Pardon me, Sir, but have you seen my Advent?

Ad-vent (n.)

1. a coming into place, view, or being; arrival: the advent of the holiday season
2. (initial capital letter): the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.
3. a Liturgical season chiefly overlooked by most retailers.

I have a love/hate relationship with Advent.

On the one hand, what a beautiful, holy season!

But on the other hand, how garish!

Know, friend, that I am determined to not let this post get too grinchy. You must know how I feel though, with all the television ads and holiday promotions and a sense that we must buy buy buy! I feel a little like Our Lord in the temple, trying to hold back the onslaught of marketing with a whip crudely fashioned out of Sunday paper circulars. It’s just too much!

Starting in mid-November and on any given day, there are sure to be several inches worth of catalogues in the mailbox. All because of that one smug year when I had my Christmas shopping done (i.e. ordered) by All Saints’ Day! I am now on as many mailing lists as there are saints on the calendar.

Really, it’s annoying because there are not enough hours in the day to go through all these catalogues. So—ploof!—into the recycling bin they go. And I have to be sneaky about it, ‘lest my children intercept me and spend the remainder of their day poring over all the high-gloss, must-have amusements and squawking loudly when anyone tries to take their “book” away.

It’s annoying. And insidious.

And it’s not, believe it or not, the real purpose of this post, which is the loveliness of Advent.

Throughout this most beautiful and holy of seasons, (I do think I prefer it to that other purple season), I make a deliberate choice to hang on tightly to the cause of my joy, whose name is Emmanuel. I need not become a bitter little woman with my spiritual undies all in a bunch. If you’ll pardon the expression. This means fostering an ever-humble, ever-joyful attitude throughout this holy season. Mary will show me how.

It also means that I must combat on a daily basis the double threat of consumerism and secularism. Again, I don’t want to be a Grinch here, but I don’t want to be a glutton either. As always, I shall strive for balance. Anxiety is not compatible with the spirit of Advent!

So here we go then (are you still with me?)–a list of some of the ways that this little Minnesotan family observes Advent.

I. Of course, there are a ton of awesome Feast Days. St. Nicholas, the Immaculate Conception, St. Juan Diego, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Lucy…there are many wonderful ways to incorporate these feasts into your day and you need only go on-line to find them.

II. This one’s the hard one: I try valiantly to fast from treats. In a good year we do quite a bit of baking; in an even better year, most of it goes into the freezer until Christmas! I am trying hard to deny my sweet tooth (and the desire, say, to have cream in my coffee), in order to really know the joy of Christmas. Having said this, though, I do try to keep on hand a nice bit of cheese and some fancy crackers, should an unexpected guest knock at my door. Sam’s Club has a great wine selection, by the way! And then, once you’ve welcomed your guest as such, you can invite him or her to share in your Advent devotions.

III. We hang our Jesse tree right away, which, come to think of it, is the whole point of a Jesse tree! In any case, we use the same felt tree and symbols as Katherine in Texas, who beautifully explains the Jesse Tree tradition here. I will add that I cannot underemphasize the importance of teaching our children these symbols. We often make a game of it when we visit a new church–as in, who can tell me what that anchor symbolizes? Like Katherine, we do the biblical readings for each symbol, and like Katherine we have been reading this book:

and really enjoy it.

IV. We put up our Christmas tree on Gaudete Sunday. The children start asking for it much earlier, and I enjoy tormenting them–um, I mean I enjoy the delightful anticipation that our waiting fosters.

V. We have always done an Advent wreath, lighting the candle(s) nightly and saying the readings. I have been greatly inspired by the many beautiful Advent logs you ladies have been making, though, and after this week’s trip to Michaels’ craft store for supplies, I hope to establish a new Advent tradition with our family.

VI. This Advent I would like to learn some beautiful old hymns as a family. I mentioned earlier that over Thanksgiving I went to a daily Mass with my mom & dad. Their priest is a brand new baby priest, freshly ordained this past June. How he could sing! I found my thoughts wandering back to his childhood and to the beautiful formation in Christ he must have had. That, or he did some fast catching-up at Seminary! Either way, I thought, “What can I do to make this Advent magical, mystical and inspiring for my children?”

VII. And finally, one of the last things that the kids and I do during Advent is we make our biannual trip to our favorite charity, Joseph’s Coat. This little store is designed especially with the poor in mind; everything is free for those who are in need. The owner Liz is one of the loveliest ladies I’ve ever met. She’s holiness, humility and joy all rolled up into one happy energetic little ball. And she is always so radiant when we pull up bearing several large (nontransparent!) garbage bags stuffed with gifts.

By focusing on the spiritual throughout Advent, I find, all the incidental stuff falls into place. It really does. Note that a good planner also assists the grace of God, however! Your Advent planner is the place where you will assemble your gift lists, feast day devotions and crafts, recipes for cookies, bars and goodies-of-all-sorts, and of course, your holiday menu.

I am not an organized person by nature, so for me a planner is important. Sure, I can put together a good party, but it is usually by the seat of my proverbial pants (proverbial because I tend toward skirt-wearing). To each her own, though, and with the chill in the air I’m thinking I need a good comfy pair of trousers! Because there’s beauty all around us and we must focus on this beauty to celebrate Advent—indoors and out-of-doors and each and every day of it. (There’s a great discussion going on at the Real Learning forum about just this thing.)

Footnote: (because I just can’t resist it): It can be frustrating, this tendency of our culture to celebrate like mad throughout all of Advent and then ditch the tree come December 26th. May we combat all of this with a spirit of prayerful preparation and as many small sacrifices as we can muster. And then, come Christmas Eve, we will truly rejoice to welcome Him, He Who is the cause of our lasting joy.

Have a blessed Advent!