Advent Family Traditions

All this month I'll be posting about resources to help you live, learn, and celebrate the coming season of Advent. 

Each year, my parish CCD program holds a Family Advent Night after an evening Mass for all of the families with school aged kids.  We always have food and fellowship, as well as Advent themed activities for the kids.  This year, since I have been thinking a lot about Liturgical Living, I decided to work on setting the families up with some resources to help them live out the Season together.  When we gather on the first weekend of Advent after the Vigil Mass, the families will visit three stations with parents and children together creating and taking home items that will help them celebrate.

One station will be about celebrating the Feast Days of Advent.  The handout they'll take home lists many Saints from December, but I highlight six Saints with brief bios and a couple of ideas to celebrate them.  The little introductions are perfect to read over the dinner table, and I tried to give ideas that are pretty easy and don't necessarily require a lot of prep, such as eating dinner by candle light on St. Lucy's Feast Day or planning to have Mexican food on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  At this station, the families will get a brief run down of the featured Saints and will sample some tasty foods.


Click here for the Advent Feast Days booklet:

 Another station will celebrate the Advent wreath.  Just to make sure each family is ready with fresh candles and a wreath for the season, they will be working together to assemble and decorate a wreath they can take home as a family.  While they make their wreath extra special, they will learn a bit about the themes of the four Sundays of Advent.  Their take home handout includes a Scripture verse from each of the Sunday readings, a short prayer, and a connecting question that could be talked about over dinner, before bed, or on the drive to Mass.

Click here for the Advent Wreath booklet:

***Update: Here are versions of the Advent Wreath Booklet that include specific Bible verses for the Sundays in Advent for all three Reading Cycles:

Advent Wreath Booklet Year A

Advent Wreath Booklet Year B

Advent Wreath Booklet Year C

***Update: Here is the Advent Wreath Booklet in Spanish, specifically for Year A, but could be reused.

Corona de Adviento Tradiciones de la familia Año A*

The third station will celebrate that Advent is the beginning of the Liturgical Year.  The kids will be setting up their own Liturgical calendars (details in this post) and receiving a Liturgical Year Coloring Book.  The handout gives a run down of the six Liturgical Seasons and how they work together to retell the story of Christ's Life.

Click here for the Liturgical Year booklet:

I'm excited to help equip our families with these easy tools to make Advent more meaningful.  What are some of your family plans for celebrating Advent this year?