How Do You Celebrate Advent

[tinytherese]

I know that a lot of people can get really bogged down by all of the shopping, decorating, and other preparations for Christmas, but how do we prepare for Jesus, the reason for the season during Advent? I like the idea of making a Jesse Tree.

[kafka]

I'm joining the parish X-mas choir. Have not formally sung in a while, so the first rehearsal tommorrow could be ugly.

[CatherineM]

I get all my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. I stock up on groceries too. I basically arrange it so that I don't have to go to a store from Thanksgiving to Christmas. At home, an Advent wreath only. No Christmas decorations until a few days before Christmas. I watch lots of videos rather than TV to avoid commercials, and I don't read the newspapers. I get my news from the internet instead. We have an open house buffet style party on Christmas Eve and drag everyone with us to midnight mass.

[kafka]

smart plan. I like it.

I walked into a coffee shop and bookstore on Friday, and thought to myself why are all these people here? Then I remembered, it was Black Friday.

[cmotherofpirl]

The Advent wreath is on the table, the Jesse tree has the symbol of Creation afixed at the top, the gbaby found the first M&M on the Advent calender and the presents are almost all bought. The TV is mostly off, while the classical radio station stays on since they haven't started the endless holiday music yet, when they do it goes off. We celebrate the feast days of Sts Nicholas and Lucy. I play chant music from youtube and say the Office daily [ the best part], avoid the malls, and ignor the outside world.
I will spend the next two weeks doing the Festival of Trees where we collect for the food bank, the following two weeks cleaning and decorating my house for our Christmas Eve party. I used to hold off on the decorating til the 4th Sunday of Advent, but I am simply too old and in too much pain to get it all done quickly in just several days.
When Christmas finally comes we break out the music and party until Jan 6 when the Magi arrive. We used to celebrate til Candlemas, but I got tired of picking up tree needles so we end earlier now.

[MithLuin]

The Advent Conspiracy

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU[/media]

I think it is nice to be thoughtful, and sometimes that involves gift-giving, but mindless giftgiving is quite silly.

[SuscipeMeDomine]

One of the things I love about praying the Liturgy of the Hours is how the prayers change when you enter Advent (or other seasons). It makes me feel like I'm really celebrating the season and not going through it mindlessly or focusing on what comes next. In the secular world Advent is spent simply anticipating Christmas. I like having someplace where I can focus on Advent alone.

[fides quarens intellectum]

[quote name='SuscipeMeDomine' timestamp='1291046953' post='2189848']
One of the things I love about praying the Liturgy of the Hours is how the prayers change when you enter Advent (or other seasons). It makes me feel like I'm really celebrating the season and not going through it mindlessly or focusing on what comes next.
[/quote]

Amen to that! Praying the LOH is the big thing that really makes Advent feel like Advent for me. As for the rest, we don't decorate until Christmas Eve, most of my store shopping was finished before Thanksgiving (the rest I can do online), we don't watch TV or listen to the radio anyway, and we'll be visiting family on the second day of Christmas rather than going to "Christmas" gatherings during Advent. We also treat Advent as a penitential season (because it is), so, just like Lent, there are certain things we've given up.

[Luigi]

Simplify, simplify, simplify. Clear everything unnecessary off the table and out of the living room & dining room (you may not have to do this, but I do). Then set out one or two decorations (Advent wreath/Jesse tree) - they'll stand out more with the clutter gone. Choose one or two spiritual practices (O! Antiphons/Advent prayers) - the key is not to do more, but to do what you do well.

I learn through metaphor. The perfect metaphor for Advent (to me, at the moment) is pregnancy - waiting in joyful hope for the coming of that baby. One wants to be ready, but one can't hurry it along. One wants thoughtful preparation - some time to sit, think, reflect, ponder, anticipate, commit - rather than giddy running around. It requires some sacrifice & perhaps even discomfort. But it'll be worth it in the end - it'll change your life, forever, for the better.

[Piccoli Fiori JMJ]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuZDkhy3f6M[/media]

[fides quarens intellectum]

[quote name='FutureNunJMJ' timestamp='1291213506' post='2190185']

[/quote]

i like it!

Edited December 6, 2010 by fides quarens intellectum

[sixpence]

[quote name='FutureNunJMJ' timestamp='1291213506' post='2190185']
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuZDkhy3f6M[/media]
[/quote]

im gonna send this to people!!

[elizabeth09]

[quote name='MithLuin' timestamp='1291006802' post='2189811']
The Advent Conspiracy

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU[/media]

I think it is nice to be thoughtful, and sometimes that involves gift-giving, but mindless giftgiving is quite silly.
[/quote]

It was cool. I even like the music

[Ephrem Augustine]

i just sanctify commercialism for the sake of jesus?
not really
i am trying to avoid listening to much christmas music, of course right now is an exception.

i dont watch much tv
i throw out the section of the newspapers that come with advertisements and holiday deals

more mass and loth which focus on the appropriate seasons
idk what else to say, i unplug the nonense and turn up the volume on truth?
what else can anyone do?

[cmotherofpirl]

I know this sounds like its completely against Advent, but I have spent the last 10 days running a Festival of Trees, where various agencies and local schools decorate Christmas trees and perform live music, and collect food for a food bank. I have had the pleasure of walking daily thru 55 beautiful lit and decorated trees while listening to classical music and yes Christmas carols.
It is always a relief that it never spoils Christmas for me, it reconnects me to it. There is no commercialism, TV ads, or shopping, its peaceful as you walk among the lights, time slows down a bit. Watching the friendly rivalry as groups put up their trees, helping each other, offer friendly advice, bantering about recipes, friends, grandbabies, discuss how Christmas was they were little. Friends meet old friends as they feast on homemade goodies, children's eye glow with wonder at the trees, the frail elderly come to life as they hear old familiar songs, little kids play their first recital with hordes of approving grandparents, teenagers grudgingly admit the trees aren't bad ( especially since they had to make some of the ornaments). For many kids its the first time they have been on even a tiny stage performing, the first time they have seen a live perforomance of music. Its not your family Christmas, its not home or church, its not the holiday, its a glimpse of what happens when people of (mostly) goodwill come together for a good cause, a practice session of what the holiday can be - friends, family, music, helping others, community,all while waiting for God.