*Make an Advent resolution (after all this is the liturgical New Year). Decide on one thing to add to your daily routine to make Christ more concretely the center of your daily life. This Advent, I'm going to return to 15-20 min. of daily spiritual reading. I know that I'll have time to do it while nursing, so it's a manageable goal for me right now.
*Decorate a Jesse tree. Make ornaments that reflect Biblical stories of the Old Testement that pre-figured the coming of Christ and/or involved his ancestors (from the line of Jesse).
*Go to an Advent penance service (or just normal confession hours). As John the Baptist exhorted his followers, we must prepare the way of the Lord with a renunciation of sin.
*Listen to a performance or CD of Handel's "Messiah." This was something my mom always did. My friend and I continued the tradition by going to the Messiah sing-a-long at the Kennedy Center one year. This piece of music is a beautiful, Scriptural reflection on the Incarnation and life of Christ.
*Set up your nativity set WITHOUT baby Jesus (he gets to arrive on Christmas).
*Make a "manger" for baby Jesus. This can be any box or basket. Put a pile of straw (or yellow felt strips) next to it. Tell the family members that each time they do something to take initiative or to make a sacrifice (give up eating that piece of candy, doing dishes without complaining, cleaning up their room, etc.) they get to put one piece of straw in the crib for baby Jesus. The goal is to make a soft bed for His arrival on Christmas. Meanwhile, everyone is preparing their hearts for Him. Wrap a baby doll in a blanket to be Baby Jesus and place him in the manger on Christmas.
*Light an Advent wreath each Sunday at dinner or daily with family night prayers. My family would do this and sing an Advent song like "Come, O' Come Emmanuel."
*Celebrate the feast of Saint Nicholas on Dec. 6th. It's a great opportunity to focus on gift-giving as an expression of generosity and care of those who are less fortunate.
*Pick a person off of the "angel-tree" or whatever your church community calls it. Help someone who is less fortunate than you.
*Look up the Christian symbolism behind Christmas trees, candy-canes, evergreens, stars, etc.
*Use an Advent Calendar to count down the days. I love the ones with Scripture verses written in them.
*Say the Christmas Novena--one of the most beautiful, simple prayers I've learned. You say it 15 times each day from the feast of St. Andrew (Nov. 30th) until Christmas. I used to think that was silly. Now, I realize that (1) it shows my fervor for the intention of my novena and (2) by the 12th time I'm saying it or so I've stopped thinking about what we're going to buy Uncle Dan, how to make that fruit cake I had the other night, and when I need to put in the next load of laundry--NOW I'm focused on the words I'm saying.
Anyone have any other ideas or great family Advent traditions?
3 comments:
Hi Kelly!
This is Beth Turner from the playgroup (Mary Draper's sister/Jim McElwee's daughter) I loved reading through your advent traditions (many I remember well from childhood). I've added a new one this year- I bought a book "The Story of Christmas" at In His Name. It's actually an advent calendar of little board books. Each day has a small book telling a story leading up to Christ's birth. Each book also has a gold string so you can hang it on the tree after reading it. I know my daughter, Elise (3 1/2 yo) is going to love it! We'll also be lighting the advent wreath and saying the prayers at dinner. I'll have to check out the rest of your blog- I love the mother quotes!
What a cool sounding book! Thanks for sharing. :)
Kelly,
after reading this, my mom and I took a trip down memory lane and discussed how we also did many of the same things when i was growing up. She reminded me however, of her most favorite one. when we were a little bit older and could fully grasp the concept, we drew a name out of a hat of another sibling and became their "secret Advent servant." The idea was to do extra special kind deeds and actions for that person each day of Advent. For example, make their bed while he or she is in the shower, or do one of his/her chores without him/her knowing. you get the idea.
this year we are doing, "caught you being kind." each time one of the children do an extra special act of kindness/ good deed, she gets to put a piece of hay in the manger. we are trying to make a super soft bed for baby Jesus.
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