How to Celebrate Advent in Your Home + How to Make an Advent Wreath

We know celebrating Christmas will be different this year. But different doesn't need to mean less meaningful, does it?

Like most everything else this year, this Christmas season will be spent mostly in our homes. And I see this as an opportunity to create new Christmas traditions to help make this season a memorable one that isn’t just memorable because of a pandemic.

One easy way to add more meaning to the Christmas season is by celebrating Advent leading up to Christmas. Advent is simply a fancy word for “coming” (aka the coming of Jesus’ birth).

If Advent hasn’t been part of your Christmas season before you might feel uncertain, inadequate, or suspicious about adding it to your Christmas celebrations. And that’s totally fine. Anytime we try something new, feeling uncertain or even awkward is completely normal.

So, let me reassure you that adding the celebration of Advent to your home Christmas traditions is incredibly easy and doesn’t require much. In fact, you may already have Advent traditions without really realizing it. Like picking up an Advent calendar filled with little chocolates from Ikea or Trader Joe’s with 24 little windows to open each day starting December 1.

Why Celebrate Advent

Another meaningful way to celebrate Advent is with an advent wreath. Most people put their advent wreath in a noticeable place in their home, like their dining room table or mantle.

Having an advent wreath on your dining room table is a great way for us to be daily reminded throughout Advent of the coming celebration of Christmas. It’s a great way not only to prepare our hearts for Christmas as adults but if there are kids in your home, to also help them understand the true meaning of Christmas (which can get lost in the anticipation of Christmas presents…who are we kidding, the meaning of Christmas gets lost on us adults too).

When it comes to Advent wreaths, for most kids (and adults?) the big appeal is getting to light the candles every week. When we pair lighting the candles with a short reading from the Bible it also reminds us of the eternal hope we can have, a love that overcomes death, a joy that’s uncontainable, and a peace that surpasses all understanding. And who of us doesn’t need to be reminded of these realities this year?

If you want to add the celebration of Advent to your Christmas season this year, simply add an Advent wreath and Bible readings to your Sundays. You can either buy an advent wreath or make a simple one using this super easy step-by-step DIY Advent Wreath Guide.

How to Celebrate Advent

Because Advent is a way to prepare for Christmas, it involves the four Sundays before Christmas. Celebrating Advent is a way to prepare for celebrating Jesus’ birth on Christmas day. Since Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas day, it usually starts on the last Sunday of November or the first Sunday of December, depending on which day of the week Christmas falls.

A traditional advent wreath is in the shape of a small wreath with 4 candles in it and 1 candle in the center of the wreath. The four candles on the Advent wreath symbolize hope, love, joy, and peace. And the fifth candle in the center represents the Christ candle.

On the first Sunday of Advent, light one of the candles in the wreath. You can also light the center candle if you want to as well. In our home, we light our “Christ” candle every night during Advent as a reminder that Jesus is already the light of the world. Others choose to wait to light the Christ candle until Christmas as a reminder of the light Jesus brings to the world. On the subsequent Sundays, light one additional candle (so on the second Sunday, two candles will be lit in the wreath, on the third Sunday three candles will be lit, on the fourth Sunday, all the candles will be lit).

After you light a candle, read a short reading from the Bible. An optional reading plan for advent is:

• First Sunday: Hope – Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
• Second Sunday: Love – Luke 1:26-38
• Third Sunday: Joy – Luke 2: 1-20, Matthew 2:10-11
• Fourth Sunday: Peace – John 3:16-21.

After reading each of the Bible passages, answer this question: if I believe this is true, what would be the evidence in my daily life? This is an easy way to help make the connection between what the Bible says and how it can shape our lives for the better.

We know celebrating Christmas will be different this year. But different doesn't need to mean any less meaningful. So how about you, what are you doiing to make Christmas meaningful this year? Tell me in the comments bleow.