Advent is coming … November 29th, to be exact. I’ve been spending the last week or so researching various Advent traditions, discussing with Greg childhood traditions, and figuring out what we want to do this Advent and Christmas.
Last year’s Advent was well and good, albeit chaotic with Elise’s Baptism 4 days before Christmas and the adjustment of having a new baby in the house. We’re much more stable now, and Elise is getting to the point where she can begin to partake in traditions, even if she doesn’t “get it”. She will, eventually.
We’ve decided to incorporate some childhood traditions:
- Peppakakur cookies and frosting. My mom made these every Christmas and I adore them. They’re German molasses cookies with a powder sugar frosting. She only made them during Christmastime so they’re my extra special treat. She would make them in all sorts of shapes – men, women, Christmas trees, the Star of Bethlehem, candy canes – we’d sit and frost like, 5 dozen of them while listening to Christmas songs on the radio. It’s probably my most favorite memory of childhood Christmases in terms of stuff we did together.
- An Advent wreath. My family never did this, but Greg’s did. We had one last year and I loved it, so I’m more than happy to bring that into this year.
- A chocolate Advent calendar. We both had these growing up, so we’re delighted that Elise has her own this year. And can eat the chocolate out of it.
- A Nativity. We found a beautiful one in perfect condition (still in it’s box!) at the local thrift store for $3, so this is the first year in which we have ‘parts’ to the Nativity. The Christ Child will not arrive until Christmas Day, and the Wise Men will make a journey across our living room and arrive on the Feast of the Epiphany. Unless Elise decides otherwise. 
And some traditions neither of us did as kids:
- A Jesse tree. My aunt made us a little ‘money tree’ when we got married, which was a little artificial tree spray-painted white, with clothespins on it. I found the tree, so there’s our base for the Jesse tree. Greg and I and Elise are going to make ornaments for it on the first Sunday of Advent.
- A Mary candle, to remind us of Our Lady’s “Yes” to God and remind us that we also need to have a “Yes” to God.
- Celebrating the Feast of St. Nicholas on December 6th. Complete with gifts in shoes, we are aiming to make this THE gift giving day, with gifts still at Christmas. We don’t want gifts to be the only focus on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Gifts will still be given and opened on Christmas Day. We’re aiming for a balance and not going overboard one way or another.
We are going to be “those people” who don’t decorate for Christmas until well, when it’s MUCH closer to Christmas and keep the tree up until the Feast of the Epiphany.
I don’t think we’re going to do too much other than that, since we our goal is to keep our focus on Advent and the upcoming birth of Our Lord and not get sidetracked into material goods and stress. This year’s Christmas is going to be very special, since Greg’s brother received orders that he will be deployed to Iraq in the summer of 2010. Thus, we want to make this Christmas (heck, all Christmases) more family and Christ focused instead of stressing out about ‘the perfect gift’ or whatever.
[...] preparing their domestic churches for Advent. This has made my task a whole lot easier. Kim at Transitus Tiber had a wonderful list of her family’s Advent traditions that got me [...]
I like Ms. Gould’s book as well:) One thing we do that I really like is putting up our “Charlie Brown” little articficial tree up at the beginning of advent. (We are in an apartment and it fits:) But we don’t put Christmas decorations on it until a few days before Christmas. Instead, we make an Advent Prayer Chain. We write down prayers, intentions, sacrifices, etc. and we pull one out of the basket each day. At the end of the day it gets stapled together to form a chain. This chain wraps around the tree and by Christmas is so pretty. I put them on colored pink and purple paper, the colors of Advent. I’ve also read of families who instead of making a chain put those into a special stocking for Jesus. So those are his presents on Christmas. Or you could write down something each day you are grateful for. There are some awesome ideas out there!! This year, we are going to celebrate the O Antiphons better. Happy Planning!! Also, prayers for the interviews:)
The little family traditions are the best part of the whole Advent/Christmas season.
You’re quite welcome!
A good book I found was “The Catholic Home” by Meredith Gould. She goes into a lot more detail for ideas/recipes/prayers for the entire Liturgical Year, including daily devotions and the Sacraments. It’s a really great resource for someone like myself who has no clue about the domestic Church (but is learning steadily!).
LOL – when I was growing up, the day after Thanksgiving was when my folks opened the Christmas decorations bin!
I think we’ve agreed to set up the tree (an artificial one until we get to our new house, there’s a tree on the property we can cut down) on the 4th Sunday of Advent. Maybe the 3rd, but definitely much closer to Christmas than most people here. We were at a store last night and they were already playing Christmas tunes. Thanksgiving is next week, my brain can’t handle this!!
Thank you for doing all of the research that I planned to do this week
I concur.
awesome ideas!!!
We have an advent wreath & nativity scene too, and Chris is absolutely unwavering in his insistance that we dont put out the tree until at least the week before Christmas (I normally manage to persuade him 2 weeks before!)