Advent traditions

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saellis

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OK so the year has gone by so fast that I’m thinking ahead to Advent while I still have time. Could any of you good folks give me some sources for family prayers and activities for the days of Advent? My wife and kids are not Catholic and are dead set against rosaries and other prayers involving “vain repetitions.” (Their words, not mine) I’ve been trying to find something along the lines of lighting the candles on the Advent wreath and saying some prayers or reading Scripture but not sure what to do each day.
 
What about a Jesse tree?

Or, you could sing the O Antiphons as part of your prayer with the Advent wreath.

They are often set as the 24 days before Christmas, but Advent calendars are also a really nice tradition.

When we decorate for Christmas, we do so gradually. We don’t turn on any Christmas lights until Gaudete Sunday (the Third Sunday of Advent, or the Sunday where the priest wears -]pink/-] rose vestments. :D)
 
Something you may want to do, that my dh and I have been doing each Advent Season, is decorate the Christmas tree (which most people put up the day after Thanksgiving in the USA) the first Sunday in Advent with purple ornaments–not a lot of them–just enough to make them easy to remove Christmas Eve. Then, on Guadete Sunday, we add a few rose ones. Then, as I alluded to, we remove them Christmas Eve and decorate with our usual Christmas ornaments. It’s a very visible sign that it’s not the Christmas Season yet, and helps the kids celebrate the events leading up to Christmas. Your kids might even want to make Advent ornaments to put on the tree–to help them internalize the events leading up to the Christmas.

You may also want to read the Sunday Mass readings for each Sunday in Advent with your family–or each day, if possible. Let them see that Advent is scripturally based. That it reconnects us to the Incarnation and Birth of Our Savior.
 
There are a number of traditions. I do the following:
Advent wreath.
Jesse Tree.
Advent calendar.
Pray the O Antiphons.
Advent/Christmas Novena
 
saellis said:
OK so the year has gone by so fast that I’m thinking ahead to Advent while I still have time. Could any of you good folks give me some sources for family prayers and activities for the days of Advent? My wife and kids are not Catholic and are dead set against rosaries and other prayers involving “vain repetitions.” (Their words, not mine) I’ve been trying to find something along the lines of lighting the candles on the Advent wreath and saying some prayers or reading Scripture but not sure what to do each day.
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We always do the Advent Wreath in my house. That can be combined with “non vain repetition” prayers pretty easily.
 
Della said:
Something you may want to do, that my dh and I have been doing each Advent Season, is decorate the Christmas tree (which most people put up the day after Thanksgiving in the USA) the first Sunday in Advent with purple ornaments–not a lot of them–just enough to make them easy to remove Christmas Eve. Then, on Guadete Sunday, we add a few rose ones. Then, as I alluded to, we remove them Christmas Eve and decorate with our usual Christmas ornaments. It’s a very visible sign that it’s not the Christmas Season yet, and helps the kids celebrate the events leading up to Christmas. Your kids might even want to make Advent ornaments to put on the tree–to help them internalize the events leading up to the Christmas.

You may also want to read the Sunday Mass readings for each Sunday in Advent with your family–or each day, if possible. Let them see that Advent is scripturally based. That it reconnects us to the Incarnation and Birth of Our Savior.
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We do something similar with the tree. My oldest daughter wraps it in a purple velvet ribbon. When we get back from the vigil Mass she removes the purple and wraps it with gold and white. We then leave the tree up until the end of the Christmas season.

We also use a Jesse Tree and add a new ornament with a short scripture reading each day. We didn’t do it last year, but we’ve also done a nativity where the kids can add a piece of straw colored yarn anytime they do something kind. The goal is to give baby Jesus a place to lie that is filled with their kindness. One year we had them remove a piece if they were mean, but then he had to lay on bare wood. 😦

My wife also basically bans Christmas music until Christmas eve.
 
Usige said:
We do something similar with the tree. My oldest daughter wraps it in a purple velvet ribbon. When we get back from the vigil Mass she removes the purple and wraps it with gold and white. We then leave the tree up until the end of the Christmas season.

We also use a Jesse Tree and add a new ornament with a short scripture reading each day. We didn’t do it last year, but we’ve also done a nativity where the kids can add a piece of straw colored yarn anytime they do something kind. The goal is to give baby Jesus a place to lie that is filled with their kindness. One year we had them remove a piece if they were mean, but then he had to lay on bare wood. 😦

My wife also basically bans Christmas music until Christmas eve.
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😊 She wouldn’t like me. I’m listening to Christmas music now. My daughter’s favorite song is Ding Dong Merrily on High and she sings it CONSTANTLY!
 
My kids have a Little People nativity set and I was considering adding the pieces one by one this year. Maybe a couple weeks prior, add the animals. A few days before, add Joseph and Mary, then on Christmas Eve add the angel and shepherds, and Baby Jesus Christmas morning. I can save the wise men for Epiphany. My oldest is two and this might help her to understand the story better?
 
We incorporate lots of the traditions already mentioned (Advent wreath, Advent calendar, Jesse tree…) and we also purchased the Wise Men set of Playmobil characters. Every night my husband and I move them around to different parts of the house as they “search” for baby Jesus. They finally find Him on the Epiphany. The kids look high and low for them each day – it’s lots of fun and it’s a daily reminder of what we should all be searching for. You could, of course, make the activity Biblically correct by only having them come out between Christmas and the Epiphany.
 
This is not all that Catholic, and it’s a small thing, but I like it.

My (now adult) children and sometimes grandchildren locate a piece of woods that’s really a tangle. Why a tangle? Because there are all sorts of neat things there. In this part of the country, there are a lot of wild grapevines. We cut some of the thinner canes and roll and tie them as we go, making a very large wreath. We then look for cedar trees and cut some little branches off and tie them all around it to make a really large, mostly cedar wreath. Out in the woods here, there isn’t any holly, but there is ivy. So we attach some ivy if we find any. There are these little red berries on a short, brittle stem that we cut and add. There are also clusters of berries of a kind of violet color, and we add some of those. It’s sort of eclectic. If we find something pretty, we tie it on.

It ends up as a very large and really neat-looking wreath. It smells wonderful because of the cedar. Keep in mind, this is all in December, so it’s anywhere from fairly warm to fairly chilly, not too cold for little kids. (Around here, serious winter comes in January) We take it in, hang it up and sing along with a CD, “The Holly and the Ivy” (even though we don’t have any actual holly). Usually, we tie those “bubbler” candles on it and plug them in.

The real thing is doing it together, out in the woods in the usually crisp air. Sometimes different ones of them will make one as we go to put in their own houses. They’re actually fairly easy to make once one gets the hang of tying some green fishing line to hold it in a circle now and then. Those grapevine canes are very flexible and won’t break.
 
Allegra said:
My kids have a Little People nativity set and I was considering adding the pieces one by one this year. Maybe a couple weeks prior, add the animals. A few days before, add Joseph and Mary, then on Christmas Eve add the angel and shepherds, and Baby Jesus Christmas morning. I can save the wise men for Epiphany. My oldest is two and this might help her to understand the story better?
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They do make an Advent calendar with the same characters! 🙂
 
Allegra said:
My kids have a Little People nativity set and I was considering adding the pieces one by one this year. Maybe a couple weeks prior, add the animals. A few days before, add Joseph and Mary, then on Christmas Eve add the angel and shepherds, and Baby Jesus Christmas morning. I can save the wise men for Epiphany. My oldest is two and this might help her to understand the story better?
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No! The wise men have to travel a little bit everyday from one room or one part of the room to the stable! 😉

Yes, I think your way would really make her understand! 👍
 
Irishmom2 said:
No! The wise men have to travel a little bit everyday from one room or one part of the room to the stable! 😉

Yes, I think your way would really make her understand! 👍
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That reminds me - we do move Mary and Joseph across the room, and then Jesus is in the manger on Christmas Eve. Then the wise men travel and arrive on Epiphany. 🙂 We do that with our “nice” set though, and let the kids play with the full toy set for all of Advent and Christmas.
 
Thank you for your answers. I’m looking forward to being able to share some of this with my family.
 
Irishmom2 said:
That is a lovely idea with your tree, Della!
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Thanks. :tiphat: The funny things is, I wrote to a friend who lives across the country from me in TX about decorating the Christmas tree for Advent. She explained it to her priest, who started doing it in his parish church. Who knows? The idea may spread across parishes. I’d be happy if it did. Our parish puts up bare trees throughout Advetn, but a little purple ribbon/decoration and then rose on Guadete Sunday would be a good visual reminder for families and not make Advent quite so bleak. After all, it’s not Lent even if it is a penitential season. 🙂
 
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