Advent traditions question

1,040 Views | 9 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by Zosima
SoulSlaveAG2005
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AG
Fellow Papist and non-papist,


Being a Catholic convert, and also not being raised in an actively Christian household, I am curious what your family traditions are for Advent.

Our goal is to make our home Christmas more ChristCentric as opposed to Santa Centric.

We have started doing an advent calendar, but I would like to know what traditions you all do to help build the anticipation towards the birth of Christ and de-focus from the gift/materialism.

TIA.
jkag89
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St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6th) although that might be a cross-purpose to your intended goal.

A Jesse Tree, an uncle's family did this foregoing putting up a Christmas Tree until Christmas Eve.
Sq16Aggie2006
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We dont do anything super formal, just make sure to pray around the advent wreath at dinner, talk to the family about how the presents are nice, but the real reason for celebration is Jesus birthday. Remind them to pray for people in the world who not only dont get presents, but also dont have enough food to eat.
Zobel
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The Nativity fast begins November 15 every year and culminates on Christmas Eve.
Aggiefan#1
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k2aggie07 said:

The Nativity fast begins November 15 every year and culminates on Christmas Eve.
Pro Sandy
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We do a devotion/scripture reading every night at supper. This advent we are using one our church put out. We also have a table nativity we use to tell the story.

Christmas Eve, in addition to church, we read the gospel stories, all 3 (Matthew, Luke, and John). We do also read The Night Before Christmas, but I end it appropriately "Merry Christmas to all, and remember the Alamo."

I do like to ask my kids what we are celebrating to see if what we teach sticks. They usually do good. A few years ago, my now 10 year old said it was the birth of Santa. Mixing traditions confused him. I don't want to throw Santa out because they enjoy it. They also will see it in society and want them to know the true history of St Nicholas.

I also like playing traditional Christmas music. Surprisingly, Barenaked Ladies have a great version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
SoulSlaveAG2005
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Quote:



I also like playing traditional Christmas music. Surprisingly, Barenaked Ladies have a great version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.


They have a metal version?
SoulSlaveAG2005
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Thanks for the ideas. Wife and I will run over some of them see if we can start new traditions.
wbt5845
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We have this book that has 25 little books in it. The kids would read on each day, leading up to Christmas.

http://pastoral.center/story-of-christmas-advent-storybook-calendar/


GoneGirl
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I have a creche (or nativity scene) that is child friendly, and has been around as long as I can remember.
As I child, I was always allowed to play with it and I spent hours with it. It's at least 40 years old.

When I had children, my mother passed it along to me. I think it really helped me to remember the purpose of Christmas, and being able to touch and arrange it made it something I was really comfortable with.

In my adult home now, I have a fancy one that is put out, but that smaller little (really, it's rubber - not plastic) one is always put somewhere where the kids and those who visit can play with it.

Zosima
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Growing up, we always received some minor items in our sticking for St Nicholas day and that was about it. My wife and I might our advent wreath for supper and say a daily prayer, but our kids are too young to have any traditions of our own yet. These past couple of years I have been fasting more as a preparation, but that is not really a tradition.

My wife's boss said they used to decorate their Christmas tree the first Sunday of advent and leave the lights off all advent. Then on Christmas eve they would all go to mass and when they came back from mass the lights would be on for the first time. She said some of her happiset memories were opening the door and seeing the Christmas tree lot for the first time. She said it drove home the point that advent was meant to be in anticipation of Christ's birth instead of Christmas being a month long holiday.
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