It is very difficult for me to begin to think about Christmas before Thanksgiving, but I have learned over the years that giving and receiving the full blessing of the Advent season requires planning ahead.
Advent literally means "the coming" and is a time of spiritual preparation for the coming of Christmas (literally, "Christ's birth"), as well as Jesus' Second Coming. Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which is December 3, 2006, this year.
Many Christians observe the Advent season by lighting an Advent wreath which can be purchased or home-made. Traditionally, the Advent wreath contains 4 candles: 3 purple and 1 pink. Sometimes a 5th, white, candle is added in the middle (to be lit on Christmas morning). The purple candles symbolize hope, peace, and love and are lit on the first, second, and fourth Sundays of Advent. The pink candle symbolizes joy and is lit on the third Sunday. Our family usually uses three red and one white candles, because this is the way the Germans did it when my family began using the Advent wreath while living in Berlin. Growing up, the oldest child (I) would light the first candle every night at dinner for the first week. The second child would light the first and second candle the next week and so on. It was always tricky to make sure that the first candle was not completely melted down by the end of the month. We continue this tradition with our own kids.
We also have Advent devotionals together. We started with daily Scripture Readings (here is an example) and over the years have added other resources. Last year, I did morning devotionals with the kids using Joni Eareckson Tada and Bobbie Wolgemuth's fabulous resource Christmas Carols for a Kid's Heart.
In the evening we read from Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent by Arnold Ytreeide. We were all captivated by the thrilling narative and inspired by this beautiful story. Daily devotionals/Scripture readings are also included. If you do not own this amazing devotional story, I encourage you to procure it immediately. I can not speak highly enough of this book! Last year, my husband was away on travel for a couple of weeks during the Advent season. During this time, he would call home every night so that we could read about Jotham together. It was a very special time! This year we are excited to read the second volume in this trilogy: Bartholomew's Passage, I can hardly wait! (Ooops: It looks like these books are out of print and selling for big bucks, sorry! Watch for them! I hope I had the foresight to buy all three myself! I'll have to go search my Christmas boxes!)
Another fun time for us during the Advent season is the celebration of St. Nicholas' Day. As I alluded to previously, from the time I was 2 years old to 5 years old, my family lived in Berlin, East Germany where my father was stationed in the army. The observance of St. Nicholas Day is common in Europe and is one of the traditions that my family brought home to the United States. It remains one of my favorite days of the year! On December 5th, we all clean/polish our Sunday School shoes and place them outside our doors in the hallway. In the morning, they are filled with a tangerine, a candy cane, chocolate coins, and maybe some other candy. Sometimes, there are also other presents as well.
Our family does not celebrate Santa Claus. We refuse to attribute the divine qualities of El Roi (The God Who Sees)- "he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake", and omniscience ("he knows if you've been bad or good"), to name a couple. When we observe St. Nicholas Day, we are able to introduce our children to the historical truth behind the myth of Santa Claus. We read the delightful storybook Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend and talk about the pastor, who loved Jesus, was generous, kind, and compassionate, who died on December 6th and now lives in heaven with Jesus. Putting the shoes out is like a game, and any presents that are given are ones that point to Christ and contribute to the celebration of the Advent season. Some presents we've given (and they all know that we fill the shoes) are Christmas CDs, child nativity sets (Veggie Tales, Fisher-Price Little People) or Chrismas books. The rest of the month, as we're out and about and see Santa Claus, I remind the kids, "That it is someone dressed up like St. Nicholas, but we really know where he is, in heaven with Jesus, right?" We already celebrated his "birthday" and now we're focused on the more important birthday that is coming up. It is very important to us that we never lie to our children. Many children have been distraught to find out that Santa Claus was not real. If we lie to our kids for years about Santa Claus, how can we expect them to believe us when we tell them about God. Maybe He's just pretend too.
Because we did the "shoe thing," my family didn't do stockings on Christmas Eve (the origination is the same), but my husband's family did, and his sister even made stockings for each of us. So, in recent years, we've assigned the kids the duty of filling eachothers' stockings. We take them shopping and they have a lot of fun buying presents for eachother. It's a great way to encourage them to be "others focused" in a season that tends to be very "self-focused." My kids don't make lists either. I, myself, hate making Christmas lists, but it has been required of me far too often.
These are just some of the traditions we've started or continued in our family. Many Christians are disturbed to find out the pagan originations of Christmas and wonder whether they should celebrate Christmas, or put up a tree or anything. I've researched all of those things, and while it is highly unlikely that Jesus was born at the end of December (some say September is more likely, some the Spring), we still see the Nativity as something that is worth celebrating. Our goal is to emphasize the spiritual importance of Jesus' birth and the reality of his Second Coming. We are "convinced in our own mind" that there is value to celebrating Christmas and are increasingly attempting to make our celebrations even more edifying spiritually. God bless you all as you celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior! |
