In the last post I shared some thoughts on Advent, the season. In this post I share what it looks like practically for our family. Here’s our Advent at a glance ‘plan’ for this year. I’ve organized these thoughts into three sections: Family Prayer, Atmosphere, and Personal Aspirations

Family Prayer

There are four parts we add into Family Prayer during Advent: the Advent Calendar, the Advent Wreath, Sacrifice Stars, and Building the Crèche.

Advent Calendar

Looking back on all the Advent Calendars we ever opened as kids, my favorite was this dark blue nativity scene one where behind each window was the next bit of the Nativity story. This isn’t the same, but it’s the same idea. And it’s huge! I’m looking forward to reading the story with the children piece by piece.

Advent Wreath

The Advent wreath we light each night. It begins in darkness. And each week the light gets brighter contrasting the darkening and shortening of the winter days representing the darkness of the world before the coming of Christ. As we light each candle we witness, tangibly, the dawning of salvation.

This year we’ll try to roll our own beeswax candles from beeswax sheets. We’ll see how it goes!

Sacrifice Stars

This is a tradition we began when the oldest was very little, maybe 2? We got a treasure chest and a big pack of glittery silver and gold foam stars (this can easily be done with wooden stars, painted, or glitter paper star punch outs, or even pony beads!). Each day during Advent we each put one star in the chest for a sacrifice we made that day, offering it as a gift to the baby Jesus. We prepare our hearts by making these sacrifices. On Christmas day, we bring our treasure chest full of stars and offer it to the baby Jesus in the crèche after Mass.

These sacrifices often include, especially for the children, something they did that was loving or kind that day. For us adults, it may be something we gave up (as we would during Lent).

As a family these sacrifices also include the many opportunities to perform works of mercy during Advent. For us it looks like giving to the food pantry, the hungry, the homeless, participating in Parish gift-giving programs, and opening our home to friends and neighbors.

Each year I think about forming all the small stars into a big star of Bethlehem and hanging it over our crèche. Maybe this will be the year. The idea being that all our acts of love may start small, but combined and acted daily grow into a light that burns brighter and brighter and shines a way to Christ.

Building the Crèche

Another tradition we have for Night Prayer during Advent is to slowly add figures to our crèche scene. We set the empty barn on the mantle and I hide the baby Jesus. Each day the children take turns adding one figurine to the set.

As with the Advent Calendar and Wreath, this is another traditions that marks the growth that happens during Advent. As we prepare our hearts, the light of the wreath grows brighter, the story unfolds, the people and animals around the crèche get more and more ready to welcome the Child.

Atmosphere

You’re probably in the middle of this list going, “Um…this doesn’t seem so simple miss ‘Joyful-Simple-Faithful’. Ok. But hear me out. Advent is a new Season, it’s a few weeks of living a little differently because the season is different. That’s going to mean changing a few things daily. Not just for a day, as in our feast day celebrations (there are some great ones during Advent, so stay tuned!). Making these daily changes will create an atmosphere that will reflect the change in season. It needs to be a marked change, both in our routines and in our souls.

Music

We *try * not to listen to *too much * Christmas music, at least not before Guadete Sunday. Instead I’ve begun a playlist of Advent music. These are hymns and songs that sing more of the preparations for Christmas than actual Christmas itself. “People Look East”, “Wake Awake”, “Come thou Long Expected Jesus”, “Creator of the Stars of Night” and, of course, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” are all on the list. Just search iTunes or YouTube to find some creative and new instrumentations or arrangements of these classic hymns. I’m definitely not listening to booming organs and choral interpretations for three weeks straight! But those are there, too.

*I’m a girl who grew up listening to Christmas music from October on through January. I love, love, love the season. So sometimes, every so often, a Christmas album or Pandora station will turn on. Like when I’m mixing up cookie dough or wrapping gifts *

Decorating

Decorating doesn’t happen around here until “Pink Week”: Gaudete Sunday. We get our tree, hang wreaths and garland, put up the nutcrackers and build the Lego Christmas Train. Before that we try to keep it Adventy by sticking to the above mentioned traditions.

I know many families who decorate their Christmas Trees at the beginning of Advent, but only hang Advent colored decorations until closer to Christmas. This “Advent Tree” can also be a good backdrop for the Jesse Tree ornaments (something we’ve never done, but hope to include in the future!)

Homekeeping

Advent time for me means trying a little harder to keep up with the daily and weekly cleaning routine, but I also take it as an opportunity to get in some deeper cleaning. As it is a change of season, and a preparation for celebration, this year I hope to tackle one deep clean spot a day from December 1-23^rd. I’ve made a list and assigned one spot per day. These are things that I don’t get to in the usual weekly wipe down and floor cleaning. I’m cleaning out a closet, dusting those blinds, wiping the walls or baseboards, and washing all the linens to make the home ready.

And it won’t just me. I plan to enlist the help of the children. This way its another opportunity to make sacrifices and work together to prepare as a family. At one a day, it shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes!

My Personal Advent Aspirations

I hope, this Advent, and will work toward visiting the Sacraments more frequently. I hope to make it to reconciliation each week, and get back to attending daily Mass at least once a week with the kiddos. I look forward to attending to my morning prayer time with renewed intention. I really desire to approach this season as a time of spiritual preparation. And there is no better way than visiting the sacraments!

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And that’s our Advent in a nutshell. Now to get the Nutracker (or Cracker Nut as T-Bird says) out and see how it breaks down. Ha! I’ll post some updates as the season progresses!

Also, Look for Celebration plans for upcoming feast days!

Happy Thanksgiving!