, activity pages for kidsDownload

Coloring pages for Armenian Orthodox Baptism

Here are a bunch of coloring pages I made, adapted from some coloring pages at our nephew’s baptism. The original pictures were pretty protestant-ish? Definitely not Armenian or Orthodox (because such things don’t exist), so I figured I’d just redraw them with a little twist.

They’re not perfect drawings, because I’m still doing these by hand instead of with any drawing software (which could guarantee equal line weights for example). But it has been ages since I posted anything, and the whole point of this website was to get resources out into the world instead of in a folder in my basement, so here you go.

I have been quiet on here (busy summer, rough re-entry to school with the kids), but I’ve been much more active on Instagram – finally started an account there, seemed like a better place to post art. If you’re interested, you can find me there too: @kalynbabikyan

Baptism church 1, Armenian coloring pageDownload
Baptism compilation, Armenian coloring pageDownload
Baptism Bible, Armenian coloring pageDownload
Baptism church 2, Armenian coloring pageDownload
Baptism candle, Armenian coloring pageDownload

Armenian books & stories – voice recordings

Hello, world. Our family has a Yoto player, which is basically a screen-free music player for the kids. It’s like a CD player, but it uses cards with NFC chips to play audio instead of CDs (so it’s wayyy more durable). It’s really user-friendly, kids can operate it by themselves, and it’s great.

One of the things you can do on the Yoto is record your own audio, and create your own playlists. Then you can load that onto a card, so the kids can play your stories whenever they want.

Vartan and I went ahead and recorded a dozen of the Armenian books and stories that we have, and turned them into a sharable playlist through Yoto. Anyone who has the link can add the playlist to their Yoto account and save it onto one of their blank cards.

It’s a combination of books in Western Armenian and in English, but about Armenia or by Armenian authors. We’ll add new recordings to the playlist over time, and it’ll automatically update for anyone who added it to their Yoto account/library.

https://share.yoto.co/s/57iwn6usbAyiDDcyeiBRiY

You should still be able to listen to the recordings from that link, even if you don’t have a Yoto player or account. But if it’s not working and you want the files, feel free to email them too! happy to send.

Quick coloring page for Red Sunday

“Red Sunday” is the fourth Sunday of Eastertide (so, the third Sunday after Easter). We celebrated it this past Sunday. Here’s a description, from our church’s bulletin:

RED SUNDAY – The ascription “Red” is traditionally thought to reflect the brilliance of red flowers, which blossom at this time of year, symbolizing the new life given through the blood sacrifice of Christ. This Sunday’s Gospel (John 5:19-30), emphasizes the life-giving word of Jesus. Like Green Sunday, it has become a custom on this Sunday for clerics to wear red vestments and for the church to be decorated in red. The name “Red Sunday” seems to have no ecclesiastical origin or significance but may have been, like Green Sunday, a popular designation related to a spring festival and the new season, as at that time of the year the fields were adorned with red and green.

And here’s a quick coloring page I made for the day:

garmir-giragi-red-sunday-coloring-pageDownload