Advent Traditions: An Update
I asked on instagram if anyone wanted an update to how our family observes the season of Advent, and it was a resounding YES! A lot has changed since 2017, when I wrote this post. Our kids are older, our walk with God has grown, we live in a new state, and the fact is that our traditions have evolved a bit.
What is Advent and why would I care to make space for it in an already busy season? Advent literally means “coming.” It is a time of joyful hope and anticipation as we await the fulfillment of hundreds of years of prophesy that a Messiah would be born.
Formed from a Latin word meaning “coming” or “arrival,” Advent is the traditional celebration of the first advent of Jesus in humility and the anxious awaiting of His second advent in glory. The season is a time for remembering and rejoicing, watching and waiting. In American Christianity, we’ve got that first part down. As soon as Thanksgiving is over (and sometimes even before), we start putting up the tree and listening to our favorite Christmas songs. There’s nothing wrong with doing these things, of course, but the whole point of Advent is to spend several weeks—four weeks, to be exact—preparing for Christmas instead of celebrating Christmas. It’s about stepping into the shoes of the Israelites, longing and crying out for the Messiah to come. It’s about reflecting on our sin and shortcomings and our need for a Savior. It’s about looking around at our broken world and hoping for the second coming of Jesus. And, once we get to Christmas Day, the celebration of Jesus’ birth becomes that much more spectacular and meaningful. *
* Source: Seasons Guide by The Village Church
Have you ever opened up all your presents on Christmas morning just to be met with this gnawing feeling of discontentment and emptiness? That’s because when we put our hope in the “magic of Christmas” outside Christ, it leaves us deeply unsatisfied. The “magical feelings” we all long for during this time comes from settling into the reality that Christ came down from Heaven as a human for the purpose of rescuing us. THIS is what makes the season so endearing, so magical, so awe-inspiring. As a family, we choose to focus our affections on Christ and center our traditions on Advent so that we don’t miss out on what God would have for us during the season. The act of remembering is so powerful in the life of a believer. Remembering that He has come and will come again is everything to us!
Here is a list of the current rhythms and practices in our family that help us observe the season of Advent well.
Christmas School
Last year we started doing “Christmas School” — it was a fun way to get some fun crafts and learning in with more of a Christmas theme. We used the Peaceful Preschool’s Christmas Guide curriculum and it worked well, but it’s geared to an age that is a bit too young for us to repeat. Instead, I took some of our favorite crafts and wrote them down so we can be sure to do them. I am also incorporating a nativity unit from Christy Beasley Creative’s subscription and A Better Than Anything Christmas family devotional during our morning time. Keeping it simple!
Advent cards
We love these cards from She Reads Truth, but there are so many different Advent cards out there to choose from. It’s a simple way to get conversation going during dinner time for our family that centers around Christ. They are short, sweet, and to the point, and the questions grow with your child’s ages each year.
Moveable nativity
I love having a nativity that the kids can play with. Their imaginative play all season surrounds around the nativity story, the Nutcracker, and giving gifts, HA! They play with it all the time while it's out, and it's fun to be able to use the pieces to share the story. I also created a felt board nativity scene a few years ago that they love to play with. I think when anything is tactile, so much learning happens and I've noticed so many more questions about Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and wise men because they are actively playing with them all day. We have the Little People nativity set, but the Star from Afar is another great one with an activity attached.
Book Basket
Rotating books from the library that coordinate with the season is a staple in our home, and it gets turned up a notch during Christmas. Since these are books we only bring out once a year, it’s super fun to read them over and over. Here are some of our favorites:
Devotionals
I have done many devotionals throughout the years — Well Watered Women, She Reads Truth, and have read books as well. This year I’m doing a pretty intense study of the Psalms, so I’m not adding an Advent specific bible study to my time with the Lord each day. I am personally reading The Christmas we Didn’t Expect and Searching for Christmas (this would be a good one to hand to a friend who does not know the Lord but is curious about Christ).
For the kids, we are going through A Better than Anything Christmas during our school morning time.
Advent candles/wreath
This candelabra is from the Hearth & Hand collection at Target a few years ago, and I haven’t been able to find it this year online! Ours sits as our centerpiece on our kitchen table and I love looking at it as I go about my day. It reminds me that there was so much darkness without Christ and now that He has come, the light shines, but that our world still waits in darkness until His second coming. It reminds me of the hope of the promise that He will come again. We’ve chosen to do 3 black candles representing the darkness, and 1 white to represent the light of Christ. Traditionally 3 purple and 1 pink are used, but I think there are lots of variations on this. I fill the glass box with some evergreen clippings or eucalyptus and some pine cones.
Each Sunday we will light a black candle until Christmas day when we will light the white one at breakfast and celebrate!
Christmas Neighborhood Meet & Greet
We’ve never been ones to shy away from dropping treats off at a neighbors house, and this year is no different. This will be our third Christmas in Massachusetts, and each year we host a neighborhood meet and greet over Christmas time. We’ll be hosting ours this year in our driveway in a more “come and go” setting with hot cocoa and cookies. We do this because if we truly believe that much of our world sits in darkness without a relationship with the Savior, we are compelled to give them that gift through friendship and connection.
Christmas Eve
This is a day we are still figuring out since moving, and I’m sure will change year to year since we are so far from family. We attend out church's Christmas Eve service. In the past we have done an overnight on the Cape as a family. Regardless of what we do this day, we always go home after so we have our own special Christmas morning at home with just our little family. One thing we always do around or on Christmas Eve is bake a birthday cake for Jesus and sing happy birthday — the kids LOVE this!
Christmas Morning
Ah, this morning is so special because it's what all the anticipation of Advent is leading up to! I want to make Christmas morning so much more than just opening presents. It is a celebration of the Light of the world coming from Heaven to be with us. Immanuel: God with us. It's beautiful and sacred and celebratory, so we hope to make Christmas morning just as exciting in all the ways.
We have a big and special breakfast — eggs, bacon, an a special cake. Our Advent candles are lit with the white candle shining bright. All our stockings are set out on our plates so the kids can open them up first. I find that this holds them off from present mania just a bit so that we can really cherish and talk about Jesus over breakfast. My husband reads the Christmas story from the Bible during breakfast for us and sometimes we sing a hymn or two.
A note on gifts: I struggled for years to minimize the importance of gifts on Christmas day. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wanted the day to be about more, but the gift-aspect was stressing me out. My husband shared some wisdom last year that really helped me to stress less and enjoy this aspect of the holiday more. He said that this is really the one time of year that we lavish gifts on the kids. They don’t get random items all year unless it’s a true need. If they ask for a toy or special item, it always gets put on their birthday or Christmas wish list. So then when this time of year comes around, we take the opportunity to shower them in gifts (not just from us, but our extended family included). My husbands take was that it’s a model of Christ’s abundant grace on us, which is so undeserved. We don’t deserve gifts, and so receiving them is a picture of grace. I loved that take, and it really helped to settle my heart on the topic.
How I keep track of all of this
I have an Evernote note with all our traditions listed for the entire year. A few weeks before a season will begin (whether Lent, Advent, or something smaller like a birthday), I check the note to be sure we have everything we need for our traditions. A wonderful book that has shaped a lot of my thinking on traditions is Treasuring Christ in Our Traditions by Noël Piper.
Other Christmas traditions
These are traditions that we enjoy but don’t necessarily have to do with Advent — I love these all the same though because the reliability of these fun family events happening each year has brought such joy to my kids year in and year out, and I know they will only spur them on to celebrate the season more as they grow older.
Christmas Tree farm — since moving to New England, we have loved cutting down our own tree.
Hot cocoa and Nutcracker watching night — once a season we watch the Ballet and ohh and ahh while sipping hot cocoa
Gingerbread cookies — we love baking gingerbread, a quintessential smell and flavor of Christmas! We usually like to bring a few to neighbors as well.
Snow days — anytime it snows, the kids play for a long time and then get hot cocoa and “snow ice cream” (clean snow, milk, maple syrup and chocolate chips)