We begin preparing for advent on Thanksgiving! We don’t have any family, and my son is a vegetarian (he is 16 years old with Down syndrome), so I don’t have a big feast to put on. The highlight of the day is setting up the Nativity. Jesus only gets to stay in the stable for a day or so and then he is whisked away, not to reappear until Christmas morning, when we 3 solemnly process (ahem) from the kitchen to the dining room where we have the Nativity singing Happy Birthday carrying baby Jesus and a cupcake with a lit candle. My son delights in placing Jesus in the stable and blowing out the candle.
Now that my son is older and more respectful of fragiles, we let him set up the nativity. The arrangement is… creative at times, LOL.
We do the Advent wreath and an advent Calendar. I try to play O Come O Come Emanuel on the keyboard every day.
We make hot chocolate and snuggle while I read Christmas stories and books. We look at Christmas themed pictures in art books such as one on art in the Vatican.
We have a silly little book with a felt board inside… we read the story and place the felt figures inside. My son is way too old, but he just loves this tradition.
We make Christmas cards for friends and we make decorations for the tree.
My personal tradition is to pull out this ancient piece of sheet music – Sleigh Ride. It is played at break neck speed, and it is one of the few difficult pieces I can still play. My son and husband accompany on jingle bells and clacker (for horse hooves and whip). I also play every Christmas carol and hymn in my books, mostly badly but with great feeling.
We dress our 4 Chihuahuas up in silly Christmas outfits, and put antlers on the cat. They are not amused.
A great many of our tree decorations are either handmade or have a meaning. We celebrate little things in our lives like Special Olympics sports, vacations, the time we swam with the dolphins at Six Flags, a visit to Disneyland, or my son’s various passions growing up (Barney, Luney-Toons, Pokemon, Disney Channel shows) with an ornament instead of a souvenir. As we place these on the trees we remember the good times we shared as represented by each ornament. This means that it takes days and days to decorate the tree, but it is so much fun.
We don’t hide the old ornaments my son made as a little child, even if they were crude when first made and positively shabby now. They go front and center on the tree on and on the wall. I especially treasure the reindeer made with silhouettes of my son’s tiny feet, and the wreath made with tiny handprints.
We light a candle on our family altar/shrine, which is where we have the nativity set. Then we say a prayer for those alone, cold or hungry during the holidays.
We cut out snowflakes and hang them from the beam in our kitchen at different lengths so they twirl in the air.
We make cookies (the easy kind) for friends and put together a basket of goodies for the postal workers who are so kind to my son (I work at home selling on ebay and my son helps with bringing stuff to the post office, standing in line, etc.) He loves wearing a Santa hat and bringing his postal friends their goodies each year.
We put together little gift bags for my son’s karate sensai and master and his main sparring partner. Usually this is just some hard candy in cellophane with little gold squiggles my son draws on the bag. Even trying the ribbon is good fine motor practice for him. If we can afford it, we make a few bags for neighbors on the Ridge where we live and my husband and son don Santa caps and ring doorbells to deliver the bags.
We all spend entirely too much time going about our business wearing reindeer antlers and Santa caps.
Probably more stuff - but you get the idea.
