"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.
Yay, a kindred spirit! I remember this being so meaningful to me as a child, and I've been so blessed to expand these traditions with my own kids. Christmas Eve is actually my eldest's favorite day of the year--even better than Christmas morning!
What a beautiful idea for a community service. I’m bookmarking this page and hope to be able to possibly implement this with some community folks next year.
And I love the thought of purposely decorating for advent. Such great ideas and inspiration here.
Thank you, Derek! I'm glad you enjoyed it. We were on a day trip yesterday so today is our big Advent decorating day! Luckily, my kids are old enough to help instead of "help" with these things now!
Dixie, my heart sighed as I read this piece - and thank you for the glorious printable! My wheels are turning, thinking about how we could do this on our road. As we chatted about previously...I love outdoor celebrations this time of year!
What a beautiful and creative way to adapt this tradition for a contemporary American neighborhood context! Thank you so much, Dixie, for sharing this and especially the beautiful printable!
I don't think I know enough people who would be willing to do the outdoor version of this, but I love it! I love the indoor version too. What I wonder is why the adults don't like hot dogs. :)
The problem was that we only had one crock pot full of hotdogs, so we let the kids have them. There was crying and wailing from those children who did not get hot dogs! But I learned my lesson...all the potlucks that I have arranged since then for that particular group (it's our outdoor playgroup) have been designated "Hot Dog Feasts." I generally now make sure there are 80-100 hot dogs!!
I think you could do it indoors just fine!! Think of how cozy and sparkly it could all be, with a fire lit, and candles around, and cookies and warm drinks before and after...
Dixie!! I finally found the time to read this and am so thrilled I did! I've never heard of Lessons & Carols tradition but my goodness it sounds amazing! I love your spin on it, gathering the community together and walking around and making it active. The children who are there are truly blessed. They may not think much of it now but I'm sure as they grow up they will look back on the communities Lessons & Carlols tradition with joy. I have got to find or start something like this. Thank you so much for the printout program! That's so helpful. Also, I had no clue that decorating for Advent was even a thing but I love that idea. And I too was guilty of complaining about the Christmas Creep until I had kids. Now, I get so excited for Christmas and for the time I get to spend with them in celebration of the birth of our Lord.
I am so happy you enjoyed it, Daniel! Lessons & Carols is truly so special! I hope you'll try it with the printout, even just indoors with your family or yours and another family or two!
It's funny, my kids really enjoy Advent and love having the Advent decor. It's become second nature to them; all of us experience a sense of surprise when we walk into a fully-Christmassed home in early December now (not because it's *wrong* to decorate then, but because we're so used to our own tradition of Advent decor!). I really love it, and it helps keep things calm and focused on prayer and such as we approach Christmas. The frenzy really doesn't happen until the last few days before the holiday, and then it is so fun.
But let me not forget to mention one of the best things about Advent decor: *it also works for Lent!* So on Ash Wednesday, we pull out the purple again and it makes for such a nice rhythm.
the printout is beautiful! What a gift -- thank you!
Thank you, Meredith! I made the selections but the formatting is all the beautiful work of our Editor-in-Chief, Matt Giambrone.
BTW, I still owe you a book! I will get to that before Monday, I promise!! My brain and schedule got really overfull in the past few weeks!
He did an amazing job! I'm excited to learn some new Advent songs. All is well on the book front! It would be awesome to have it before Christmas.
Yes! I will order it later today!
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.
Yay, a kindred spirit! I remember this being so meaningful to me as a child, and I've been so blessed to expand these traditions with my own kids. Christmas Eve is actually my eldest's favorite day of the year--even better than Christmas morning!
What a beautiful idea for a community service. I’m bookmarking this page and hope to be able to possibly implement this with some community folks next year.
And I love the thought of purposely decorating for advent. Such great ideas and inspiration here.
Thank you, Derek! I'm glad you enjoyed it. We were on a day trip yesterday so today is our big Advent decorating day! Luckily, my kids are old enough to help instead of "help" with these things now!
Dixie, my heart sighed as I read this piece - and thank you for the glorious printable! My wheels are turning, thinking about how we could do this on our road. As we chatted about previously...I love outdoor celebrations this time of year!
Thank you! Yes, there's really something about embracing the winter that changes the whole feel of this season!
What a beautiful and creative way to adapt this tradition for a contemporary American neighborhood context! Thank you so much, Dixie, for sharing this and especially the beautiful printable!
I'm glad you liked it, Catie! It really feels so good to go out on a walk like this in the dark in Advent, with Scripture and music.
I don't think I know enough people who would be willing to do the outdoor version of this, but I love it! I love the indoor version too. What I wonder is why the adults don't like hot dogs. :)
The problem was that we only had one crock pot full of hotdogs, so we let the kids have them. There was crying and wailing from those children who did not get hot dogs! But I learned my lesson...all the potlucks that I have arranged since then for that particular group (it's our outdoor playgroup) have been designated "Hot Dog Feasts." I generally now make sure there are 80-100 hot dogs!!
I think you could do it indoors just fine!! Think of how cozy and sparkly it could all be, with a fire lit, and candles around, and cookies and warm drinks before and after...
Dixie!! I finally found the time to read this and am so thrilled I did! I've never heard of Lessons & Carols tradition but my goodness it sounds amazing! I love your spin on it, gathering the community together and walking around and making it active. The children who are there are truly blessed. They may not think much of it now but I'm sure as they grow up they will look back on the communities Lessons & Carlols tradition with joy. I have got to find or start something like this. Thank you so much for the printout program! That's so helpful. Also, I had no clue that decorating for Advent was even a thing but I love that idea. And I too was guilty of complaining about the Christmas Creep until I had kids. Now, I get so excited for Christmas and for the time I get to spend with them in celebration of the birth of our Lord.
I am so happy you enjoyed it, Daniel! Lessons & Carols is truly so special! I hope you'll try it with the printout, even just indoors with your family or yours and another family or two!
It's funny, my kids really enjoy Advent and love having the Advent decor. It's become second nature to them; all of us experience a sense of surprise when we walk into a fully-Christmassed home in early December now (not because it's *wrong* to decorate then, but because we're so used to our own tradition of Advent decor!). I really love it, and it helps keep things calm and focused on prayer and such as we approach Christmas. The frenzy really doesn't happen until the last few days before the holiday, and then it is so fun.
But let me not forget to mention one of the best things about Advent decor: *it also works for Lent!* So on Ash Wednesday, we pull out the purple again and it makes for such a nice rhythm.