4 Ways for Your Family to Celebrate Advent

Anticipation is often underrated. Looking forward to a birthday brings forth butterflies in the stomach, happy thoughts, planning, and eagerness. The anticipation of Christ’s birthday on Christmas is celebrated in the form of Advent in Lakeland Catholic schools and in Catholic communities around the world. The Diocese of Orlando has several suggestions on how your family can celebrate Advent together.

• Advent begins four weeks before Christmas. Catholic churches often have copies of prayers and readings for each day from the first day of Advent through Christmas. Read these prayers and scriptures aloud and discuss them with your children. Incorporate the readings with the lighting of the Advent candles before your evening meal, or light the candle and read before your busy day begins.
• Advent is a tradition that culminates with Christmas. To prepare for this significant occasion, Catholic families can create an Advent Jesse tree using a small artificial tree or by simply drawing a tree on a piece of heavy paper and cutting it out. Jesus is a descendant of Jesse, and the Jesse tree is based on Isaiah 11:1. To share in the creation of a Jesse tree, have one family member read a Bible story with special meaning for him or her while others work together or independently drawing, coloring, or cutting out an ornament that has something in common with the Bible story being read. Select 24 stories in all, reading and creating ornaments daily leading up to Christmas. Each family member will explain why his or her ornament is significant to the story.
• Open up Christmas cards together, and create a prayer garland. Friends and families deserve special prayers, and sending Christmas cards gives children an understanding of different family members or friends who are not seen often but still matter in their lives. Specific prayer requests (pray for Uncle Mark during his back operation) or simple thank you notes (thank you for my grandparents) are appropriate. Add each request on a ribbon of colored paper (green, red, and white or even Advent colors of purple and rose), and link the prayers together as a chain. If you have no cards in the mail one day, make special links for the homeless, elderly, lonely, hungry, etc. Take a minute to pray as a family for each person who sent a card.
• Similar to the Jesse tree, with 24 days of stories and prayers, the Advent box is a treasure trove of tiny gifts nested behind numbered doors. With 24 doors, one door is opened each day beginning December 1 and ending Christmas Eve. The small toys can be Christmas related for tiny teaching moments or include reminders of Christmases past: peppermints, nuts, pennies, and so on. If you have more than one child, take turns with each child assigned odd or even days, or opening one door every three days.

Taking the time to participate in family traditions during Advent will build the anticipation leading to Christmas, and it will give your entire family a fresh perspective on the true meaning of the Christmas holiday. Call your child’s Lakeland County school to learn about their Advent traditions and how to incorporate what your child learns at school into your home activities. The Diocese of Orlando’s website offers many clever ideas on activities in their schools and preparations for families at home. Give the Diocese a call at 407-246-4903.