Does anyone else observe Advent?

[EKW]

I see a lot of focus on secular holiday celebrations. Does anyone want to share their family's Advent traditions?

Here's my favorite: When my older son was young he and I made Jesse tree ornaments from Shrinky-dinks. I found a book that had huge patterns...but you could do the same by enlarging regular patterns on a copy machine. I traced them in permanent marker, then he colored them in.

I have a mini-tree we use as a centerpiece on our dinner table. Each night at dinner we begin with the Bible reading that goes with the ornament, then place that day's ornament on the tree. Now that both boys are old enough to read well, they alternate days of reading.

I've been thinking that maybe this year I'll set aside a couple of evenings to have the boys each make their own Shrinky-dink set so that when they are ready to leave home they can take the tradition with them!

Here are some links for anyone interested in doing a Jesse Tree this year:

http://images.rca.org/docs/discipleship/jessepatterns.pdf

http://www.eriercd.org/jessetree.htm

http://catholicadvent.homestead.com/advent.html

 

[lunalibre]

My family observes Advent.

We have an Advent wreath that is the centerpiece on our kitchen table during the holidays. We light the appropriate candle or candles for Sunday dinner during Advent, and sing an Advent song that our church sings during the lighting of the wreath at service. We also talk about the meaning of the new candle of the week, and what that meaning holds for us.

Our Christmas countdown calendar is nativity scene that you assemble one piece at a time for 24 days. It has an accompanying story so that you tell the Christmas story as you assemble the scene. We read the full story up to the current day every night (ie., on the 5th day we read the sentences for the first five pieces). It was a kit we bought at a Christian bookstore. If we hadn't found that, I would certainly have tried your idea of the special Advent Christmas tree. I like that idea!

My kids are 11 and 15, and they still get excited about the Advent calendar coming out. Just like your kids, mine alternate reading days. The calendar sits on a table in my office, which is an open loft area between the kids' bedrooms upstairs.

We found that, when the kids were little, it really helped to have the Advent calendar and to shop for donations to needy families (Angel tree or something similar) in order to counter the constant barrage of SANTA SANTA SANTA. Not that I don't love Santa , but I think we can all admit the consumerism can get overwhelming.

I'd love to hear what other families do, especially now that my kids are older. We know some folks (mostly German heritage, so maybe it's a German thing?) who don't put up a single Christmas decoration - including the tree - until Christmas eve. There's no way I'm waiting that late, but I certainly understand the sentiment. We've tried celebrating the 12 days of Christmas, which start on Christmas day, but that hasn't gone so well, mostly because by the time you hit the 12th day of Christmas on January 5th, everyone has gone back to work and school.

 

[DuckMom]

We have an Advent wreath that we make each year (buy the basic supplies candles, floral foam wreath, fake greens) and the my boys enjoy that. They are still young (6 & 3), so it isn't the prettiest thing, but it works. We also do an advent calendar-type of thing. I wrap up Christmas books for each day of Advent and place them all in a big decorative box. Each day, the boys open one book and we read it that night. We use a mixture of new books and old books and I've been known to borrow from friends as well. The books are not all religious, but I try to make sure there are a nice amount of books about the sacred side of the holiday ... or that touch on that. The last book we open, on Christmas Eve, is the Bible and we read the Christmas story out of Matthew. I stole the idea from a friend and really enjoy it. It seems better to me than the paper Advent calendar my brother and I used to open (with the stale chocolates) and it encourages reading. This will be the first year my older son is a proficient reader, so I am looking for some books he can read himself (or read to all of us) to include. I'm interested to see if this adds anything to the tradition.

 

[olwyngdh]

We also celebrate Advent. We have an advent wreath that my in-laws got for us when we were first married that is a black metal cutout of the nativity. It is the centerpiece of our dining room table every year and the candles are lit before dinner every night. We also have an Advent Calendar that I got from Christmas Around the World many years ago that has an empty stable at the top and each day a new person or animal or gift is added from the numbered pockets below. DD9 started doing the arrangement of what pieces went on in what order when she was about 5 and is very strict about what order they arrive in (no sheep before a shepard, no gifts before a king, etc.) We also have a number of creches that go in different places around the house and hide the baby Jesus until Christmas eve is one of my husbands favorite games! We have managed to convince DD9 not to start the wise men on the other side of the room and move them closer each day like she has wanted to do ever since she heard about that--I don't want pieces lost or broken (my one set was a wedding gift to my parents in 1945)

 

[bjscheel]

We know some folks (mostly German heritage, so maybe it's a German thing?) who don't put up a single Christmas decoration - including the tree - until Christmas eve.

That was my (German) grandma! The tree was put up Christmas Eve after my dad went to bed as a surprise for him to see in the morning. I would like my tree up longer than that!

I would really like to do something at home for Advent, but never have actually done anything. So, our observance of Advent currently is just the church services. DD13 will be playing some duets on the piano with me for one or two services!

 

[MSSANDRA]

That was my (German) grandma! The tree was put up Christmas Eve after my dad went to bed as a surprise for him to see in the morning. I would like my tree up longer than that!

I would really like to do something at home for Advent, but never have actually done anything. So, our observance of Advent currently is just the church services. DD13 will be playing some duets on the piano with me for one or two services!

I think that in most German families when the tree goes up on Christmas Eve, it stays up till Epiphany on Jan 6. So it is up a while, just a little adjusted time. That time frame is where the 12 days of Christmas comes from.

We too celebrate Advent. Some years more that others. We have the advent candles that we light every week and we try to do Advent devotions and give extra time to others. Our church is doing mid-week Advent services this year but we put DS to bed at 7:00 on school nights so not sure we are going to be able to do these. Love the idea though.

 

[kldmom2000]

We have an Advent wreath on our table and light the candles to observe the season...

We also take part in the Angel/giving tree at church and both of our girls go with me to purchase the gifts for the children on their tags.

I teach elementary age CCD, so we focus a lot on the season of Advent in class with different crafts, stories, etc.

We set up the hand-painted Nativity set that my my mother painted 35 years ago and hold off on placing baby Jesus in the set until Christmas Eve.

We also make an annual trip to LaSallette shrine to look at the lights/see all the holy displays.
http://www.lasalette-shrine.org/Christmas.html

I'll be following this thread to get some other ideas! Thanks for posting it!

 

[hannahdrewmom]

We have 25 names of Jesus written on ornaments. Each day in December we put up a new ornament and reflect on the scripture where that name came from. My kids are 4 and 2. My 4 year old learned so many names for Jesus last year and even learned some of the scripture. She LOVED it!
We do the advent wreath as well, but it was harder for her to make the connection.

 

[southern_redhead]

We have 25 names of Jesus written on ornaments. Each day in December we put up a new ornament and reflect on the scripture where that name came from. My kids are 4 and 2. My 4 year old learned so many names for Jesus last year and even learned some of the scripture. She LOVED it!
We do the advent wreath as well, but it was harder for her to make the connection.

I this idea! I may make this tradition my own

 

[hannahdrewmom]

I this idea! I may make this tradition my own

Thanks! If you have younger kids watch the names you choose though... some are really hard to explain to 3 year olds.... like "I am"

It was like a game of who's on 1st!

 

[RMAMom]

We did a lot to celebrate Advent when my kids were young. Most of my ideas came from here.

http://domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/pages.dir/fridge.htm#ADVENT

 

[disykat]

Over the years we've done an advent calendar and we've also done the advent tree with ornaments/daily devotionals. Those have been very educational for the children and enjoyable for all of us. The one tradition we did before kids, still do, and will do when they are gone (we only have one teen at home now) is the advent wreath. Since we've done the other things, our advent wreath is pretty much just lighting the candles during dinner - with no real worship or devotional attached to it like I had growing up.

DH grew up in a Christian home but I don't think he'd even heard the word advent until we got married.

 

[NYEmomma]

I haven't a clue what advent is, so I'm guessing we don't celebrate it!

I do have an advent calendar made out of matchboxes for DD... we just use it as a Christmas countdown. It has little presents like silly bandz and temporary tattoos, as well as Christmas activities that we do together as a family like seeing Tuba Christmas and going to pick out our ornaments.

I didn't know it meant anything else.