Advent is upon us! This is the time of the year I love the most (except for illnesses starting to visit the house more frequently 🙂 ). The weather is cool and crisp, leaves are everywhere crunching underfoot, and it’s boot, scarf, and coat weather! Our family loves settling in by the fireplace with a hot drink and blankets while mom or dad reads aloud to everyone. This time of the year is magical, and not just for the children! We can all become as little children to welcome the Christ-Child into our hearts and homes.
Unfortunately this time of the year is also over-commercialized…everywhere you go Christmas music is playing (and it’s not typically O Holy Night…it’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree…) and merchandise screams to be bought, bought, bought. The meaning of the season is lost in the noise and chaos. How to keep Christmas out of Advent, and keep Advent holy? Here are some ideas:
Shopping
Hubby and I try to get most, if not all, of our Christmas shopping done before Advent – this helps us keep the season holy and less stressful. I’m not talking about food of course! Just presents and such. Sometimes it’s not possible to finish it all before Advent and that’s ok – we don’t have a hard rule, and we don’t sweat it – but we do try to get the bulk of it done before the first Sunday in Advent. I still have a lot of baking to do, but no more presents to buy. Yay!
Music
Wait to play and sing Christmas music (at least in your own home and car) until Christmas day, if possible! Advent music is beautiful, and the season is so short you have to really soak it up and enjoy it! Here are some options for Advent music:
Lumen Gentium: Advent and Christmas at Mater Dei
Advent Wreath
If you don’t already own an Advent Wreath, you should definitely get one! The children love lighting the appropriate advent candle during our family rosary. We turn the lights low, get a fire going in the fireplace, and light the candle(s) appropriate to the week of Advent we are in. It’s a lovely way to anticipate the coming of Our Lord (and the candles seem to mesmerize the kids…they’re a lot more quiet during the Rosary 😉 ).
Christmas Decor
We wait to put our tree up until the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8th), and we don’t decorate it or put up lights and stockings and lots of other decorations until Gaudete Sunday. Decorating the house and tree are a much-anticipated event around here, and when Gaudete Sunday comes, we go all out! We get a fire going in the fireplace, we put Advent music on, we bake cookies, and then we eat the warm treats while we decorate and hang stockings and sing. It’s a family event, and one we look forward to every year!
Advent Calendar
Here are some beautiful wooden Advent calendars, if you don’t have one already. Before Advent, fill each door with candy or a slip of paper with instructions on a story to read, a song to sing, or some activity to perform. Each evening after the family rosary we open the right door for the day, and the children enjoy candy or we sing an Advent song, read the story of the Nativity from the gospels, or talk about sacrifices we will make during Advent to prepare our hearts and homes for the Christ Child.
These are just a few ideas of how you can celebrate Advent and keep it holy while keeping Christmas set apart! What are some Advent traditions you have in your family?
The images are in the public domain, here and here.