Thinking ahead to Advent

Advent can be both a time of joy as we look forward to our coming Savior and a time of penance as we meditate on His Word and look forward to His second coming. Advent begins on Sunday, November 29^th this year.

At our house, we decorate for the season. Some families choose to wait until Christmas to decorate beginning the Christmas season with all the joy of the decorations. We go ahead and put up our tree and nativity sets. Some families choose to set baby Jesus aside until Christmas morning, and this is fine to do if you want to. We have a few Advent-specific decorations. We have an Advent wreath and a wall hanging that has Advent candles on it. These we only have out during Advent and remove when Christmas comes.

We also make our first batch of special cookies on the first day of Advent. We talk about how the Collect of the Day begins with “Stir up our hearts…” and ask the children to listen for the pastor to say this during church. We "stir up" gingerbread men after church. 

We start our Advent devotions on November 29^th as well. Our devotional time during Advent is lengthened. We use special readings for the Advent season, sing Advent hymns, light the appropriate candles for the day on the Advent wreath, and pray. 

One of the biggest differences for us is that we go to Advent services at church on Wednesday night. As we do these special and different things during this season, we teach our children. 

Something new we might do this year is wait until December 13 to light our Christmas lights. St. Lucia Day is on December 13, and this is a nice way of remembering a saint who has come before us and passed down the faith. This year my eldest learned in her history class at school about the catacombs that the Christians used in Rome when they were being persecuted. One of the stories about St. Lucia is that she brought food to the Christians hiding in the catacombs. While I am not sure if this is factual, it does help children put to memory when she lived in time, and that is helpful. I’ve read about St. Lucia celebrations before, but the getting up at night and having a candlelit party at nighttime does not sound like a good night’s sleep on a school night to me, so lighting our Christmas lights outside on this night might be a nice way for our family to celebrate this day. 

There are actually several Feast and Festival Days during the church year that can be celebrated at home. There are also several commemorations. This year Advent begins on a day that we commemorate a saint, Noah. If you have the Treasury of Daily Prayer, open it up to page 966 and you can read the little portion about Noah; turn back to page 962 and you’ll see that there are many suggested readings for this day. Here is a list of the days that fall during Advent:

November 30, St Andrew

December 4, John of Damascus

December 6, Nicholas of Myra

December 7, Ambrose of Milan

December 13, Lucia

December 17, Daniel the Prophet and the Three Young Men

December 19, Adam and Eve

December 20, Katharina von Bora Luther

December 21, St. Thomas

 

While throughout the year, it is good to remember the saints, if you don’t already do this, spending extra time remembering them during Advent can be a nice way to praise God for sending men and women before us to preserve the faith and to strengthen our own faith as we learn about these saints.

If you are looking forward to Christmas and ways you can extend your own Christmas celebration for the whole twelve days, consider leaving your decorations and lights up until Epiphany or keeping your Christmas candle from your advent wreath lit every day of Christmas while you are at home.