Advent Traditions (for children)

There are lots of special traditions that have grown up around the Advent season. Below you'll find some of our favorite Advent traditions, with suggestions for how you can use them in your own home. You'll also find some fun Advent craft projects that you can do with your family and friends. Get out the glue, and get ready to have some fun!

The Advent wreath is one special way that we observe the season of Advent. You may have seen one in church (if you're a St. Luker, you're probably familiar with the big Advent Wreath we place in front of the altar in the main church at this time of year).

An Advent wreath looks a little like an ordinary Christmas wreath laid on its side. The difference is, the Advent wreath also has candles on it...usually four candles placed around the edge of the wreath, though some Advent wreaths also have a fifth candle in the middle. In the church, we light one candle on the first Sunday in Advent. The next Sunday, we light that candle, plus a second one. The third Sunday, we light the first two candles, plus a third one...and so on until Christmas Eve when all four candles, plus the fifth one in the center (the "Christmas Candle") are lighted.

An Advent wreath may have plain white candles, or it may have colored candles. If the candles are colored, the candles for the first, second and fourth Sundays are purple, which is the "liturgical" color of the Advent season (purple stands for penance in the church). The candle for the third Sunday is "rose" (a special shade of pinkish-purple), because it is lighted halfway through the Advent season, when we are starting to relax a little in anticipation of Christmas (this third Sunday is called "Gaudete" (gow-day-tay) Sunday. "Gaudete" is a Latin word meaning "joyful"). The center candle, if there is one, is white, which is the "liturgical" color for Christmas.

Many families enjoy having their own Advent wreath service at home on each Sunday during the season. You can buy Advent wreaths in many Christian stores, but it's very easy (and fun!) to make your own. Click on the links below to find instructions for making your own simple Advent wreath, as well as suggestions for a simple at-home Advent wreath lighting service.

REMEMBER! Candles are beautiful, but they can also be dangerous! Never light your Advent wreath unless an adult is with you, and never leave it burning unless someone is in the room.

Your previous webmasters discovered this Advent tradition at a Christmas bazaar at Christ The King Moravian Church here in Durham, NC. It seemed like such a wonderful way to remember "the reason for the season," that they decided to make it part of their family tradition.

An empty manger is placed in some prominent spot in the home (we have ours on the kitchen table). Next to the manger is a little bundle of "straw", which can be real straw, pine needles, or something similar. Each evening during this season, the family gets together to talk about the good things they've done for others during the day (for example, helping someone with his/her homework, writing a friendly note to someone who's feeling down, sharing your cookies with your sister, etc.). For every good deed done, the person who did the good deed gets to place one "straw" in the manger. On Christmas Eve, you place the Baby Jesus in the manger, on the soft bed you've made for him with your good deeds.

A Good Deeds Manger can be set up pretty simply by using an empty manger and Jesus figure from any Nativity scene, but it's also kind of fun to make your own (click below for printable instructions). Whichever you choose, it's a great way to focus on how we can "love our neighbors as ourselves."

Advent calendars are a very popular way of observing the Advent season. They can be very simple or very fancy...store bought or handmade. They come in many different shapes, sizes and types, but they all have one thing in common...something special to do for each day in Advent.

A common type of Advent calendar has little doors you can open with a picture, a quote or (if you're lucky) a treat inside. Another common type is made of cloth and has little pockets for each day of the season, which can be filled with treats, toys, and/or slips of paper with quotes or projects written on them. You will also see Advent calendars that look just like ordinary calendars at first glance, until you realize that they only have 25 days, and that each day is marked with a special way of remembering the season.

You can buy paper Advent calendars from many card shops and Christian stores. Cloth ones can often be found in toy stores, Christian stores, catalogs and church bazaars. Occasionally you can find beautiful wooden ones in specialty shops, in catalogs or at craft fairs. It's also very easy and fun to make your own (click below for instructions). Buy one or make it yourself...whichever you choose, we're sure you'll find the Advent calendar to be a fun and fruitful way of observing the Advent season.

A Jesse Tree is a special way of recalling the Biblical events that led to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. The tradition has its roots in a beautiful window in the cathedral in Chartres, in France, on which the story of Jesus unfolds "from the root of Jesse." Some churches make large and elaborate Jesse Trees during Advent...here's a simple way to make your own at home.

That there really was a Santa Claus? His name was Nicholas (nowadays we call him "St. Nicholas").He was a bishop of a place called "Myra." Nicholas was known for doing good deeds for people quietly, without their knowledge. He is called the patron saint of all children, and we celebrate his feast day on December 6.

In many European countries, children receive gifts from St. Nicholas on his feast day. Children in Holland are especially fond of St. Nicholas. On St. Nicholas Day, he comes to their homes (sometimes riding a white horse!), wearing his bishop's vestments and accompanied by a dark figure called "Black Piet." Good children receive gifts from the saint, while children who have been naughty receive a bundle of switches from "Black Piet."

When Dutch children came to America, they brought their St. Nicholas Day celebrations with them. The Dutch name for St. Nicholas is "Sinter Klaas," which is where we get "Santa Claus." Over the years, for various reasons (partially a Puritan suspicion of the observance of saints' feast days) the celebrations associated with St. Nicholas Day came to be associated with Christmas, and "Sinter Klaas" became firmly established as "Santa Claus."

That children in Hungary put their boots outside their doors on St. Nicholas Eve? Just as American children hang their stockings for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, Hungarian children place their boots or shoes outside the door on St. Nicholas Eve for the good saint to fill with gifts.

That children in Latin America get their presents from "El Niño"? If you lived in Mexico or Colombia, you would be looking forward to presents from "El Niño Jesus" (pronounced el nee-nyo hay-soos)...the baby Jesus. In Mexico, they also have a special celebration called "La Posada" (lah poh-sah-dah). Children chosen to represent the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph go from door to door, looking for a place to stay. When, finally, they are let in, they have a party and break a pinata! Many Latin American children can also look forward to gifts from "Los Tres Reyes Magos" (lohs trays ray-es mah-gos) -- The Three Kings (as in "We Three Kings of Orient Are"), who visit them on Epiphany Eve, January 5.

That the weather phenomenon known as "El Niño" is named for the Christ Child? It may seem odd to call something that can wreak so much havoc after Our Lord, but El Niño (el neen-yoh) isn't always a curse...to some it's a blessing. Fishermen in Latin America discovered that the warm currents that cause El Niño brought sardines to their nets...a valuable resource that was normally unavailable. Because El Niño reaches the Americas around Christmastime, the fisherman decided that the sardines were their Christmas gifts from the "El Niño Jesus" (el neen-yoh hay-soos).