advent, christmas, tradition

So many of the things we associate with "the Christmas season" don't have much obvious connection to the story of the nativity. Red, green, jingle bells, holly, sleighs, evergreen trees, snowmen, reindeer, the grinch, santa, eggnog, peppermint mochas, mistletoe, white christmas, it's a wonderful life, candy canes, stockings, fajitas (for the Lepines) and on and on -- they may be jolly, but they don't have much to do with the birth of Jesus.

And yet at least a few of those things do bring cheer to a winter season that can seem awfully gloomy. I don't want to have a Christmas where I don't get to see the shadows of the tree branches on the walls of a room lit only by twinkle lights. I'm not giving up peppermint mochas (you can keep the eggnog, though).

So I'm not quite sure how to reconcile these cultural traditions of the Christmas season with a celebration of the true reason for Christian joy at Christmas. In our family, I certainly want to try to keep these wintry delights present, but of lesser importance than our celebration of the true Light and Delight that came into the world when Jesus was born.

So while you'll find a miniature Christmas tree in our house (actually, two of them), decorated with lights and some of our favorite childhood ornaments (eventually, I'd like to decorate a tree with just ornaments that have special meaning related to the nativity story), and you'll find stockings waiting for presents on Christmas morning, and chewy peppermint candies too, I hope that the traditions which will stand out more for us and our children will be our advent traditions.


Advent Candles
There are four Sundays in Advent (this year, it begins November 28). On the first Sunday, the first candle is lit. On the second Sunday, the first and second candles are lit. Etc. And then on Christmas Day you light all four, as well as a fifth for Christmas. Each candle has its own meaning. In our family, we'll have a Bible verse to read for each candle, too.

We don't actually have "advent candles" yet- which should be purple - but we also won't be home for most of the advent season this year. We'll be traveling. So for now we're just using five candles which we already had as our advent candles.

Advent Calendar






You can find quite a few Advent calendars for sale online, and you can also find a lot of ideas for making your own. I think this is one of the best (you can find it on Amazon, but it's actually cheaper here). Although I do hate how blonde Mary and the angels are, the construction is excellent, and it's very user-friendly for kids, as you can see. Each day in December, the children can open one box and add a character to the scene. I've also written a little script that we'll read each day. Toddlers and preschoolers will have the story memorized in no time. We might move to a more sophisticated script as our kids get older, but for now it's this. The idea is that you read the same lines for the first four days, then you add a few lines every couple of days afterword, until Dec 24, when you're reading the whole story.

Day 1-4 (add the stars)
The world was dark because of sin. (Is. 9:2)
God said, “The true light that gives light to everyone is coming into the world!” (John 1:9)

Days 5-10 (add the wise men and camels)
God wrote his message in the Bible and in the sky. “A baby is coming to save you!” he said. (Is. 9:6)
Wise men read the message in the stars and began to follow them to find the baby Jesus.

Days 11-16 (add an angel, Mary, Joseph, donkey, and two cows)
An angel told Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus. While Mary was pregnant, she and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem to stay with Joseph’s family. The house was full of people, so they slept in the room with the animals.

Days 16-23 (add an angel, shepherds, sheep)
While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born.
An angel announced the good news to shepherds in a field nearby, who were keeping watch over their sheep at night. “Your savior was born today! He is Christ the Lord! You will find the baby laying in a manger.” (Luke 2:11-12)

Day 24 (add baby Jesus)
The shepherds hurried to find the baby Jesus, and they worshiped him and thanked God for sending a great light into the land of deep darkness.

Shepherd's Pouch
One of the traditions that Noel Piper wrote about was the tradition of a shepherd's pouch in which the family would collect money through December to give to a person or organization they had chosen. Whether or not we use an actual pouch, we will certainly emphasize a spirit of giving and an awareness of world Christianity as we celebrate Christmas. Perhaps we'll give a goat to a hungry family in Uganda. Certainly we'll send Christmas gifts to the children we sponsor through Compassion International. And maybe we'll try to do something locally, as well, like Angel Tree.

Songs
And we'll always have songs and dancing.

This is just the beginning!