Advent & Christmas
Centering our Calendars on Christ
[Editor’s Note: This content was presented by Andrea Hoglund on November 13 as part of a two-part course on the church calendar.]
While our culture launches the “holiday season” with Black Friday sales and a frenzy of purchasing, the church offers an alternative calendar, inviting us to slow down and remember.
By orienting the year around the story of redemption, the church seasons center our calendars on Christ in a world of competing stories and calendars. Through the colors, candles and catechisms of the church seasons, we hope to provoke the question “Why do we do this?” and then to be shaped by the answer, “Because Jesus did this.”
Beginning the fourth Sunday before Christmas, Advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year. Contrary to popular culture, Advent is not a season of celebration and consumerism, but one of waiting and preparation. We remember the long years of darkness, waiting for the promised Messiah, the light of the world. And we look forward with hope to the day he will come again and make all things new. Traditionally, Advent is a season of fasting in preparation for twelve days of Christmas feasting in honor of Jesus’ birth.
What does it look like to bring the church calendar into the home? How do we deepen redemptive memory through our traditions and practices?
Here are a few guiding thoughts and some practical suggestions.
Intention, Integrity and Imagination
Intention
We need to have a plan, and that requires some planning ahead. No one throws a great birthday party without some forethought, and following the church calendar is no different. Thankfully we don’t do this alone. The church community prepares and plans together, including sharing resources, like the Cities Church catechisms for Advent and Christmas.
Integrity
Maintain seasonal integrity. Our practices need to actually reflect the events in Jesus' life and ministry marked by the season. So, putting the “elf on the shelf” is not actually observing Advent. It’s not a wrong thing to do, but it isn’t Advent. Because it lacks seasonal integrity, it won’t provide the redemptive shaping we’re aiming for.
Imagination
Beyond that, use your imagination. There’s a lot of room for creativity. As long as we’re practicing seasonal integrity, there isn’t really a wrong way to keep the seasons. When it comes to creating long-term, family-shaping practices, consider the following three elements:
Tradition, Repetition, and Sensation
Tradition
Thankfully, we don’t need to start from scratch. The church already has ancient traditions for each season that are thoughtful and simple. Start with these traditions and then shape them to fit your family, the ages of your children or your season of life.
Repetition
Avoid doing something completely different from year to year. Tradition implies repetition. Repetition is powerful for shaping us. Look for ways to include repetition within the season and unique to the season.
The Cities Church call to worship is a great example of this. The same call to worship is repeated each week throughout each church season, but each season has its own call to worship. The repetition gives shape to the season, to our memory, and to our hearts.
Sensation
Practices that involve the five senses cause sense memory to run deep. This is something that broader culture does really well. Big events and holidays have their own sounds, smells, tastes and sights. Think about the 4th of July – red, white and blue, barbecue, pie, fireworks, music – all the senses are involved in the celebration. We want to create something similar for the church seasons. Here are a few examples:
Sound: playlists specific to each season
Sight: seasonal colors, decorations, lights
Taste: certain foods that are made each season (or not made, if it’s a fast)
Smell: candles lit and extinguished, flowers and food
Feel: fasting, feasting, postures (kneeling), and even weather
Keeping these elements in mind, here are some real-life ideas for Advent and Christmas.
Advent
The following ideas keep in mind that Advent is distinct from Christmas, and Advent is a fast, not a feast. Their aim is to help mark the season with a posture of hopeful waiting and preparation.
Begin: Do the same thing to begin the season each year (like lighting Advent candles) and begin on the right day – the fourth Sunday before Christmas. (December 1st is not necessarily the first day of the season!)
Advent Wreath: This is one of the older Advent traditions. An Advent wreath has four candles, often 3 purple and one pink, around one central white candle. Purple represents royalty, pink represents joy, and white represents purity. Sequentially, the four candles represent hope, love, joy (pink), and peace. Each week, another candle is lit, symbolizing increasing light as we draw near to Jesus' birth. The central candle – the Christ candle – is lit on Christmas morning and throughout the twelve days of Christmas.
Christmas Tree: Put up the tree on the first Sunday of Advent, but don’t decorate it. Add the lights on the second Sunday. Add a garland, the star or angel on the third Sunday, and add the rest of the ornaments on the fourth Sunday of Advent.
Nativity Scenes: Set up one (or more!) Nativity Scenes, including kid-friendly ones if you have young children. Keep Jesus hidden away somewhere until Christmas morning. Keep the wisemen hidden away until Epiphany (January 6).
Jesse Tree ornaments: The Jesse Tree ornaments walk through the story of redemption from creation to the birth of Jesus, with a Scripture reading accompanying each ornament, one for each day of December.
Music: Create a playlist for Advent that is different from your playlist for Christmas, with themes of waiting and anticipation in mind.
Sweets: Consider saving some baking (and eating) of cookies and treats for the Christmas season, rather than doing it all during Advent.
Recite: Use catechisms and liturgies that are unique to Advent, like the Cities Church catechism. Read the messianic prophecies throughout the season, maybe one each day.
Fast: Maybe there is something, a food or activity, that you want to refrain from in order to quiet your heart before Christmas.
We don’t want to do so many things that our marking of the season creates its own frenzy. Keeping the seasons should be a help, not a hindrance, to centering our hearts on Jesus. Don’t do everything, but don’t do nothing.
Christmas
Our celebration of Christmas should be a step up from Advent, a move from waiting to rejoicing, from fasting to feasting! And Christmas is a season, not a day. Here are some ideas for celebrating throughout the twelve days of Christmas.
Worship! Put baby Jesus into the manger in the nativity scene. Gather with the church if you have the opportunity!
Light the Christ Candle, and light it each day of the twelve days of Christmas.
Read the Christmas narrative in Luke 2, more than once throughout the season.
Sing Christmas songs instead of Advent songs. Make a playlist of songs for Christmas.
Gifts: Consider opening Christmas gifts gradually through the Christmas season, instead of all the gifts on the first day of Christmas.
Feast: Make something special each year on Christmas day, maybe a treat or favorite family meal. Make cookies and bring cookies to friends throughout the season.
Recite the Christmas catechism, and use a liturgy unique to Christmas.
Add more decorations to the home than you had during Advent, like fresh greens or a Christmas bouquet, and keep the decorations up throughout the Christmas season.
Play! Plan outings as a family, make gingerbread houses, visit friends, host a bonfire, play games, or sing carols with friends. Keep the celebration going.
End with Epiphany. Host a party with a King Cake on the twelfth night of Christmas or on Epiphany. Bring the wisemen into the nativity scene. Put away the Christmas decorations.
May God grant us to be shaped more into the image of our Savior as we inhabit the story of redemption in the new liturgical year.
Come, Lord Jesus!