Advent Series 201: Week 1

During the first week of Advent on the night you have decided to have your families Advent night gather the family and start a wonderful family tradition.  Below is how we do Advent in my house with some of my favorite book suggestions.  Remember to pick and choose what you like and what works for your family.  Advent is about bringing Christ back into the center of Christmas and about carving out meaningful time with your kids during a crazy busy season.

FAMILY ACTIVITY:  Our first Advent Night is always the night we decorate the tree.   Decorating the tree, for us, is a wonderful time of remembering Christmases past because most of our ornaments are either homemade or from a special event or place.  

We spend lots of time this night talking about favorite traditions and looking at old photos.  I started a book of pictures taken every year in front of our tree.  I even was able to locate a few pre-kids and stuck those in.  The kids love to look through the pictures and see how they have grown.   Looking back is a way to be assured of our future.

FOCUS:  Hope.  The Israelites had hope that God would one day send a Savior.  They knew God was faithful because of all that He had already done for them.  Biblical hope is different than worldly hope.  It is not a wish or an inclination that something will happen.  It is the sure knowledge that God will do what He says He is going to do. It is like that gift wrapped under the tree.  It is already there, we just have to wait to open it.  That is HOPE.  Just as the Israelites had hope that God would one day send the Messiah, we have hope that Christ will come again.

DINNER:  On this night I go all out by setting the table with my Grandmother's china and cooking a special meal that everyone really likes.  (Don't think lots of work, just think about what they love.  This year I threw a roast in the oven.  Microwaved some veggies and had some fresh bread.)  We also let the kids drink out of cut glass goblets this year as a special treat.  

ADVENT READINGS AND WREATH:  This year we are using Christ in Christmas A Family Advent Celebration by Dobson, Swindoll, Boice, and Sproul.  The book is well laid out with hymns to sing if you are of that mind, Scripture readings, a short reflection and prayer.  Because our kids are older (9 and 12), in addition to that reading we are looking up and reading the verses our church uses for Advent.  This week it was Micah 5:2-5 and Luke 1:26-33.  

ITINERARY FOR THE EVENING:  We all sit at the dinning room table.  My husband or I begin by taking about what season of the year it is.  Then we light the first candle and say something like, "This is the Hope Candle. "  One of us prays for our dinner.  We begin eating.  During the meal we begin looking up verses and reading them engaging the kids in conversation.  Obviously this will vary greatly on the age of your kids but talk with them about the verses on their level.  And discuss with them the idea of hope.  

Then we blow out the candle and move into the living room to decorate our tree.  

Meet John Trout.  Our Christmas Tree.  We name our tree every year.  A strange tradition that came from I don't know where.  This one was named for John, the gentleman who helped us with our tree purchase, and his interesting trout charm which may have been carved out of bone.  You can call him J.T. for short.

 After decorating the tree and at the end of every day during December we get out our copy of The Advent Book by Jack and Kathy Stockman.  It is a grown-up lift a flap book that we have used since my daughter was 4.  (That was the year she almost memorized the Christmas story out of Luke thanks to that book.)  Each day has a different beautifully decorated door to open with a picture and Scripture inside.  The beauty is that each day you start at Day 1 and just add one more so your kids are hearing the story from the beginning each time.

Now that the kids are older they read the pages out loud.  It is a wonderful time to hang on the couch and be together.

That is it.  That is our first Advent Night each year.  It did take me a few go rounds to find what worked, what I had time for, and what was meaningful for my family.  That is why I include them in the planning each year and ask what they would like to do again.  Then they do the thinking for you!

One last book worth looking into is Mary's First Christmas by Walter Wangerine, Jr.  I love this book for two reasons.  1.  It shows Jesus as a little boy and how His life would have been like because Mary is telling her Son the story of His birth.  2.  It is cut into 4 chapters that are short enough to read out loud in one sitting.  We read through this book each year, usually one chapter a week.