Before I was Catholic I’d never even heard of Advent, so, needless to say, I had no idea how to incorporate this liturgical season into our family’s lives after our conversion. The first year I attempted it, I tried to do a wreath and a Jesse Tree and a daily prayer chain and a big St. Nicholas feast and the thing where the kids write down good deeds on slips of paper and put them in baby Jesus’ crib so it’ll be all soft when he arrives. Not surprisingly, I’d bitten off way more than I could chew, and by Christmas had abandoned pretty much all of the endeavors.
Last year I was determined not to have another Epic Advent Fail, so I asked readers of my personal blog to give me some suggestions for super simple steps I could take to begin to observe this season. The post received over 100 comments, and I walked away with an arsenal full of Advent ideas so easy that even I could handle them. For fellow converts or anyone else who needs some baby steps to get started celebrating Advent, here are eight of my favorite ideas from my readers:
1. Have special Sunday Advent dinners: “When my boys were little, I didn’t try to do anything each DAY of Advent, except maybe a special dinner time prayer; but each Sunday we had a special ‘Advent Dinner.’ I would fix a simple dinner and we would eat by candlelight. I had some story / devotion / short activity and we lit the Sunday’s candle…They still talk fondly about those dinners.” – Suzanne
2. Wrap favorite seasonal books: “A friend of mine started an Advent tradition years ago: She would wrap up kids’ books about Christmas with plain tissue paper and put them in a basket. Every night before bed, one of her kids would get to unwrap a book and together they would read it as a family. The books would get re-used year after year, and so it was exciting to revisit these books which only came out once a year. If you keep your eyes open at rummage sales, you can collect this many books about Christmas easily. The books stimulate discussion and prayer and family time each night.” - Charlotte
3. Wrap your tree in prayer: “We made an Advent paper chain. Each day we chose three things to pray for, and wrote one name on each link: someone we didn’t know (a four-year-old girl in India), someone we did know (a friend or relative), and some way we’d like to grow (patience, etc). We kept adding to the chain, and by Christmas could ‘wrap our tree in prayer.’ Really simple, and okay if you miss a few days here and there.” – Julia
4. Act out the Christmas story with your manger set: “Several times during Advent I like to sit down with the [manger set] figures and read a simple version of the Nativity story with the kids, sort of acting it out by holding the various figures when they are mentioned by the text. Again, no stress about trying to do it every day or anything. Just when I first put it up and then when I have the time. Maybe once or twice a week or so.” - Melanie
5. Have the Holy Family move toward the creche: “We have a Nativity set that we set out on one side of the room. On the other side we set out the Holy Family. Each Sunday of Advent we move them a little closer to the creche (they circle the room) and talk about the journey Mary and Joseph took.” - Natalile
6. Sing a special song at dinner: “Sing O Come, O Come Emmanuel before dinner. If an Advent wreath is too much, light some candles. Turn out the lights…Print out four verses of the song. Sing one verse for a whole week, the next verse the next week, etc. Ring bells for the refrain! My mom had little jingle bells that we held really quietly until the refrain—then we belted out “REJOICE! REJOICE!” and rang our bells for all we were worth. Of all the things my parents did to celebrate Advent, this is the one that sticks the most.” - Maia
7. Say a special prayer at dinner: “Use your Advent wreath as a centerpiece (assuming your kids won’t climb on the table and destroy it). Every night at dinner, instead of saying your usual prayer before meals, light the candle and say an Advent prayer. Simple!” - Loni
8. Create a stack of prayer cards: “A really simple tradition I’ve managed for the last couple of years is to get 24 small cards and write the name of a family/friend/country on each one. We fold them and add them to our Advent calendar and pray for their intentions each evening during bedtime prayers. It takes 15 minutes to prepare and you’re sorted for the whole season!” - Lizzie
What are your suggestions for simple ways to celebrate Advent?
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My favorite and the one that friends seem to have not heard of the most is our Jesus stocking. Each night during our Advent wreath prayer time, we write notes recounting a good deed or act of penance each day. We gather them all and put them in a stocking with Jesus’ name on it that hangs on our mantle. On Christmas morning, Jesus’ stocking is full of our gifts for Him.
At meals, with the regular prayer before meals and with the lighting of the Advent candle, my husband’s family always said the prayer this is also called the Novena of St. Andrew: “Hail and Blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born…......” We adopted this practice when we got married and said it with our children. Now they are saying it with their families. For me, it not only makes Advent prayers special, but reminds me of my husband’s parents who are now enjoying their eternal reward.
At the beginning of Advent we have our kids collect pine needles - throughout Advent, every time they are found to be doing something nice (i.e. giving a toy to their little brother) or making a sacrifice (eating the brussel sprouts with no complaints) they put a needle onto the manger in our large Nativity - the object is to make a nice soft bed for the baby Jesus on Christmas morning.
We also participate in a Jesse Tree (I say participate, because we read the Bible verses every night, I’m not together enough to have them make the ornaments, one day I’ll just buy them all)
@ Judy Watson
Thanks for mentioning the Novena of St. Andrew! I’d never heard of this prayer, but it begins today (November 30th, the Feast of St. Andrew)and continues until Christmas. I’ll be praying it this Advent!
This year, we are doing a Jesse tree, nightly lighting of candles, and moving our Nativity scene figures of Mary, Joseph, and their donkey closer to the stable each night. We also have a little Advent calendar with a pretty picture of Mary and Jesus. (all outlined here: http://saintaugustineclassicalacademy.blogspot.com/2011/11/advent.html )
We’ve kept it pretty simple, but I’m trying to lay the groundwork for these traditions now while our kids are still very young. Growing up, we didn’t really do anything at all for Advent. I really want our kids to have the full experience.
What wonderful, insightful Catholics! I’ll be doing some of these, for sure, and more when I have children. Thank God for you all, otherwise I’d only have gone so far as to buy the wreath and the candles.
We add to our Nativity set weekly. We have zillions of animals and trees, so we add to it gradually and then on Christmas Day we put the Baby Jesus in.
Years ago Ruth Anne found an article in a parenting magazine about creating a “Thankfulness Chain.” It has become a family tradition ever since, at least 12 years now:
http://productiveparenting-emily.blogspot.com/2011/11/thankfulness-chain.html
Each member of our household writes down things for which they are thankful on slips of colored construction paper. We then take turns reading them to one another & turning them into links for a paper chain. When completed, we hang it up in our living room as a symbol of our family’s gratitude to God during the Advent season.
I highly recommend that other families try this out. It’s easy, fun, & spiritually rewarding ...
This is my first official Advent as a converted Catholic. I was baptized at this year’s Easter Vigil, so last Advent I was going thru RCIA. My husband and I did start a few what we hope will become annual traditions - largely based on all the comments at Jennifer’s personal blog!
We plan a lovely meal for Sunday - something special that we don’t have all the time. I am a pianist so I play O Come O Come Emmanuel each Sunday before the meal. Then we say our normal evening mealtime prayer followed by a bit of scripture or Advent reflection in a book we got last year. We light that week’s candle and have a lovely, grace-filled meal.
Great suggestions here!
When you look at the liturgical calendar, Advent is loaded with some heavy-hitting saints.. Today is St. Andrew, coming up St. Francis Xavier, St. Nicholas, St. Ambrose, Juan Diego, St. Lucy, St. John of the Cross. Then two Marian-focused days, Immaculate Conception & Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Pick a couple and really learn about each one - do something in honor of that saint (prepare a fish dinner in honor of St. Andrew, do something nice for someone in need in honor of St. Nicholas, make St. Lucy buns on her feast day, etc.). Our daughter is named after St. Lucy, so Dec 13 is celebrated up here. We are also praying the St. Andrew Christmas novena as well.
Jeez. i want kids to do all this cool stuff with.
Anyone want to send me theirs?
I came back to the Church last August & the rest of my family converted to Catholicism this past Easter, so we’ve decided to do things a bit different. This is also since my kids are all young adults~ with one living on her own and one away at college until just before Christmas. We are making sure to give of our time, talent and treasure during Advent with doing little things for others like having our priests over for dinner and helping out with things around our parish. Also, we are going through the kids books from when they were little and giving them to a book drive. We’re going to be making our gifts for extended family & giving them along with Mass cards which will be a very new thing for us! It’s going to be a great Advent and Christmas!
Many spend lavishly to celebrate Christmas. While spending for ourselves we can think of one or two underprivileged and contribute our mite for them. It can be in the form of a help to some known poor family or a donation to charity like St Vincent de Paul Society.
I’m a cradle Catholic, but it was only last year that I learned about the “Dies Irae” which was originally written for Advent—a hymn about death and judgement. Couple that info with the older tradition of fasting during Advent and now I view Advent as traditionally being primarily a time to meditate upon the relationship between the second coming of Christ, death, judgement and Christ undoing the Fall through his first coming. My husband and I celebrate the feast days of saints during Advent with this in mind learning about their important works and strong faith and, sometimes, their martyrdom. We also emphasize Advent as a time for a special novena (the Christmas novena, a.k.a. St. Andrew’s novena) said for a specific person’s conversion or an important intention, for confession, for acts of charity, for building anticipation (keeping baby Jesus out of the Nativity set in our home until after midnight on Christmas), for making sacrifices (meatless Christmas Eve), and for encouraging patience and a Catholic rather than Protest or secular attitude towards the season by letting the liturgical year lead us through it by waiting to decorate the Christmas tree until a day or two before Christmas and keeping it up under the feast of John the Baptist.
I don’t have kids, but I teach them. One of my favorite things is using music—advent hymns. My personal tradition is to listen to Michael John Poirer’s The Voices of Children: Advent and Christmas Meditations. My favorite is the Innkeeper’s Story. Makes me teary eyed every time.
I remember when there were prayers and responses that went with the Advent wreath in the missalettes at church. We took some at the end of their use and would use them in the house the following year for our own Advent wreath that was lit at dinner each day. Then on Christmas Eve the candles were replaced with white candles for wigilia and with red candles for Christmas Day dinner.
One that I read about I think is great for families. Make Advent jars. Each person decorates a jar that is their own and they get a slips of paper equivalent to the number of days of Advent. On each slip of paper they write some little sacrifice, like being nice to a sibling, saying thank you more, doing a chore without being told, whatever. They put the slips of paper in their jar and every morning of Advent they pull out a slip of paper and that is what they do that day. It reminds us that this isn’t party season but preparation season. We prepare our hearts for the Lord to live there.
In my house we greet people with Happy Advent and there isn’t Christmas music until Christmas. The tree goes up as close to December 24th as possible and stays up until February 2nd, Candlemas Day and the last day of the Christmas season for our ancestors in their home country.
Thanks to the idea on Jenn’s blog, we are in our second year of unwrapping our Christmas themed children’s books, one each night, during Advent. Last year I saved wrapping paper at Christmas and when I was putting away Christmas, I wrapped the books so that it would be easy to get started with it this season. It was such a gift to give myself! I’ve been surprised at how useful even our secular books can be in discussing what Jesus did for us by coming at Christmas. It is no bad thing to speculate on why the Who’s down in Who Ville were able to sing without any presents at all. What is that “little bit more that Christmas could mean? Could we know the secret? Tra la la!
If one has no children in the house or wants to take things up a notch, our new Advent tradition this year is hosting four Advent potlucks for dinner on the Sundays of Advent. We meant them to be progressive potlucks, with different
house holds hosting each week, but we ended being the only households we found (after advertising at church) who participated and had kids. (i think everyone else was worried about what our young kids would do at their house, and we dont mind hosting, so ...) In any case, we’ve gotten to know a bunch of new people, all of whom are single or young married couples in our case, and it’s been a great way to build community and practice hospitality. We light the Advent wreath, read a suggested prayer and scripture passage for each week that I found online, and sing a verse of O Come O Come Emmanuel. Then we eat. Awesome. Anyone could pull it off, invite neighbors, family, folks from work or the parish you want to get to know better. We’ve loved it.
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