Our culture starts to celebrate Christmas at best at midnight after Thanksgiving, but more and more at midnight after Halloween. However, in the Catholic Church, we do not start the Christmas season until the evening of December 24. Instead, we have a four-week preparation time leading up to Christmas called Advent, which begins on the Sunday closest to St. Andrew's Day, celebrated on November 30th. In the Catholic Church, the Christmas season then continues into January, until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. In fact, in an older Catholic tradition, Christmas celebrations didn't end until Candlemas, which is February 2.
In this article, we will explore how we can reconnect with the original purpose of the Advent season and how we can reintroduce Advent customs developed in the Catholic Church throughout the centuries, around the world. Let us rediscover how we can celebrate Advent in the Catholic way.
Reclaiming the Focus of Advent
The first step is to intentionally reconnect with the original focus of Advent, which is threefold:
• Preparing for the liturgical celebration of the birth of Christ, the incarnation of God.
• Becoming spiritually purified so that we can be more fully opened to the presence of Christ in our daily lives.
• Preparing ourselves and the world for the Second Coming of Christ.
When we enter into the Advent season with this focus, the many different Advent traditions fall into place naturally.
Advent Traditions
Advent Wreath:
One of the most beloved Advent traditions is the Advent wreath, made of evergreen boughs, with four candles – three purple and one rose. On the first Sunday of Advent, you light one purple candle. On the second Sunday, you light two. On the third Sunday, you light the first two purple ones and the rose one. Priests usually wear rose colored vestments on the third Sunday of Advent, which is known as Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin word for rejoice. We are rejoicing because we are halfway to Christmas. On the fourth Sunday of Advent, you light all four candles. The increasing light of the candles symbolizes that the coming of Christ, who is the light of the world, is closer and closer.
If you do not have a custom of praying with your family at home each day, Advent is a great time to start. Gather around the Advent wreath each night, light the appropriate number of Candles, and say some prayers. Once you start in Advent, it is easier to continue with the evening prayers the rest of the year.
The Jesse Tree:
The name of the Jesse tree references the biblical prophecy that the Messiah will come in the line of Jesse, the father of the great King David (Isaiah 11:1-4). This hands-on Advent custom uses a small tree or a specially designed display board to trace our biblical history leading up to Jesus. Each night of Advent you add an ornament representing a biblical figure or event preparing the way for the coming of the Lord. You can order a Jesse Tree kit with ornaments online, or you can make them yourself if you are good at crafts. If you set up your Christmas tree already at the beginning of Advent, you can also add the Jesse Tree ornaments to you Christmas tree, though it might be fun to have a separate Jesse Tree corner.
As you add each ornament, you can read a few verses from the Bible corresponding to the symbol on the ornament of the day. Some premade ornaments will come with the relevant Scripture verses inscribed on the back. You can also find online guides for which passage to use with which symbol, as well as books that include the readings with reflections.
Advent Calendar:
You can find a variety of Advent calendars in different places, both Catholic and secular stores and online. Advent Calendars typically start on December 1 and go through Christmas Day. Each day, you open a door, which leads you to some sort of surprise. Some calendars provide a chocolate for each day. Others might offer a toy. If you have children, you could also have 24 gift bags for each child, letting them open one each day as the Advent season unfolds.
Some Advent calendars have a grown-up theme, like one that offers a different type of beer for every day of Advent. While such a calendar is necessarily inherently wrong, we do need to be careful not to turn the custom of the Advent calendar into something sacrilegious. By contrast, the more spiritually focused Advent calendars will reveal a new Scripture passage, a blessing, or some other meaningful saying as you open up the door each day. If you have kids, the chocolate or toy calendars can be a fun tradition that can help them look forward to the Advent season. However, whatever kind of calendar you end up using, open each door in the context of an Advent prayer for that day.
Set Up Your Nativity Set in Stages:
You can start setting up your Nativity set at the beginning of Advent, but don't put everything out at once. Do it in stages, as a way of symbolizing that we haven't yet arrived at Christmas, but are gradually drawing near. For example, set out the animals the first week. Then add Mary and Joseph the second week. Add the angels the third week. Add the shepherds the fourth week.
Wait until Christmas Eve to place the baby Jesus in the manger. Some churches offer a Bambinelli blessing during Advent, usually on Gaudate Sunday, when parishioners are encouraged to bring the baby Jesus figure from their Nativity set to church for a blessing by the priest. If your parish doesn't celebrate this custom, perhaps you could ask your pastor to consider offering this blessing.
Finally, wait until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 (sometimes celebrated on the nearest Sunday) to set out the three wise men. As mentioned above, traditionally Catholics would keep celebrating Christmas until February 2. Even if you put away all the other decorations by then, leave your Nativity set out until February 2 to rekindle our connection with this older tradition.
Preparing the Christmas Tree:
Christians use the Christmas tree as a symbol of the coming of Christ into the world. The many lights on the tree symbolize Christ, the light of the world, bringing light into our darkness. The evergreen tree symbolizes rebirth, renewal, and eternal life in Christ. The triangular shape of the tree is seen as referring to the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The ornaments on the tree represent Christ's gift of grace to us, as well as our worship being offered to God.
Traditionally, the Christmas tree was set up on Christmas Eve and was left up until the end of the Christmas season - a custom that is still observed by many countries. Done this way, the growing light of the Advent wreath culminates in the illuminated splendor of the Christmas tree. But even if we don't wait until the evening of December 24 to set up our tree, we can still give an Advent dimension to the process by adding the ornaments in stages, so that the tree is not fully decked out until Christmas or closely before it.
As we prepare the tree, we should also bear in mind the symbolism that Christians associate with this custom, and we should avoid ornaments that would take us in a different direction. Once our tree is set up, we should also bless the tree, thereby reminding ourselves of the sacred purpose for which we have set it up. Most priests probably do not have enough time to bless each Christmas tree in their parish, but Catholics are welcome to bless their own tree. You could use the following prayer:
Lord God, we pray that you bless this Christmas tree,
bless all who behold it and all who celebrate the birth of our Savior in its presence.
May the evergreen branches remind us of the eternal life we receive through Christ.
May the shape of the tree help to focus our minds on the Holy Trinity,
in whose infinite love we hope to dwell for all eternity.
May the pleasing sight of the lights always lift our hearts to Christ, the true Light of the World.
May the beautiful ornaments bedecking the tree and the presents underneath the branches
be a symbol for us of Christ's great gift of himself to us
and of the offering we are called to make of our lives to our Lord.
May this Christmas tree help us to grow ever closer to Christ our God,
through our Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
We offer our prayer in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Amen
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Making Sundays Special:
Christians are meant to observe Sundays as a holy day of rest. Our focus on these days should be spiritual. We should avoid work, chores, shopping, and secular forms of entertainment whenever possible. Needless to say, our society inundates us with many things to draw us away from the traditional observance of Sunday. Advent would be a good time for all of us to take steps toward reclaiming Sunday as a holy day.
After Mass, spend some time genuinely resting. Then, if possible, spend some time with family or friends. Have a nice dinner together, which could be prepped the day before, in order to cut down on the amount of work that would need to be done on Sunday. Intentionally connect the dinner with the celebration of Advent. Place the Advent wreath in the middle of the table, with the appropriate number of candles lit, and start the dinner with an Advent prayer or Scripture passage, such as the Gospel reading for that Sunday.
Celebrate the Feasts during Advent:
The Catholic liturgical calendar offers a rich variety of saints to celebrate during the year. Advent is no exception. The two most prominent saints celebrated during the Advent season are St. Nicholas (Dec 6) and St. Lucy (Dec 13), both of whom have specific traditions associated with them. Furthermore, two major Marian feast days also fall during Advent: The Immaculate Conception (Dec 8) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec 12). Advent is also enriched by various cultural traditions, such as the Filipino Simbang Gabi and the Mexican Las Posadas celebrations. Take part in these various festivities in your community, if they are offered. If not, you have a good chance of finding some of these customs in neighboring Catholic churches.
Reclaim the Religious Roots of Santa:
Our secular culture has created an alternative narrative regarding Christmas focusing on the figure of Santa Claus, rather than Jesus. But Santa was originally St. Nicholas, a fourth century bishop and Catholic saint. St. Nicholas developed a reputation for gift giving when he snuck into the house of an impoverished family to leave money for them. He also famously defended the doctrine of the divinity of Christ at the Council of Nicaea. St. Nicholas spent his whole life seeking to bring people to Christ. He would certainly have agreed with the phrase "Jesus is the reason for the season." So let us honor the original Santa Claus by remembering him as a devout servant of Christ, rather than as a mythical figure of winter celebrations.
As mentioned above, the feast of St. Nicholas is on December 6. Traditionally, Santa was not considered to bring presents at Christmas, but on his feast day. In many countries, children (and even adults) leave their shoes out on the night of December 5 and in the morning, they find a bundle of gifts, usually chocolates and some other delicacies. Introducing this custom is a great way to return to the roots of who Santa is. We can then refocus the gift giving at Christmas on Christ.
Refocusing Christmas Parties:
Needless to say, most Christmas parties happen during Advent. While it would be hard to avoid all Christmas parties during the Advent season, we should at least ensure that the parties have a religious character. We can do so by doing some of the following: lighting the candles of the Advent wreath together during the party, singing Christmas carols, reading together from Scripture, displaying religious decorations, wearing clothing with religiously focused Christmas themes, and including a holy card or some other religious items in our Christmas gifts. But ideally, we should schedule our Christmas parties for the Christmas season, which, as mentioned above, goes from Christmas Eve until mid-January, or, according to an older custom, even until February 2.
The Penitential Dimension of Advent
Historically, the season of Advent had more of a penitential character, much like Lent. We would do well to recapture some of the penitential aspect of the season. Penitential practices can help us to free ourselves from sinful habits and to refocus our lives on the love of God. Through penitential practices, we can also atone for our sins from the past. Below are some suggestions for penitential practices during Advent:
• If you are not already abstaining from meat on Fridays, then do so on the Fridays of Advent. Historically, Catholics refrained from eating meat on all Fridays, not just during Lent. The popular assumption in the Church is that the Friday abstinence was abrogated after the Second Vatican Council. But that is not true. Catholics are either to abstain from meat on Fridays or perform some other penitential act, but most Catholics do neither. Advent would be a great time to refocus on regular Friday abstinence from meat, which we could then continue the rest of the year.
• Commit to having only three meals a day, with no snacking in between on certain days or during the whole of Advent.
• Give up a food or drink you especially love from the beginning of Advent until Christmas Eve.
• Fast one day each week during Advent on bread and water. If one full day does not seem possible, fast for portions of one or more days.
• Observe the traditional Ember Days during the Advent Season. The Ember Days were traditional fast days on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the feasts of St. Lucy (Dec 13), Ash Wednesday, Pentecost, and the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept 14). Though the Ember Days are no longer officially a part of the Catholic calendar, Catholics may observe them privately.
Making Advent More Prayerful
Advent is a great time to get into the habit of more regular prayer. If we establish a custom of prayer over four weeks, we have a good chance of continuing beyond the season. Below are some suggestions for making Advent more prayerful:
• If you don’t already pray the Rosary, commit to praying one full Rosary every day during Advent. If that does not seem possible, then at first commit to saying one decade of the Rosary each day.
• Follow the Mass readings of each day of the Advent season. You can find various reflections on the daily readings, such as those of Bishop Barron.
• You might also follow another program of Scripture readings designed for Advent. You can find various sets, often with commentary.
• Read more Scripture in some other way, for example, by reading one chapter from the Gospels each day.
• Commit to praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet each day during Advent.
• If you are married, pray a blessing over your spouse every day during Advent, preferably while he or she is present, but you can do so in their absence too. Pray to the guardian angel of your spouse for help to be fully open to the love of God in his or her life.
• If you have kids, pray a blessing over your children every day during Advent, preferably while they are present, but you can do so in their absence too. Pray to the guardian angels of your children to help them be fully open to the love of God in their lives.
• Pray for all of your family members. If you are experiencing tension or alienation in your family, pray for them all the more. Offer the spiritual fruits of the penitential works you are doing during Advent for their well-being and the healing of the relationship. In the Catholic Church, we also believe that suffering we experience has spiritual fruits when we unite it with the suffering of Christ. Offer the spiritual fruits of any suffering your family might be causing you for their well-being as well and for the healing of divisions in your family.
• Pray the Christmas Anticipation Prayer, also known as the Christmas Novena Prayer during the season of Advent. Traditionally, this prayer is recited fifteen times a day from November 30 to Christmas Eve.
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment
In which the Son of God was born
Of the most pure Virgin Mary,
at midnight,
in Bethlehem,
in the piercing cold.
In that hour vouchsafe, O my God,
to hear my prayer and grant my desires,
[here mention your request]
through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ,
and of His blessed Mother. Amen.
Engage in Good Works
As a part of making Advent more spiritual, make sure that your spiritual commitment shows in your actions too. For example:
• Give alms.
• Perform works of service for family, friends, or strangers.
• Think of ways that you can continue these works of service beyond the Christmas season, during the months when charitable organizations get less attention from the public.
• Help kids get excited about undertaking good works by doing one of the following:
1) For each good deed they do, they get to put a piece of candy on the Christmas tree as decoration. Some individually wrapped chocolates for example are easy to attach with ornament hooks. On Christmas Eve, they can start taking off all the candy and eating it.
2) Prepare an empty wooden box as the manger into which the baby Jesus will be placed on Christmas Eve. Whenever the kids do a good deed, they get to put a piece of straw into the manger. If they do a lot of good works during Advent, the baby Jesus will have a very comfortable manger.
Spiritual Cleansing
As we get closer to God, our spiritual enemies will work extra hard to try to derail our progress. They especially want to draw us away from moments in which we can experience the grace of God in a powerful way. We can expect intensified spiritual attacks during Advent. Therefore, it is especially important to use the time of Advent to turn away from sin and to seek the healing power of Christ to cleanse us from negative spiritual influences. I suggest the following spiritual practices.
• Examination of Conscience: Reflect daily on ways in which you have fallen away from Christ and pray for the grace of complete repentance.
• Confession: Go to Confession at least once during the Advent season.
• Say spiritual binding prayers to cast out evil spirits that are attacking you and your family. For example, say aloud daily: “I repent of (name sin), and I close all doors that I may have opened through this sin. In the Holy Name of Jesus, I bind, rebuke, and cast out all demons that are attacking me and my family. I invite in the Holy Spirit into my family, into our hearts, our homes, and our lives. I invoke the protection of our Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the holy angels, especially our guardian angels, and all the saints, especially the martyrs who shed their blood for the Lord.”
Drawing Closer to the Sacraments
The Seven Sacraments are at the heart of the Catholic life. Use the time of Advent to draw closer to each of the Sacraments either through your participation or through your prayers.
• Make a commitment to attending Mass more often than just on Sunday during Advent.
• On days when you cannot attend Mass, unite yourself spiritually with the Eucharist.
• Go to Adoration at least once a week during Advent. If possible, turn this time into a Holy Hour, when you spend a full hour praying before the Blessed Sacrament.
• Remember that each Mass is like Christmas, because during each Mass, Christ comes to us through his Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.
• As mentioned above, go to Confession at least once during the Advent season.
• During the Advent season, reflect on your baptism and Confirmation. Reflect on the following questions: “How would my life be different if I had not been baptized and Confirmed? What blessings have I received through my baptism and Confirmation? How can I share those blessings with others?”
• If you are married, focus on some form of marriage enrichment with your spouse during Advent. Assuming your spouse agrees, you could do the following:
1) Get an Advent calendar that has room for things to be placed inside. For every odd day on the calendar, place a small note inside in which you compliment your spouse somehow. For every even day, your spouse would then put inside the calendar a note complimenting you in some way. For each day until Christmas, you read the note that was placed inside. For Christmas Day, you would each place a note of compliment inside the calendar. This way, the whole Advent season can become a time of bonding.
2) Each night during Advent, both you and your spouse each place a new ornament on the Christmas tree, and as you do, you each say something positive about the other. If you have children, you can adapt these exercises to involve them too.
• Pray for a priest by name (or several priests) during the Advent season, as well as for vocations to the priesthood. Pray for all of our ordained ministers and the strengthening and growth of the Church.
• Pray for all those who are ill in body, mind, or spirit, especially those who do not have access to the Anointing of the Sick for whatever reason. Pray in a special way for those who are struggling with loss or grief during a time when the world around them is so festive.
Advent Resources:
Resources for Liturgy and Prayer for the Seasons of Advent and Christmas
Blessing of a Christmas Tree from USCCB
The major feasts of Advent
The Tradition of the Jesse Tree
The Jesse Tree
Advent Foods for Feast Days and Everything Else
Recipes for December ~ Month Dedicated to the Divine Infancy
How to Celebrate Advent Like a Catholic
The History of Advent
Resources for Liturgy and Prayer for the Seasons of Advent and Christmas
Catholic Apostolic Center Advent Resources
Photo credit: Advent Wreath in St. Mary's Cathedral in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Zoltan Abraham (c) 2017