7 Ways to Celebrate Advent With Your Family

Patient waiting.These two little words most accurately describe the tone and theme of the season of Advent.Patient waiting.No two words in the English language are more incompatible with young children.How do those of us with young children help them to celebrate the beautiful season of Advent without being overrun by the mad rush to Christmas morning?  Here are 7 ideas that our family has used to  make the celebration of the season of Advent a Christ-centered, prayerful and fun-filled family affair.1. Advent Prayer ChainAs a child I loved making paper chains – I think they appealed to the independent streak in me as I liked the idea that I could assemble what I considered to be a beautiful garland all on my own. That appeal has crossed over into my adult life and one of my favorite Advent family traditions is the paper-prayer chain. The kids and I assemble our chain together. As we create the purple and pink chain links, we write the name of a person (living or deceased) or a particular prayer intention on the inside of each link. Once the chain is fully assembled we have a link for each day of Advent.Every day, we remove one link and remember the person or intention on that day’s link in a special way in our prayers. Here is a picture of this year’s prayer chain handing on our mantle:2. Lighting the Advent WreathI have fond memories of lighting the Advent wreath each night at dinner as a child. It was so exciting as the weeks progressed and the purple candle from the first week grew shorter and shorter. Christmas was coming. Our family has continued the tradition. When the kids were small we lit the Advent wreath in the morning –  in fact, when they were toddlers,