Redeeming the Season, Part 2: Advent and Christmas

This post is going to be somewhat repetitive of recent posts, so I apologize for that. I have been mentioning a few of the things that we do around here to try to prepare ourselves during the Advent season. (For anyone who might not be familiar with it, advent means "coming" and the Advent season is the time prior to Christmas when we remember and celebrate the coming of Christ.) So, although I've already posted some of these ideas elsewhere, I'm just going to try to summarize them here so that they're all in one place. (Part 1 was: Rethinking Santa.) It may seem like overkill at first glance, but keep in mind a few things: 1) We have been adding and changing things each year, figuring out what we like and what we don't. We didn't just start doing it all at once. 2) We homeschool, and this is pretty much our entire December curriculum! 3) Once you have a few things in place, they are not time consuming or overwhelming to do - just a few minutes here and there throughout the day.

For us, all these little things are worth it. They help us to focus on the anticipation and excitement of Jesus' birthday and God's incredible gift to us.

Jesse Tree - My sister gives a great description of what a Jesse Tree represents in her post here. So, if you're not sure what a Jesse Tree is or what purpose it serves, go there. For the Jesse Tree symbols which go on the tree, I didn't do anything costly or fancy. I simply printed out pictures of the symbols from the computer, glued them to card stock, cut them out, and tied a string in them so that they can be hung from the tree. We also use the same book that my sister mentioned, very appropriately titled, The Jesse Tree, but there are many free sources online as well. I know that Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience has a free Jesse Tree book to download that I've heard great things about.

Advent Calendar - This is not the regular kind of Advent calendar where you open a door and count down the days, but a homemade flannel board advent calendar. (Are you starting to see that we do lots of homemade things around here?) It's not pretty or fancy, but it gets the job done without spending a bunch of money. Basically, my husband made me a flannel graph board by stretching a big piece of felt over some wood and stapling it there. I printed from the computer all kinds of pictures related to the Nativity. Then, I glued the pictures to some card stock to make them a little sturdier, cut them out, and stuck velcro to the back of them so that they would stick to the felt board.

Each day in December, we add another piece to the board and another part to the story. I got the idea from Noel Piper in her book, Treasuring God in our Traditions. So, December 1 we start the story with, "One time, a long time ago, in the city of Bethlehem, there was a place called a stable," and we put the stable up on the board. The next day, we start from the beginning of the story again and add to it. We'll say, "One time, a long time ago, in the city of Bethlehem, there was a place called a stable. In the stable there was a manger filled with hay" and we add a manger to our board. Each day, the story starts again at the beginning and goes a little further, and another piece is added to the board. It's a great way for the kids to really know the story of Jesus' birth, because they are repeating it each day. If you are at all interested in the simple story that we add to each day, I'm more than happy to e-mail it to you. Here is a picture of our Nativity flannel graph. As you can see, we only have the stable on there so far.

Advent Candle-Holder Wreath: My husband just made me this and I love it. The idea came from Ann at A Holy Experience. She writes much more beautifully than I do, so you can read about it there. Each night, we will add an additional candle to the wreath as we get closer to Christmas, making it brighter and brighter as we get closer to the coming of the Light of the World. Another variation would be to just use one candle and move it along one space each night.

Sitting next to the advent wreath in the picture above are our World Vision catalogs which go along with our rice and beans for advent. I already have a previous post about that, so I'll just sum it up. We eat rice and beans for dinner each night from the day after Thanksgiving, up until Christmas Eve. Each night after the kids eat their rice and beans, they put the money that we normally would have spent on an average meal into the stocking for Jesus. They will then get to choose how to spend that money for people in need. Last year, the money went to help build a well through http://www.charitywater.org/. This year, they are busy going through the World Vision catalog each night trying to decide if they should buy animals and, if so, which ones, or if they should send kids to school, stock a fish pond, etc. It will be entirely up to them how to spend the money, and they are having a great time deciding. It is our dinner conversation each night as we eat.

Attributes of Jesus Ornaments - This is a new addition this year and is super easy. I bought some plain silver ornaments from the dollar section of Target. They are just cheap, plastic ones that were four for a dollar. I used a red marker and wrote one attribute of Jesus (i.e. faithful, holy, righteous, etc.) on 24 different ornaments. Then, on the other side of the ornament, I wrote the reference to a Bible verse that talks about that attribute of God. Each day, either Jake or Addi get to pick one of the ornaments to add to the tree. We look up the Bible verse and read it and talk briefly about that attribute.

Christmas Morning Treasure Hunt - The first thing the kids do when they wake up on Christmas morning is a treasure hunt to look for baby Jesus. I make star shaped clues so that they can be like the wise men following the star to find Jesus (one of Addi's baby dolls, wrapped up in a swaddling blanket). When they find him, we place him in our manger and then we give our presents to Jesus. This will vary from year to year. Last year, we were helping to raise money for a well that our friends daughter had been raising money for. So, in order to give our present to Jesus, we got in the car and drove to their place to drop off the money. This year, since the kids are choosing items from the World Vision catalog, we will probably wrap up pictures of whatever they end up choosing and we can open those on Christmas morning.

The kids typically get one present each from us that they get to open next (as well as a couple little things in their stockings). Again, we really try to take the focus off of what they're getting and instead focus on what we're giving to others. And, so, we choose to keep gift-giving to them to a minimum. I personally think that it also helps them to be more grateful for the gift that they are getting, rather than expecting or wanting more, more, more. That is just a personal preference in our family. I have heard of others who do no gifts except those that are the gifts to Jesus, and others who choose to do three gifts like what the wise men gave- they choose one costly gift, representing the gold that the wise men gave; one gift for the body (such as clothes or bubble bath, etc.), representing the myrrh, which is a spice used to annoint the body; and one gift used for worship (such as a Bible, music cd, devotional, etc.), representing the Frankincense which was used in the temple for the worship of God. I'm not 100% certain that I got that right, and we have never done it that way, but it's one more idea.

So, there you have it. Those are some of the things that we do in an attempt to keep our hearts focused on Christ. We never ask our kids the question, "What do you want for Christmas?" but only, "What do you want to give to Jesus for Christmas?" Am I claiming that because of this our kids only care about Jesus at Christmastime, and not about themselves? No. They are human. I wish that I only cared about Jesus and not about myself. But, I am human. I really do believe though that it is helping them (and Jay and me) to strip away the selfishness and consumerism that usually accompanies this Season, and instead understand and focus on what Christmas truly is about.