1. Stop in your tracks - just for a moment - and recall that Advent is a time of preparation:
a. for celebrating the incarnation,
b. for the second coming of Christ, and
c. for making the incarnation of Christ real in our lives.
2. A cardinal rule for Advent: Resist celebrating Christmas until Christmas; use Advent to prepare for it.
3. Over Thanksgiving vacation go shopping, not Christmas shopping but Advent shopping.
Shopping List
Four candles, three purple and a pink
Evergreen branches
Styrofoam circle or a metal circle
(Hobby Lobby or make your own)
Ribbons or dried flowers for decorating (optional)
4. Invite neighbors, friends, and or family members to swap holiday special food recipes. Almonds, honey, spices and candied fruit all have special meanings for the season. If each person tries only one recipe , a new cross-cultural understanding of Christmas celebrations might become established.
5. On December 16th, when the O antiphons begin, place a decorated Christ candle in the center of your dining table. (see handout) Symbols of the O antiphons can be painted on each day with ordinary acrylic paint which works well on candles.
6. Beginning assembling your home crèche. Place the animals and shepherds, but Mary and Joseph with their donkey might begin making their way across the living room. They came be moved daily if you have a child or child like person in your home. Mary and Joseph should arrive at the stable on Christmas Evening.
7. Ask around the neighborhood and among your friends, "How do you celebrate Advent, Christmas, the New Year"? Many things you will learn will be from other cultures. Integrate something new from another way of celebrating.
8. Go to the local public library to find books on Advent/Christmas/Epiphany customs, as well as books of seasonal stories and poems. Begin your own collection and start some memories with an annual reading of a special book or poem or reflection.
9. If you live with others, give everyone a special task in preparation for a weekly Advent celebration and something for Christmas.
10. A plum pudding or fruit cake or friendship bread can be made at the beginning of Advent, with each person “stirring in” a prayer. At Christmas dinner, a special blessing might be prayed over the pudding or cake by each person you live with.
11. Evaluate your spending for Christmas. Budget for all, keep it simple and remember the less fortunate.
12. On Christmas Eve day, Advent wreath candles can be changed to white, and gold decorations can be added; the Christ Candle can be lit. All other house hold decorations, including something for the door, are put up on this day.
13. On Christmas Eve the tree can be blessed and decorated. After Mass the Baby Jesus can be placed in the manager while everyone sings a favorite carol. The star can be pinned up and the kings can begin their “journey,” in order to arrive on Epiphany.
14. Christmas Day is an especially good time to enjoy “sharing gifts” and to exchange visits with relatives and friends.
15. On the 26th of December, Saint Stephen’s Day, institute a variation on the English custom of ‘boxing.” This involves keeping a little box wrapped in Christmas paper, in which some small change is put every day of the year. Each “Boxing Day,” the coins are rolled in wrappers and given to an organization who will help those poor who are forgotten after Christmas Day.
16. On the 27th of December, Saint John’s Day, you might celebrate “light” (just as John does in his gospel). Invite others to a candlelight carol-sing and afterwards serve a special Christmas dessert, in this way sharing the Light of Christ.
17. On the 28th of December, Holy Innocents Day, a Christmas party and pageant might be planned. Try role-playing the story of Herod from Luke’s Gospel, relying heavily on mime and a narrator so nobody has to struggle to learn parts. You might want to make a piñata, as they do in Mexico and fill it with Christmas candy.
18. Holy Innocents Day is also a good time to reflect on how you can stop abortion and to support the dignity of life at all stages.
19. On the 29th of December the feast of St. Thomas Becket, pray Evening Prayer with others. Becket was martyred during an evening vespers service.
20. On December 30th, read a favorite Christmas story, such as “The Gift of the Magi” or Our Lady’s Juggler. Make it a tradition.
21. On December 31st, New Year’s Eve, make resolutions for your spiritual life. “This year I will try to be a more loving person.” Reflect on what you liked about your Advent and Christmas and decided on ways to celebrate upcoming sacred seasons and holidays.
22. On New Year’s Day take time to pray for peace. Invoke the intercession of Mary and reflect on how she was a woman of peace.
23. On January 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, which is still Christmas, do something for the season: begin or add a paper chain of good deeds for the Christmas tree, start making next year’s Christmas cards, make and set out luminaries (a Spanish custom), get ready for a Twelfth Night Party, etc.
24. The evening of January 5th is the Twelfth Night, the eve of the feast of the Epiphany (although in this country Epiphany is now celebrated on a Sunday). Place the Kings around your crèche. Then celebrate their arrival with a party. To conclude the party, share small presents “from the kings,” which have been wrapped in gold paper.
25. On the 6th of January, take down your tree and remove your decorations. The Christ candle, however should remain on display until February 2nd, the feast of the Purification of Mary. This feast is also know as “Candlemas” because of Simeon’s canticle that calls Jesus “light to lighten the gentiles.”
All: I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the thorn and the myrtle and the olive tree. I will set in the desert the fir tree, the elm and the box tree together, that they may see and know and consider and understand together the hand of the Lord has done this, and the Holy one of Israel has created it.
Leader: O all you green things upon the earth, bless the Lord.
All: Praise and exalt God above all forever.
Leader: Let us pray. Bless this wreath, O God, that it may be a sign and pledge to us of your grace and our salvation; and strengthen us in holiness for the coming of your Son, Jesus our Lord, who with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, world without end.
Lighting of the Advent Wreath
Reader: Brothers and sisters: Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly await a Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will refashion the body of our lowliness, conforming it to the body of his glory.
All: Thanks be to God.
Leader: We look for the blessed hope and glorious coming…
All: Of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Leader: The Lord make us to increase and abound in love…
All: Toward one another and toward all people.
Leader: Let us pray:
Most holy Father, grant us a vision of your holiness, that we may long to be holy in your son Jesus Christ.
All: To you be all honor and glory through all the ages. Amen.
All: O great mystery and wonderful sign: dumb beasts saw the newborn Lord lying in a manger.
Leader: the ox and ass shall lie down together.
All: And a little Child shall lead them.
Leader: Let us pray. Bless this crèche, O Lord, as a sign of the coming in humility of your son, Jesus Christ, and prepare our hearts that we may worthily receive him when comes again in glory; through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.