How does your family celebrate Advent?

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Do you have any special traditions? Any special activities?

I am looking for a few things (besides the daily lighting of the wreath/readings) to do with my 4 and 6 year old.

What are your ideas?
 
We used to spend Advent learning about how other countries and cultures celebrate Christmas. Their crafts, foods, stories etc. It was great fun. We still have tree ornaments that the kids made 🙂 Trying out some of the recipes was fun, too! --KCT
 
I have a wonderful little book called ADVENT IN THE HOME (I think). It is filled with all kinds of easy to implement ideas to help your little ones really get the most from Advent. I have been ransacking my bookshelves today looking for it, for our own preperations. I’ll try to remember some things off the top of my head.
Plant a narcissus bulb in the beginning of Advent. Talk about how it needs to be in the dark in order for it to grow properly. How the time of darkness is necessary.

Discuss with the children how the Advent wreath helps us to learn about God. How it’s circular shape points us to God’s infiniteness, no beginning … no end. How the evergreens point to the unchangableness of God. How the flame of the candle reminds us that Jesus is the light. etc.

Have statues or cardboard cutouts of the 3 Kings. Move them closer to the creche every time a new Advent candle is lit, finally arriving on Christmas.
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Have the children in the room and turn off the lights. Talk about how it feels to be in the dark. Spooky, cold, alone, etc. than light a candle or flip on the lights and talk about how different it feels to be in the light.

Have an empty cradle. Throughout Advent do secret acts of love for eachother. For every act, lay a piece of straw or hay in the cradle. By the time Christmas Eve rolls around, hopefully a nice bed will have been made to welcome Baby Jesus.

Make an Advent chain. You remember those cardboard circle chains from Kindergarten? Well, make one circle for each day of Advent, and on each one can be a scripture verse or an act of kindness, a prayer intention etc. Helps the younger kids get a grasp on how many days left until Jesus’ birthday along with the traditional Advent calender…

There are also prayers for each day, and prayers to really make special those events, such as the blessing of the tree, when you place the lights on the tree and so forth.

I am still looking for the book, but that’s all I can remember off the top of my head. I really liked this book because it is geared toward bringing Advent home for younger children. Many of the ideas in this book have become beloved traditions in my family.

God bless you and your family this Advent season.🙂
 
Make a Jesse Tree. There are books on it from any publisher of Advent materials or Children’s Catholic books, but you can start be reading the bible story, from a children’s bible if they are younger, of the events and characters that are most prominent in foreshadowing and prophesying the coming of Christ. Then make a symbol of that person to hang on the Jesse Tree. That can be a bare branch stuck in a bucket, but could also be your undecorated Christmas tree.

Adam & Eve - apple
Noah - rainbow or ark
Joseph - coat of many colors
Moses - tablets of 10 commandments
David - Crown
Ezekiel - scroll
Joseph - hammer
Mary - rose
Jesus - star

make your own Advent calendar. Print a Calendar from any computer program, or just make a grid on a large piece of paper.
Look up Advent saints and add them, plus find out some customs related to them: St. Nicholas, St. Lucy etc.
Find a verse from the readings each day to print in the square for that date.
add some fun things to do like bake cookies, put up the tree, collect food for the poor etc. on empty squares.
draw the advent candles on the Sundays.
draw different Christmas symbols on the squares - stars, bells, lambs etc.

if you are really ambitious find directions for making a gingerbread house, and decorate it as a stable instead, and use cooky cutters to make the various figures in the nativity set.
you can also make a gingerbread house using graham crackers and royal frosting (the kind that hardens)/ DD has done this for several years.

We always made a big production of setting up the stable on the mantle, arranging the figures of Joseph, Mary and the donkey traveling to Bethlehem moving a little closer each day (and the kings on the days after Christmas). We used houses and buildings from the model railroad to construct the town, adding something each day. It was a big deal for us kids.
 
we used to do this in Catholic school, have a Kris Kinder, pull names out of hat, and the person you pick you must do some kind act for each day. We also had a custom of doing a kind act or a penance or say a prayer each day, writing it on a piece of yellow construction paper, and adding it to the empty manger as “straw” to make a comfortable bed for Baby Jesus.

if one of the younger children would be getting a doll or teddy bear for Christmas, the older ones (me) would be put to work sewing doll clothes for it.
 
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JoanieS:
the daily lighting of the wreath/readings
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That’s pretty much what we do and I’d also be interested in hearing what other families do.
 
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Ana:
I have a wonderful little book called ADVENT IN THE HOME (I think). It is filled with all kinds of easy to implement ideas to help your little ones really get the most from Advent. I have been ransacking my bookshelves today looking for it, for our own preperations. I’ll try to remember some things off the top of my head.
Plant a narcissus bulb in the beginning of Advent. Talk about how it needs to be in the dark in order for it to grow properly. How the time of darkness is necessary.

Discuss with the children how the Advent wreath helps us to learn about God. How it’s circular shape points us to God’s infiniteness, no beginning … no end. How the evergreens point to the unchangableness of God. How the flame of the candle reminds us that Jesus is the light. etc.

Have statues or cardboard cutouts of the 3 Kings. Move them closer to the creche every time a new Advent candle is lit, finally arriving on Christmas.
.
Have the children in the room and turn off the lights. Talk about how it feels to be in the dark. Spooky, cold, alone, etc. than light a candle or flip on the lights and talk about how different it feels to be in the light.

Have an empty cradle. Throughout Advent do secret acts of love for eachother. For every act, lay a piece of straw or hay in the cradle. By the time Christmas Eve rolls around, hopefully a nice bed will have been made to welcome Baby Jesus.

Make an Advent chain. You remember those cardboard circle chains from Kindergarten? Well, make one circle for each day of Advent, and on each one can be a scripture verse or an act of kindness, a prayer intention etc. Helps the younger kids get a grasp on how many days left until Jesus’ birthday along with the traditional Advent calender…

There are also prayers for each day, and prayers to really make special those events, such as the blessing of the tree, when you place the lights on the tree and so forth.

I am still looking for the book, but that’s all I can remember off the top of my head. I really liked this book because it is geared toward bringing Advent home for younger children. Many of the ideas in this book have become beloved traditions in my family.

God bless you and your family this Advent season.🙂
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As usual, loved your post! I am a convert with no background of Advent, just didn’t know where to start! I do not like how the culture overlooks Advent just to commercialize Christmas. Advent is very important and I want to pass this along to my children. Thanks, Ana.
 
the Printery House, a catalog of monastery gifts, has several inexpensive Advent activity books, each under $5, I sent a collection to my grandkids, they shipped within a week, and the kids are delighted. DD likes the fact they will have activities to do every day. they especially like the seek-and-find picture books, I send one each year.

www.printeryhouse.org
 
We have an Advent Wreath, placed at the center of the dining table, and it is lit by one of the daughters just before we begin supper. The candle(s) stay(s) lit until the end of the meal.

On Sundays, I will sing (and I do have a nice voice, thank you!) a song themed to the assigned Sunday (eg. O Come O Come Emmanuel for the first Sunday, On Jordan’s Bank for the Second, etc.) just before we do the lighting.

And in the spirit of good ecumenism, we attend our local Episcopal Church when they have their Nine Lessons and Carols prayer service. Sigh. If only we Catholics did music as well as our Anglican counterparts!

I really love Advent! It is my favorite liturgical season.
 
What a neat thread!!! Since I am the only Catholic, I have tried nonetheless to bring the “Advent Season” into our home. Yesterday, first Sunday of Advent, at church was marvelous, and we have an Advent Wreath in which we lit the first purple candle last night at supper and put a candle in the window too, (at the suggestion of our Priest, which I love). It was so special. Never before have I known the sacredness of the Advent Season like I do now, being Catholic. It is a joy exploding in my heart. I can only imagine a whole family where mom and dad, are fully participating, i.e., saying the prayers at dinner and while lighting the Advent Wreath, etc…those of you who have a home like this, you’ve very blessed. I know I am too, as God has called me to His Church, and to perhaps plant the little seed of His Church and all it’s celebrations. Even though it’s just me getting involved and no one else, it thrills me!!!

God Bless
 
Sir Knight:
That’s pretty much what we do and I’d also be interested in hearing what other families do.
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Where’d ya get those awesome pics? And how do I attach them to an e-mail?
 
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