An Outdoor Lessons & Carols for Advent
Putting a family twist on a meaningful tradition.
Dear Friends,
The season of Advent is a special time set aside for Christians to prepare both personally and communally for the birth of Christ.
But how can we mark Advent as something different from Christmas, when Christmas eclipses Advent in our culture before December even begins?
Earlier this week I shared an essay that applied the concept of “adding before you subtract” to tech in the family home. I think this concept applies to Advent, as well; it’s not about just *not* celebrating Christmas yet, but about actively living the Advent season.
In my home, we try to do this in part by, for example, not just *not* decorating for Christmas until close to Christmas Eve, but by fully decorating *for* Advent. We go beyond the traditional Advent wreath to use purple (the color of Advent) tablecloths and table runners, to do up the mantelpiece is in purple decor, and to drape purple satin ribbons wherever you might otherwise expect to see a Christmas garland.
The transformation that happens on Christmas Eve is then something really special, when all that purple turns to red, green, and gold.
But Purple Explosion Advent home decor is not my main topic today.
What I actually want to discuss today is another Advent tradition that also brims with wonder and anticipation, but in an even more meaningful way. This is the century-old Festival of Lessons and Carols, a Christian service that alternates prayer, the singing of Advent hymns, and readings from Scripture. If you’ve never attended one of these services before, take it from me: Lessons and Carols is truly lovely.
Last year, my family had the idea of leading an outdoor adaptation of Lessons and Carols to help us live Advent more deliberately in community. This outdoor version adds movement and fresh air to the traditional service in order to help squirrely young children come along, all while still maintaining and transmitting a sense of prayer and wonder. Adding movement and a little bit of conviviality has made this a tradition that is more fun even than caroling. It is a tradition that we hope to continue annually.
Read my essay on Lessons & Carols here, and download our free(!) printable booklet for the service if you’d like to try it out yourself:
“An Outdoor Lessons & Carols for Advent.”
What are your favorite ways to “keep” Advent, if you observe that season? Will you try an outdoor or at-home Lessons & Carols this year?
In other seasonal news,
and I will published our first Advent issue at our co-edited Substack today. Perhaps you’d like to pop over and take a look at what we do there!
Wishing you a blessed beginning to Advent,
We do this very thing during Advent!
"every Advent evening at dinnertime we light one, two, three, or four candles and sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” in the candlelight. Finally, on Christmas Eve we light all five candles for the first and only time that year, to the glorious strains of “Joy to the World!”
Thank you for sharing so vividly about your event. Taking notes for ways to make something like tis happen in my sphere.
the printout is beautiful! What a gift -- thank you!