Looking for Advent ideas to try with your family?
I love Advent! If you deliberately celebrate Advent, you get the joy of preparing for Christmas, without becoming tired of the pre-Christmas hype. Now that my children are starting their own families, I think about the ways we used to celebrate Advent as a Catholic family. Enjoy this list of Advent ideas and add in your own family traditions.
How To Celebrate Advent With Your Catholic Family
- Start with a game plan! But keep it simple.
Even a few Advent traditions can impact your home life in a positive way, and you can build on those traditions over the years. When your children have their own homes, they will not forget that Advent is supposed to be a transformative time in our liturgical calendar, and they will have warm, meaningful memories associated with it.
If you do something special on the first day of Advent, such as have a special family meal and discuss what Advent is, you will lay a great foundation. Advent always starts on the Sunday closest to November 30th.
- Set up a nativity scene or crèche.
This really captures a child’s imagination and keeps the birth of Christ front and center. It is especially nice if your nativity set has a Baby Jesus figurine that can be put away during the days of Advent. Leave the manger empty in anticipation of Christmas Eve. (Just don’t lose the Christ Child, like I did one year. I found him sometime in January, safely stowed in my sock drawer.)
On Christmas Eve, we used to have our children form a small procession in which one of them would carry Baby Jesus from our nativity set. The other children would carry items such as the Bible or a banner, and we would sing a song as the children processed. The infant Jesus was finally placed in the manger.
Bonus: If you have Wise Men, set them up in a different part of the house, and your children can move them periodically, so that the Wise Men “travel” to join the rest of the nativity set by Epiphany. This is when the Church celebrates the Magi’s visit to the Holy Family.
- Set up an Advent wreath.
After the first (purple) candle is lit at Mass on the first Sunday of Advent, you can reinforce that tradition at home. Every Sunday, light a new candle and use a simple reflection and prayer designed to help your family journey through Advent together. If your young children are like mine were, they love candles or anything to do with fire. And while they may spend more time fighting over who gets to light and blow out candles than they do praying, at least you have started a memorable tradition.
On the third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete or “Rejoice” Sunday, we Catholics light the rose-colored candle at church. In our homes, we can also make Gaudete Sunday celebration of joy, giving God the praise and thanks he deserves. Read Psalm 33 together or sing a song, such as Rejoice in the Lord Always.
We often invited another family to our house for an Advent meal on this day—pink or “rose” was the featured color on the table.
- Decorate for Advent
As December starts, consider avoiding (if you can!) playing Christmas songs or decorating for Christmas too early, otherwise Advent loses center stage and when Christmas arrives the birth of Christ can be anti-climactic. Put up twinkle lights and other winter decorations and use a purple tablecloth. Display Advent themed projects or artwork.
(After Gaudete Sunday, our family stops resisting the culture. We decorated for Christmas, put up our tree, and started caroling with abandon.)
- Bless others and let the Lord bless you!
Advent is a time that is not only joyful preparation but is also what the Church calls a “little Lent” in which we are penitent and make an extra effort to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely” (Heb 12:1).
Besides praying more, some families perform community service. Our family would often go caroling at a nursing home. And it should always be a priority to make time for the tremendous gift of reconciliation/confession, so that our hearts can be filled with the grace we need to celebrate the feast of Christmas well!
These are just a few ideas that have worked for our family over the years. The more we try to learn about and participate in the way that our Catholic Church keeps the holy season of Advent and Christmas, the more joy we will experience as we learn to cherish Christ’s birth in the heart of our homes.
“Come thou long expected Jesus!”
More Catholic Advent Ideas
All about Advent & Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope & Wonder with Children
Reusable Sticker Advent Calendar | Shining Light Dolls
Advent Reflections | Cardinal Zen
Hallow #Pray25: The Hallow app will guide you in praying alongside God’s chosen people, tracing the story through all of Scripture: from the Garden of Eden to the manger in Bethlehem where Christ was born.
Advent: What is it that I want to prepare for?
Image: https://unsplash.com/photos/girl-writing-on-bed-P3Tc5ZxHowk
