I grew up with the tradition of an Advent wreath. The Sunday before Advent began, my mother would manufacture a wreath using four candleholders with greens wrapped around them. Three of the candles were purple and one was rose colored. Each candle represented one of the four weeks before Christmas, with the rose candle being lit the third Sunday of Advent or Gaudete Sunday. Purple, being the color of royalty, represents Christ as the “Prince of Peace,” while the rose for Gaudete (rejoice) Sunday combines the mixture of the Advent purple and the Christmas White.
Each evening after dinner, my brother, sister and I would fight for the chance to light the candle(s) of the Advent wreath. Once that was decided, we’d light the candle(s) and sing “O Come O Come Emanuel.” With each passing Sunday a new candle would be lit so that by the last Sunday before Christmas, all four candles were ablaze. On Christmas Eve, the candles were lit for the last time and allowed to burn down.
My children enjoyed Advent Calendars, most of which came from Germany. If they were the kind that didn’t have chocolate behind each day, we’d close all the doors and store them flat so they could be reopened the next year.
After we were grown, my mother still had an Advent wreath, but surrounded it with the various Advent calendars we would send her. She loved her ritual of marking the days until Christmas
So if you want to mark the days until Christmas, using a calendar or a wreath, below are a variety of ways you can do that.
• Use a small Christmas tree, or several branches stuck in a vase and add an ornament for each day. You make small snowflakes and add per day.
• Printable Advent Calendar Definitely for the crafty folks.
• Christmas Treasury Advent Calendar. You download the front and back, tape together and have a calendar that’s just as pretty as anything you would purchase.
• Online Fun Advent Calendar: Each day contains a different stencil that you can print Use the free stencils for decorating windows, cakes, friezes in schools and play schools or just for fun at home on a rainy day. Size them all to small squares and make your own advent calendar in felt by adding one item every day.
• Opt for a digital Calendar. Below are links to various ones.
- Busted Halo: This calendar brings its sense of surprise by showing you the whole calendar, but not letting you open each day and find out what’s behind the picture until that day comes along. This year’s calendar has weekly themes — hope, love, joy, and peace — that will help you connect to the significance of the season of Advent. Each day, that day’s link in the Advent calendar will start working, leading to a special Advent-themed Daily Jolt, with an opportunity for reflection, a microChallenge and a chance to enter our contest. Some of the reflections come from unlikely sources, and the challenges help you to take an action, usually a small one, based on the reflection.
- Advent Calendar 2011-Countdown to Christmas
- Christmas Advent Calendar
- Other Christian Advent Calendars
- A German Advent Calendar with Daily Christmas Facts (in both English and German) h
- Calendar video (a different video each day)
• Bookmark Count Down to Christmas, and you can see exactly how many days, hours, minutes and seconds before Christmas arrives. This site also offers a variety of activities, such as reading Santa’s blog.
• Advent wreaths can be done without spending any money-you don’t have to have purple and rose colored candles. Some new ways to consider:
- Use four votive candles, in holders, placed in a bowl filled with cranberries.
- Take a wire clothes hanger and stretch into a circle. Undo the wire by the hook end and string Christmas Tree balls to create a stunning wreath. Place four votives in the center. Cut off the hook, or place a large bow over it. Of course, if you’d prefer, you could skip the candles and have a nice wreath for the door.
- Using a bread loaf pan, place four tapered candles in holders and fill with greens, cranberries, nuts, rocks or something that appeals to you.
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