Checklist for Advent Preparations – Week One

For the last few weeks I have been busy planning for Advent. I thought it would be helpful to group some notes together here. For myself primarily and they may be of help to my readers.

ETA: This has been sitting in my drafts for several days now, better late than never;)

Prior to The First Sunday in Advent

– Collect all Christmas titles in the house together and place in the ‘reading baskets’
Reserve Christmas titles from the library. Including Jostein Gaarder’s The Christmas Mystery.

– Pull decorations out of storage.
Advent wreath ‘skeleton’
Christmas tree and purple decorations (Last year we started decorating the tree purple for advent and on Christmas Eve we change the colours.
Advent Calendar
Advent Manager The children will place a straw for all good deeds throughout Advent in the manager in the anticipation of Baby Jesus having a soft place to lay his head.

– gather greenery to decorate.
Purchase candles
Purchase pudding ingredients for ‘Stir-up Sunday'(First Sunday in Advent)
Straw for the manager

Feast of St Francis Xavier December 3rd

Two of my children have this saint as their Name Day. For our name days we just do a little something. The said children have requested a chocolate mud cake.
– Purchase mud cake ingredients.

Feast of St Barbara December 4th

We celebrate this Feast with a tradition told to me by my dear friend Anna. Anna has many traditions her family keeps, many of their traditions come from a little Italian village where she spent some of her childhood years. This idea came originally from that Italian village, Zolli in the Avellino Province of Italy.

We build a chocolate tower with red lollies in the center. The tower represents the tower St Barbara was locked in, the red lollies the blood of her martyrdom. The children are blindfolded and take turns hitting the tower like a pinata. And we read St Barbara’s story.

To make the tower we purchase after dinner mints, melt cooking chocolate to help mold and glue the mints into a tower. Then we fill the center with red lollies.

– Purchase mints, chocolate and red lollies.

Feast of Saint Nicholas December 6th
Gather our St Nicholas books together
Visit Jenn’s site for many links to excellent activities of which we will only be able to manage some as you can’t do it all.sigh.

We will be making Specculatius cookies

– Purchase children’s books for their St Nicholas Gifts.
Purchase candy canes for St Nicholas Feast.
Purchase ingredients for cookies

Feast of Saint Ambrose December 7th

This is the name day and birthday of one of my brother’s. (Birthday of a niece as well) So I have a fondness for St Ambrose. I will read his story to the children.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary December 8th

Read from Tomie DePaola’s Mary the Mother of God.
Visit the links from Shower of Roses as Jessica has compiled some great ideas. In fact her whole calendar is easy to follow and doable. I like her idea of making the gingerbread house on this day, Carpenter is really keen to try a gingerbread house this year so I’m hoping we do.

– Purchase ingredients for gingerbread house.