What do you do during Advent?

VincentIII

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What do you do during Advent? Do you have an Advent calendar and the wreath with the four or five candles? Do you follow any prayer routines or do anything else specific to Advent?

My family didn't do anything for Advent. I've seen the calendars, but until recently didn't even know about the Advent wreath. I thought it was just a lead-up to Christmas.
 
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Albion

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What do you do during Advent? Do you have an Advent calendar and the wreath with the four or five candles? Do you follow any prayer routines or do anything else specific to Advent?

My family didn't do anything for Advent. I've seen the calendars, but until recently didn't even know about the Advent wreath. I thought it was just a lead-up to Christmas.
Yes, we have an Advent wreath. I do think that if you get into the meaning and spirit of Advent and perhaps also avail yourself of such as the Advent wreath, your appreciation of the Christmas season will be enhanced.
 
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Tigger45

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Exactly that’s one reason I appreciate liturgical churches.
upload_2021-11-14_13-11-45.jpeg
 
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Paidiske

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I think you're asking about personal observances, rather than church ones?

I tend to try to fast. I'm not overly strict about it, because I share my household with others for whom that would be problematic, and I'm not going to go to the extent of separate meals. But I try to simplify what I eat, avoid treats, that sort of thing. I also tend to try to declutter, quite literally. I treat it as a season for simplicity and simplifying.

This year we're going to try a "reverse Advent calendar," where each day we put an item in a basket which will end up being a Christmas hamper for a family in need (organised through the parish, but I thought it was a great initiative).

And that's partly because I find that Christmas in our society is such an over the top consumerist madness, and that does nothing for me spiritually; but a simpler Advent can help me focus on what's important about Christmas.
 
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Tigger45

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(I was trying to find a somewhat simpler chart, but i couldn't locate one).
Well I used to just use the December Advent calendar but I kept getting to the 25th way before Christmas Day.

upload_2021-11-14_15-48-47.jpeg
 
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VincentIII

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I think you're asking about personal observances, rather than church ones?
I was asking about personal observances.

Great point about Advent being a counterbalance to the consumerism that is so synonymous with Christmas these days.
 
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RickardoHolmes

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We have a wreath. My youngest son still likes the calendars For me,I observe a daily meditation time I use an advent booklet and reflect of the true meaning of the Season

My oldest son told me that he wants us to go to a different church each Sunday in Advent. this year. The Episcopal church where we usually attend Midnight Mass is quite far away. Last year thanks to Covid we did not even attend, for the frist time in decades, but watched it on TV instead.

I gave him a list of churches that celebrate Advent minus the Lutherans who are too conservative for my taste. There is a Methodist church not far away where we usually attend the early Christmas Eve service We will visit there one Sunday I thought maybe a Presbyterian one the next week, then the big catholic cathedral and finally the usual Episcopal church

In spite of having a house with multiple Christmas trees, lights, lawn ornaments, music....My focus on advent is mainly spiritual and a beautiful and enlightening time for deep reflection and understanding.
 
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Shane R

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I usually try to get some of the little calendars with candy for my daughters. Although last year Lola got ahold of hers one evening and ate about 14 days worth of the candies at once. I also take them to a Christmas show of some sort. This used to be fairly commonly at a local Baptist church but since Covid and we moved, I don't know where we'll find that event. I did see one on the schedule of our municipal auditorium. And I set out an Advent wreath. I put blue candles in mine rather than purple.

I read Pope Benedict's book Jesus of Nazareth: the Infancy Narratives several years in a row. I read something devotional. A lot of people are plugging the Gospel of Luke in the last couple of years since it has 24 chapters in an English Bible.

I also go to the store and buy some balls of various kinds to drop in a Toys for Tots box. My daughter's school is doing a food drive and apparently whichever class collects the most gets some kind of reward. Today was the first day and she wanted to pack half of our pantry into her backpack. I asked her what we would eat if she carried all of that off? We settled on two cans, which she complained made her bag heavy when she went out to board the bus.

My littler one goes to a Lutheran preschool and I think they have some sort of little program scheduled. Since the kids are 3-5 I can't imagine it is anything too elaborate.
 
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