Advent in our Catholic Home

Only a few Thanksgiving leftovers remain and our fall decorations are being packed away. Advent is upon us.

There are hoards of blog posts listing the ways to observe Advent. Just seeing all the options available for observing this season can be completely overwhelming to the already harried homemaker!

So instead of giving you yet another post of all the things you can or should do during Advent, I thought I would let you step into our home to see how our family observes this time of year.

I hope you don’t find my list overwhelming too! Know that we have been slowly adding layers of tradition every year to get where we are today.

Book Basket

Through the years, I have picked up many Christmas and Advent books at garage sales or library sales. These all get delegated to a box in the attic which gets pulled out every year after Christmas. Want to see what titles are in our basket? You can check out my post on our family’s favorite Christ-centered Advent and Christmas read alouds here.

The kids are always so excited to see our old favorites reappear and love becoming acquainted with new titles Mom has found over the past year.

Here are some other bookish posts worth perusing:

Must Reads for Young Catholics

Christ-centered Advent and Christmas Read Alouds

The Intentionally Catholic Booklist Resource post

Jesse Tree

Our family devotions center around the Jesse Tree during Advent. The Jesse Tree walks your family through salvation history by highlighting a Bible story each day leading up to the Nativity story on Christmas Day.

Looking for beautiful, yet simple Jesse Tree ornaments, I ended up creating our faux redwork embroidered ornaments. I’ve had fun making several sets as gifts for friends and family too. I ended up creating my own devotional to match!

(Try something even easier with my super affordable colorable ornaments.)

Advent Wreath

Lighting the Advent Wreath is such a timeless and simple tradition. Traditionally, there are pink and purple candles, but in an effort to simplify even further, we always use white since it is what I keep on hand. Our Advent wreath has traveled around from our dining room table to kitchen table and currently resides on our altar table (this has now become our feast table). We don’t necessarily light the wreath every night of Advent, but try to on Sundays.

St. Nicholas Day

A way our family has been able to focus better on the reason for the season has been by observing the Catholic feast day of St. Nicholas. It is the way we incorporate Santa Claus without detracting from the awe of the Incarnation.

Each December 6th our children come downstairs to find dried apricots, a little candy, and other little treats in their shoes that have been left out the night before. We don’t celebrate Santa Claus, but share with our children the real person of St. Nicholas and his generosity towards the poor. We definitely aren’t against others celebrating Santa Claus, but this is a way our family has chosen to focus on Christ.

Here are some posts to help out your St. Nicholas Day!

Celebrating St. Nicholas Day in our Catholic Home

100 + Ideas for a No-toy Christmas

Tree Decorating

For 7 years we have enjoyed the search for the perfect Christmas tree. The hunt was always exciting. Once, in the true spirit of Christmas, our Christmas tree was even “stolen.”

Finally, we found the price a little too prohibitive and have settle on an artificial tree this year. We make decorating the tree a family event. Mom and Dad set up the tree and string the lights but the kids do the majority of the decorating – that is, until they lose interest and wander off! We have punch and special finger foods we can nibble during our decorating.

O Antiphons

This was a new tradition we added to our family several years ago. O Antiphons begin December 17 and each Antiphon highlights a name of Jesus (these can be found in the hymn “O Come, Emmanuel”). There are so many beautiful ways to incorporate this tradition, but this year we will be using my printable ornaments from my Etsy shop.

Here is some help for using the O Antiphons:

Printable O Antiphons

O Antiphons – Let’s Roll!

Devotionals

There are so many beautiful devotionals to read through during this time of year. Devoting time to reading and reflection can be as simple as focusing on a Gospel through Advent.

As a family, we have enjoyed reading the following story formatted devotionals. I know your family would enjoy them too! (There is some violence in these stories and our younger children sometimes find them too frightening, so we sometimes skip parts or do some artful abridging.)

Here is another list of Christ-centered Advent and Christmas Read Alouds if you want more ideas

Sacrifice

Our children like make a soft bed for Jesus by placing a piece of “straw” in a manger every time they do a good deed. It is a fun and tangible way for little ones to bring gifts to the Christ Child.

St. Lucia Day

Advent is a season stuffed with feast days in the Catholic Church. We choose several to highlight, but one that incorporates beautifully within the season is St. Lucia Day.

St. Lucia (also known as St. Lucy) is a martyr who brought food to the early Christians hiding in the Catacombs of Rome from persecution. Legend says she had to no way to carry a light since her hands were occupied with the serving tray of food. Supposedly, she carried her light or candles on her head.

Our family observes St. Lucia day by serving cinnamon rolls for breakfast (traditionally St. Lucia rolls served by the daughter of the family). In the evening we mix up homemade hot cocoa and drive around to look at light displays.

St. Lucia Day Resources:

St. Lucia Crown Tutorial

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls