HomeschoolChristian's
Christmas Section

Advent

Advent, the days leading up to Christ's birth on December 25th, is a special time for many. However, everyone celebrates it differently! These are questions and answers presented by members of the HomeschoolChristian message boards.

Question: What exactly is Advent?

Heather posted:
Advent is a celebration of the twenty-four days leading up to Christ's birth. Advent is generally only celebrated in liturgical churches, since it deals with symbolism. Your church probably begins to focus on Christmas during Advent, but you've never called it that or done anything "formal". Churches that celebrate Advent also often have special services for Maundy Thursday (Thursday before Easter), Ash Wednesday (40 days before Easter and the beginning of Lent), Pentecost (40 days after Easter and the coming of the Holy Spirit), Christ the King Sunday (in November, I'm not sure of the signifigance), All Saints Day (To honor those who died in Christ or formal Saints, depending on your denomination), and sometimes Lent (the 40 days of fasting and repentance before Easter), Holy Monday (the Monday before Easter), etc. If you go to your local Christian bookstore, you can probably pick up a copy of the Church Calendar, which lists all these days and more. Liturgical churches also often have different altar cloths for different times in the Church Calendar.

Question: I'm looking for activities to do during Advent. Does anyone have suggestions?

Melissa B. posted:
As Christmas cards arrive, save them and use your Advent prayer time to pray for the senders.
Do an Advent service time project for the needy. Collect money or food and use a portion of the Advent time to decide whom to help and how to do it.
Use your nativity set with as many animals as possible to enact the story. (this is great for younger children)
Make cookies or candies to share at the conclusion of your Advent time. If you have competitive children, alternate who will light the candle, pick the carol, lead the prayers and read the Bible.
Invite your friends to share an Advent evening with you.

LauraJean posted:
On Advent Sunday, we would have a family light the Advent candle (a different family would light the candles each week).
We have a "Hanging of the Greens" ceremony. The wreaths and garlands are hung in various locations inside AND outside the church. Someone reads about or tells of their meaning and significance.
Then we decorate the tree with "Chrismons" These are symbols that represent different things in the Christian Church. Some of them have Greek letters on them. (I wish I could draw some, but I don't know how!!!!!) The meaning and significance of each of these ornaments is also given.
The word "Advent" literally means, "to come" or "coming".
The Advent Season includes the 4 Sundays before Christmas. It will be different each year, so Advent for this year begins this Sunday (Dec. 1). This is especially significant for Christians, because it is not only a way to celebrate the first coming of Jesus in human form, but it looks forward to His second "Advent" as well."Advent" We use this time to build up to Christmas Day. It helps to keep us all centered and focused on why we even have Christmas.

Question: Does anyone else do Advent candles?

Laura B. posted:

We've done advent candles for nearly ten years. We are no experts on the "proper way of observing advent" I think that's why it has always been so successful. Until a couple of years ago I didn't even know the proper colors and symbolism. We light a new candle every Sunday, but we continued to light all current candles every night of the week while we read from the Bible, and then a Christmas Story (Most books came from thrift shops). Most nights the story was Christian based, but occasionally we would throw in a fun one. I'm a high school Sunday school teacher, and many of the children from even Elders homes say they don't spend any special family time in December focusing on Christ. I do know this; All five of our candles (whatever color) stand for Christ's birth to save us. For 25 evenings in our household we turned our eyes upon Jesus.

Cathe posted:
We have always done candles! I collect old hymnals and prayer books, and in one of them I found a list of readings to go with the weekly lighting of the candles. There's an Old Testament passage, a New Testament passage, and another one - either part of the birth of Christ from the gospels or maybe it was a Psalm. I had each of my three boys read a section each night.
The boys like to decorate the Advent candle wreath each year. We have a plain metal base, and they dress it up with greenery or something. We use the pink and purple candles if I happen to find them, but more frequently we just use whatever we have.

Question: I'm looking for some new ideas for Advent. What are your suggestions?

Carol posted:
We planted some bulbs indoors, they should take about 4-5 weeks to bloom, in time for Christmas (I hope). ( We also made an Advent Wreath, just have to go collect some nice fresh pine tree branches to add. ( My husband made us a small manger(big enough for a doll, I got the idea from a book on Advent, each night before bed, every person places a piece of straw or yellow yarn in it for every good deed they have done that day. By Christmas Eve there should be a nice bed of "straw/yarn" for Baby Jesus. ( I think we will make a Jesse Tree too, and a Advent Calender, some other crafts, try to do something every day. I picked up some really nice books on Advent with lots of easy, fun crafts and ideas.

Question: What about Jesse Trees? What IS a Jesse Tree?

Carly R. posted: A Jesse Tree is a tree, tree branch, or a large banner with a symbolic tree, that is decorated each week, usually by the children, with ornaments or objects that represent Old Testament events from Creation to the Birth of Jesus. The ornaments are traditionally handmade, and are added one each day of Advent, or a group on each Sunday, with explanations of the symbols and a brief verse of Scripture from the story represented. This ceremony is an important part of many Advent celebrations.

Janet S. posted: For several years I made Jesse Trees and ornaments to go on them to give to friends and family members when they had a new baby. I included instructions, advent devotions and the history of the Jesse Tree. They were really neat gifts. This year the girls and I are making four of them for some friends and our pastor's family. They are inexpensive because we use a small branch from a tree, put it in plaster of paris that we have poured into a 1 gallon can that we have covered with Christmas fabric and ModPodged, then we put moss on top of the plaster after it has hardened. We make the ornaments from things we collect throughout the year - lids from frozen oj, scraps of fabric, sticks, glittery paper, snips of lambs wool from a friend, etc. We make a pretty drawstring bag to put the ornaments and instructions in and POOF- a beautiful present from the heart!

Question: What about Advent readings?

Here are the suggested readings, starting on the first week of December:

First week
Sun. Is. 40:1-5
Mon. Is. 52:7-10
Tues. Is. 40:9-11
Wed. Gen. 3:8-15
Thu. Gen. 15:1-6
Fri. Deut. 18:15-19
Sat. Ps. 89:1-4
Second week
Sun. Is. 11:1-10
Mon. Zech. 6:12-13
Tues. Mic. 5:2-4
Wed. Mal. 3:1-6
Thu. John 1:1-8
FRi. John 1:9-18
Sat. Mark 1:1-3
Third week
Sun. Luke 1:5-13
Mon. Luke 1:14-17
Tues. Luke 1:18-25
Wed. Luke 1:39-45
Thur. Luke 1:46-56
Fri. Luke 1:57-66
Sat. Luke 1:67-80
Fourth week
Sun. Is. 7:10-14
Mon. Luke 1:26-35
Tues Is. 9:2-7
Wed. Matt. 1:18-25
Thu. Luke 2:1-20
Fri. Matt. 2:1-2
Sat. Luke 2:21-35

Advent Devotionals

Review of Advent Foretold, A December Devotional for All Ages
Review of Before and After Christmas, Activities and Ideas for Advent and Epiphany
Review of Come, Lord Jesus, Devotions for the Home: Advent/Christmas/Epiphany
Review of Handel's Messiah Family Advent Reader
Review of 'Twas the Month Before Christmas, A Coloring and Family Activity Book
Review of Very First Christmas Advent Calendar

HomeschoolChristian's Christmas Section

Advent

Advent Devotionals

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