Our Advent Plan: Books & Candles

If I had to sum up our Advent plans in two words, those would be books and candles. My head has been spinning with all of the beautiful ideas that have been bombarding my social media feed since October. But, when it came down to what was most essential to our family, I realized it was using the time intentionally and simply to celebrate the advent (coming) of Jesus. That translated practically to reading lots of books together and carving out a rhythm of pausing to reflect on the sacred. With two little boys, that pause and reflection time will be brief and it will involve fire (candles!). Read on!

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First, the books:

We’ll be reading All Creation Waits in the morning, and The Best Gift Ever Given in the evenings. Each is a short selection- 1-2 pages. All Creation Waits is nature themed and the readings are not religious in nature. The Best Gift explores the gifts God has given us, including His promises, grace, prayer, music, wisdom, prophecies, and of course Jesus.

I love the classic artwork and text included in Christmas Is Coming! from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This will be our easel book– it will sit on a cookbook easel on our kitchen table to be viewed during mealtimes. (I’ve been reading a lot more during meals because my boys have been just so LOUD and silly and a story is worth the sacrifice of cold food for Mama!)

We’ll be having a weekly poetry teatime with these Christmas themed poetry teatime books (see my booklist here).

We’ll be reading Otto and the Secret Light of Christmas as our longer book- it’s 108 pages with colored illustrations. I haven’t read it yet, but I have high hopes. It’s beautiful and sounds really darling.

We’ll be listening to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever as our audiobook selection. In previous years, we have listened to Winterfrost and Cinnamon Bear(which is a radio show from the 1930s) and I have such cozy memories of listening to those!

And, I have a h-u-g-e pile of picture books we’ll enjoy interspersed whenever. I really really love Christmas books so I’ve collected many over the years at used book sales, and of course I have my library cards maxed out. I have tons of Christmas books listed on my blog: For Nature Lovers, With Meat on the Bones, For a Two Minute Attention Span, About Jesus, Gingerbread Stories, and Nutcracker Stories.

Now, the fire:

One of my many takeaways from Living the Season Well: Reclaiming Christmas was to hinge our time around the sacredness of advent. Traditionally, this means following a schedule for those four Sundays before Christmas, including lighting a candle, contemplating the “watchwords” (wait/prepare/rejoice/love), and reading a scripture passage. I purchased some beeswax candle rolling sheets, so the kids will make our candles during “decorating day”! They are pumped for this, and so am I! We’ll also be learning the hymn O Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, which I’ll simply play each week with a different version through YouTube.

For Mama:

I’ll be reading the novel Giver of Wonders; the devotional Hallelujah by Cindy Rollins which follows Handel’s Messiah; knitting a special surprise gift for someone on my list; and likely resting my reading voice with some tea & honey 😉

Younger Kiddos (Christmases Past):

When my kids were younger, we loved doing The Donkey in the Living Room– a scavenger hunt type activity where kids search for, unwrap, and read about a each character in the nativity scene. We also enjoyed going through the advent reading plan with The Jesus Storybook Bible. I also recommend the classic paper chain countdown for kiddos who are still conceptualizing how long the wait till Christmas will be!

What are your plans?? Connect with me in the comments or on my Instagram or Facebook accounts!

Merry Christmas!