The Season of Advent

With a Creche (Manger Scene)

The Bridge on 8th Street in downtown Holland has some beautiful choices. Set up your creche together then with your child(ren) act out the story with the figures.

Expand on the theme:

• • Follow the Blessing for the Creche Liturgy.
  • Pull out cardboard, fabric and a glue gun to build on the set – incorporate the road on which Mary & Joseph traveled, the homes where they were turned away, a hillside for the shepherds and other parts of the narrative.
  • Start with an empty manger in the creche. Every time someone does an act of kindness in your home, someone can place a piece of straw in the waiting manger. Our faithfulness now prepares the way for Christ to come, like preparing a soft bed for the Christ child.
  • Set up a manger scene (animals, human figures, etc.) gradually as advent progresses, but place the magi far from the creche. They move closer each day until arriving at the manger scene on the Feast of Epiphany (Jan 6). This movement serves as a reminder that even those who begin the journey far off are welcomed to the Christ Child.

Hang origami stars up from the ceiling for epiphany or on the tree for each day of Advent.  Use colorful magazine pages to make inexpensive and beautiful decorations.  You could make a trail of stars for little ones to follow to the Christ child on Christmas morning.

Make a banner out of paper or cardboard with a favorite line from a Christmas song or Bible verse.  There are several beautiful designs online you can customize to your style. String it across your dining room!

Set an extra seat and special table setting at your dining room table throughout the season of Advent to make a place for the Lord.  This can serve as an ongoing symbol of our welcoming and longing for him to be present among us and for his return.

Decorate the Christmas Tree

Just as we prepare a house for a guest, the process of decorating a Christmas tree can serve as a reminder to intentionally welcome the Christ Child into our lives.

• • Week 1: Make room! Clean out and give away excess clothes, books, kitchen equipment, toys and electronics
  • Week 2: Reflect. Clean and arrange spaces for quiet, for reflection, for prayer and for sleep. Put on music while you clean and maybe light a candle. Finish with a celebration meal.
  • Week 3: Move the bare tree into your home, keep the tree fresh and watered, but spend time waiting and expecting before decorating it. Maybe even start decorating it on Gaudete Sunday (3rd Sunday – candle of “joy” in the advent wreath), adding a little to the tree each day until Christmas Eve. This can symbolize the gift of rejoicing on the journey nearing the light of Christmas.
  • Christmas Eve: Finish decorating the tree, maybe by adding figures of Adam & Eve to remember the gift of creation and our broken humanity. Invite friends to join the decorating and talk about how the tree is a sign of evergreen grace and the mercy of God made flesh in Christ.
  • Blessing for the tree:

God of Adam and Eve, God of all our ancestors, we praise you for this tree. It stirs a memory of paradise, it brings a foretaste of heaven. Send your Child, Jesus, the flower of the root of Jesse, to restore your good earth to the freshness of creation. Then every tree of the forest will clap its hands, and all creation will bless you from these shining branches. All glory be yours, now and forever. Amen.