Advent Traditions

Heads up: there are a couple Amazon Influencer affiliate links (at no cost to you) for our Christmas book list in this post. 🙂 

Tis the season to get ready for the reason for the season. My kids are really into tongue twisters right now; I should give them that to say 10 times fast. Today is the first day of Advent 2018. I thought I’d share a glimpse at some of our favorite traditions. 

We live in Florida where we have to have our traditional-looking pines (and pumpkins for that matter) shipped in. Sorry Mother Earth. So we don’t cut down our tree, but rather we head to the local nursery around the corner and choose a sturdy precut specimen. We do this pre-Thanksgiving because they’re 20% off. We add lights (because a totally naked tree in your living room is a frightful thing) to represent night’s stars, but we wait to decorate until Christmas Eve. We’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, but someone asked recently why we wait so long to decorate.

When I was a college student I would attend daily mass up the hill from the university. A mostly empty cathedral affords quiet contemplation; when the church brought in trees to decorate I took note. When Christmas Day arrived and the church finally burst into color with ornaments and ribbons and other festive trim, I remember being almost shocked at the sudden transformation. Silly almost, I know. But that the decorations reflected the actual day the savior was born impacted me. So ever since I’ve strived to give our family that same magical moment. Plus — as I’ve told friends — it’s just fun to decorate the tree Christmas eve. We watch It’s A Wonderful Life (I’m very pleased to see is currently free with Amazon Prime), and add favorite ornaments and reflect on memories — and if you’re me probably have a good cry. 

Here’s why you haven’t seen too many pictures in our class room lately. Decorating headquarters. We’ve since moved out what’s on the table as Advent begins today; we’ll need the nativity and stable my grandpa made.

I went ahead and splurged on this beautiful Ostheimer nativity for the kids. I found them online at the Wooden Wagon. We are using them in a non-traditional Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (for which I have level 1 training) presentation of the infancy narratives. I can write more on how to do that at home if anyone is interested. 

We also rolled beeswax candles for our Advent wreath. I got a kit from Toadily Handmade — a small family company we are happy to support as small business owners ourselves. 

The candles were easy to roll, mess-free and smelled honey sweet. The process took less than 15 mins, and the kids were so proud. I’ve never tried them before, so I’m anxious to see how they burn. We will find out at dinner tonight. The company alleges a 4+ hour burn time, so I’m hopeful we constructed ours correctly and can get 4 whole Sunday dinners out of our Advent wreath. 

The night before Advent begins, conveniently on a Saturday, we read The Sweet Smell of Christmas and do a little sensory exploration in preparation of Christmas (aka have fun eating snacks).

All you need is 1) apple pie 2) oranges — the citrus trees around here are going bezerk right now — alas these clementines are from Publix. 3) Ginger cookies 4) Candy canes or peppermints 5) pine bough 6) hot chocolate and of course this sweet book about a bear family preparing for Christmas. They gather treats, choose a Christmas tree and decorate. At the end the little bear gets a yummy orange in his stocking (Santa often brings oranges in stockings here too).  

If this book isn’t a tradition at your home already, I recommend it. Yes, it’s got anthropomorphic bears which isn’t strictly Montessori, but it’s still fantastic. 

The post is getting lengthy, so I’ll save our homemade Advent spiral for tomorrow, but I’ll leave you with this picture of it. Tomorrow the explanation and process.

Happy Advent friends!