Faith In The Home: Faith-Filled Advent

In this Faith in the Home article, Dr Antonia Braithwaite, Marriage & Family Life Coordinator, offers simple, faith-filled activities to help families keep Christ at the centre of Advent and nurture children’s faith. With thanks to R. Clarke.

It can be challenging to keep Advent Christ-centred when the secular world links the festive season solely with commercialism and the pressure to muster up ever more complex ‘Elf on the Shelf’ antics! Here are a few ideas you could incorporate into your family Advent without exhausting yourself, which will hopefully nurture your children’s faith. 

Begin Advent with an empty manger – you could make one with your children out of cardboard or natural materials such as twigs. Keep a bundle of straw close by (alternatively, use strips of paper or yarn). Each time a family member does a kind or selfless act, they place a piece of straw in the manger. This reinforces the teaching that we love Jesus through our good deeds and kindness. On Christmas morning, place Baby Jesus on his nice, soft bed, made of the family’s good deeds.

‘Star from Afar’ is a simpler variation on ‘Elf on the Shelf’. Hide the star each day and, once it is found, move the Three Wise Men from your crib to where it rests. Move the star closer to your crib each day. This continues beyond Advent and ends on the Feast of the Epiphany, when the Magi finally reach the Holy Family.

Put each family member’s name in a hat at the start of Advent, and each person takes a name out. They pray especially for that person during Advent.

For older children, the Stations of the Crib offer a lovely devotion similar to the Stations of the Cross. At each station, read Scripture, pray or sing a suitable carol or hymn.

Here is one possible selection of 14 stations:

1. The Annunciation – Gabriel visits Mary.
2. The Visitation – Mary visits Elizabeth.
3. Mary’s Fiat – her consent to God’s will.
4. Joseph’s Dream – an angel reassures him.
5. The Journey to Bethlehem.
6. The Search for Lodging.
7. The Birth of Jesus.
8. The Announcement to the Shepherds.
9. The Visit of the Shepherds.
10. The Visit of the Magi.
11. The Presentation in the Temple.
12. The Flight into Egypt.
13. The Return to Nazareth.
14. The Hidden Life of Jesus.

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