Today is the second Sunday of Advent, and now that we have a few days under our belt, it seems like a good time to report on how our Advent Reclamation Project is going.
Point One: the Advent Calendar
Yes, it’s a Santa house. So sue me. We looked at everything available online, and tried to talk ourselves into one of the religious ones. But I’m not big on saccharine baby Jesus figures with blond hair, wearing holier-than-thou expressions. He was a baby, for crying out loud. Fully human. He didn’t know he was God when he was three hours old. Besides, what goes into the calendar is more important than what it looks like.
The calendar sat on the counter for two weeks. Alex wanted to play with it every day. By the time December 1st rolled around, he knew exactly what it was for and was all a-flutter. (Note: Initially, when I envisioned this project, I wanted to make it a true Advent Calendar, IOW Week One, Sunday through Saturday; Week Two, Sunday through Saturday, etc. But such a thing does not appear to exist, so we accepted the inevitable.)
The morning of December 1st, Alex opened the chimney door and pulled out an ornament and a slip of paper that said: “Make Christmas cards for grandparents.” Other highlights of the week: shopping for a shut-in (service), making a manger for baby Jesus (soul prep), decorating the house and a day trip to St. Charles for a train show (pure fun).
Yes, liturgical purists, we put up Christmas decs on the 5th of December. I used to fight this battle tooth and nail. I didn’t want one iota of Christmasy stuff up until at least the 19th of December. We were going to be Advent people, and save Christmas for Christmas. Trouble was, I enjoyed neither Advent nor Christmas, when Christmas came. I spent Advent griping that everybody else was putting up Christmas stuff, and dreaded the year when I would have to give in because I would have children old enough to be interested. Now that I’m here, I’m thrilled to find that the secular is enriching my spiritual Advent, too.
Point two: the manger for Baby Jesus.
Two pieces of poster board, some pencil and crayon, and ornaments printed from the Domestic Church. I pulled down the related Scriptures, which are beastly long for children, and simplified and shortened them. It was a hack job, and every night at dinner, as I am reading, I edit further. Then Alex puts the ornament on the tree with Scotch tape, Christian lights the wreath, and we eat dinner.
We’re very happy with our experiment, thus far. We’re not particularly doing any less this year. The difference is that it is all planned out in advance. It’s amazing, what a difference this makes. In years past, we stumbled through Advent with this sack of rocks suspended over our heads: you have to get this done, and this, and this…and good luck figuring out how. This year, we’ve been able—so far—to focus more on the purpose of the chaos. And that, after all, is the point of Advent: to focus on the Reason for the Season.
Kathleen M. Basi 
We do the same Jesse tre from Domestic Church, but we cut out the ornaments and put ribbon on them. Every year we set up the Christmas tree and put lights on it, but no ornaments, instead we hang the Jesse tree ornaments on it. We hang the Christmas ornaments on Christmas eve or as close to that as possible. You should post your shortened readings, because they are awfully long and hard for the kiddos to grasp! We also sing an advent song at the end of the Jesse reading and advent wreath lighting–usually O Come Emanuel… Fabulous to read about your traditions! I especially liked the Advent calendar idea and filling the boxes with things for the kids to do etc, rather than just chocolate. Where did you find you calendar?
I’ll see what I can do later today or tomorrow, perhaps. I’ve only done the first two weeks so far–have to get weeks 3 and 4 ready in the next few days! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your traditions.
We are doing the same things! I got our advent calendar from Lisa Welchel when she spoke at my friend’s church a few months ago.
http://www.lisawhelchel.com/shopping.htm
It is great and includes not only a history of traditions of Christmas but crafts and projects as well. Emma is really enjoying it! As far as the Jesse tree, we are trying. I printed of some ornaments, can’t remember the site but it had 29 (I think) ornaments. The only thing is the scripture reading are indead very long and I find myself having to go back previous pages to explain what I am supposed to be reading to begin with (most recent: Jacob, Esau, and Issaac)Totally lost Emma on that one. I am determined to find a printable online of shortened to the point scriptures for children. If I do, I will pass it along.
I’m not sure the context of the stories is important at this age. Emma’s older, but even so, she’s probably too young to make the connection of generations, don’t you think? For the 3 3/4 age, it’s more about introducing Bible stories. Understanding how they all connect, and the true richness of how they connect to Advent and Christmas, comes a lot later. What do you think?
I think at times I am trying too hard to make Christmas what it is supposed to be and not what society wants it to be that I get lost in the reality that Emma is little and maybe next year we can do more. I am going through the scripture readings as well and trying to condense them a bit so that she can start to grasp the reason for each symbol and that there will eventually will be a whole wonderful story to come when she gets older. Less stress is supposed to be a product of understanding the true meaning of Christmas, right? :o)
That’s the same struggle I’ve been tired of dealing with. I think you’re doing the right thing, starting now, instead of waiting till she’s older and you have to undo years of inculturation.