|
This is the third in a series on the season of Advent adapted from a little booklet I produced for our congregation. Click here for a pdf of the entire booklet.
ADVENT IN THE HOME
Advent can be a rich and meaningful time for the family. It need not preclude Christmas shopping and decorating, but can enrich these activities and bring new meaning to them.
Here are some suggestions for celebrating the season of Advent in the home.
1. Attend Wednesday services. Advent is a time of watchful prayer and devotion, and what better place to do that than in church with your congregation. Wednesday is a fast day, so your meals will be simple anyway, and besides, church isn't just for Sundays anymore.
2. Do daily devotions. If you don’t have a regular discipline of daily devotions, or if you’ve slipped since Lent, this is a good time to renew the habit. Do the assigned readings and prayers for the season, using the Advent wreath as your devotional symbol.
Comment: The Treasury of Daily Prayer is a great resource for daily devotions. Get one. (You're welcome, Paul.)
3. Clean the house. This is a time-honored Advent custom worthy of reviving. You’re probably going to have a lot of guests anyway, so you may as well do some preparatory scrubbing. Have the kids clean their own rooms. Give the kitchen a good, hard cleaning while singing an Advent hymn. “Prepare the royal highway; the King of kings is near.” Go through the closets and drawers and get rid of unwanted clothing and excess “stuff.” Make those rough places smooth and those crooked places straight.
4. Decorate the house for Christmas in stages. Set out a few things at a time and take the time to enjoy them and all the memories they hold. Set out the nativity scene, but leave out the Christ Child until Christmas Eve. Make a special point of placing the Child in the manger on Christmas Eve while reading Luke 2:1-20. If you want to be “historically correct,” don’t let those wise men and camels on the scene until Epiphany (January 6), but a little historic license is fine.
Try not to drag the Christmas tree into the house until it is close to Christmas, preferably after the fourth Sunday of Advent. Let the Advent wreath be the dominant symbol. Decorate the Christmas tree in stages and light it for the first time on Christmas Eve. (You don’t light the candles on the birthday cake three weeks before the birthday, do you?)
Comment: I'm relaxing this rule in my house this year to the 3rd Sunday in Advent. I like our Christmas tree, and that 7-foot noble fir isn't cheap. I want to get maximum enjoyment out of it before it goes out on the curb.
5. If you have light displays on the outside of your house, don’t light things up right away. Wait at least until December 17, if not the 24th, unless of course there is a block competition going on. And by all means, don’t put Christmas out on the curb on December 26th. You’re just getting warmed up! Keep the Christmas tree going and your outdoor lights on until Epiphany, January 6th. (That is unless your CC&Rs prohibit it. Then you may want to make a fuss with your local homeowner’s association over the free practice of your religion.)
Comment: We don't do outdoor lights at the Cwirlas. I'm too busy and lazy to be crawling around ladders for anything that isn't painting, gutter cleaning, or roof repair. The neighbors think I'm agnostic.
6. Make a Jesse Tree or an Advent calendar together with your kids. Tuck a catechism verse or Scripture behind each door or in a little pouch for each day. Talk about Jesus’ family tree and point out how Jesus is the promised Son of David. There are great resources for Jesse Trees and Advent calendars on the internet.
7. Bake your Christmas cookies. Try not to eat them. It’s a great exercise in fasting and delayed gratification. Put those scrumptious morsels away until Christmas and then have twelve days of unrestrained joy. Note to the bakers - sample one if you must, but only if you must, and then only one!
Comment: OK, two if you really must. One before bed with milk doesn't count.
8. Send out your Christmas cards and those wonderfully informative Christmas letters about a week before Christmas so that they actually arrive...at Christmas.
Comment: I don't send either Christmas cards or letters. Friends and relatives are generally grateful.
9. When people say, “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas,” respond by saying “Blessed Advent.” It will be a conversation starter about the reason for the season.
Comment: Avoid snootiness and snarkiness. This is supposed to be a conversation starter, not some snide retort. If you're not in the mood for evangelism, smile and say, "Merry Christmas" and be done with it. And do teach your kids to be polite to strangers.
10. Hold back on the Christmas carols that have been blaring over the speakers in the stores and the commercials on TV since Halloween. Take some time and learn those haunting hymns of Advent; they are some of the most beautiful hymns of the faith. Find some CDs of Advent music and fill your home with the peaceful songs of anticipation and hope. Break out the Christmas carols at Christmas, and then do it for a full twelve days of Fa-la-la-la-la.
Comment: This is not a hard and fast rule in the Cwirla home. We reserve the hard core Christmas carols for Christmas, but we have over 30 seasonal CDs that start spinning right after Thanksgiving. A favorite Christmas CD that can be listened to in Advent as well is "In Sweet Rejoicing - Music for Christmas." The Windham HIll "Celtic Christmas" and "Winter Solstice" series are great instrumental music. (Ignore the pagan title, kiddies; the music rocks. And it actually is the winter solstice, too you know.)
11. When it comes time for Christmas presents, try spacing things out over the twelve days of Christmas. All too often, opening Christmas presents, especially with children, is reduced to an fevered frenzy of ripped paper, tangled ribbon, and a search for the proper size batteries. Try the discipline of delayed gratification, a little “now but not yet,” just like our salvation. Open one present at a time, thankfully reflecting on both the gift and the giver. Take time to enjoy the gift, and look forward to another one tomorrow. Keep gifts simple and thoughtful
12. Speaking of twelve days, there is nothing wrong with a little “post-Christmas” Christmas shopping. Forget that “special someone” on your list? No problem! You’ve got twelve whole days and all those post-Christmas sales to stretch your holy day cheer even further.
Edited on: December 06th, 2008 9:24 am
|
.jpg)
