Healthy lifestyles need traditions: how to do Advent Wreath.
Healthy Lifestyles Need Traditions: How to do Advent Wreath
Humans who are unattached to traditions feel rootless. When people feel rootless they often attach to stuff. I wonder if our rootlessness is one cause of our rampant American consumerism?
The wonderful thing about traditions is that you can choose them. Christmas is a great time for choosing traditions for you and your loved ones. As you implement a Christmas tradition or two, you may note that you get the feeling of some rootedness- even if the traditions you chose were not from your family of origin.
One meaningful Christmas tradition is the Advent Wreath. The Advent Wreath is used by many Christian groups to help bring focus to the true meaning and story of Christmas.
There are many ways to do the Advent Wreath. This is the way our family does the Advent Wreath. Feel free to give it a try and adapt it to make your own traditions. (These instructions are adapted from a post I did for 7SistersHomeschool.com.)
Making the Advent Wreath
We make our Advent Wreath with 5 candles- 4 red and 1 white. We place the red candles in a circle with the white candle centered in their midst. (The wreath in the picture here has purple and pink candles around the outside instead of red because there are many ways to do Advent Wreath.)
On the first Sunday after Thanksgiving, we light the first red candle, read the scripture passage that goes with the candle, discuss the passage (if we feel like it), and sing Christmas Hymns.
Each Sunday after that, we light a new red candle (plus the previously lit ones), read that week’s Scriptures and sing Christmas hymns. On Christmas Eve the white candle is lit along with all the red ones.
The lovely thing about this tradition is that our children learned the true meaning of Christmas in their earliest childhood. Most of my adult kids have continued this tradition in their own families.
Week 1: The Prophesy Candle
Messianic Prophesies: Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6, Micah 5:2
Week 2: The Angel Candle
The Annunciation: Luke 1:26-38
Week 3: The Shepherd Candle
The Celebration: Luke 2: 1-20
Week 4: The Wise Men Candle
The Gift-Giving: Matthew 2:1-12
Christmas Eve: The Christmas Story
Read Luke 2:1-20 again
Some favorite hymns (don’t rigidly keep the hymn to its suggested week):
Week 1:
- Good Christian Men, Rejoice
- Hail, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
- Joy to the World
- Oh Come, All Ye Faithful
- Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel
Week 2:
- Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne
- In the Bleak Midwinter
- Once in Royal David’s City
Week 3:
- Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne
- Angels From the Realms of Glory
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
- It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
- The First Noel the Angel Did Say
- While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
Week 4:
- Away in a Manger
- Go Tell It on the Mountain
- O Holy Night
- O Little Town of Bethlehem
- On a Bleak Mid-Winter
- Once in Royal David’s City
- Silent Night
- There’s a Song in the Air
- What Child is This?
Christmas Eve
- All the Christmas hymns
Are you missing tradition in your life? Are you missing something and you just don’t know what it is?
Maybe it is time for some Life Coaching. This is a new tradition for a healthy lifestyle. Contact me for coaching via Skype or at my office if you are local.
Healthy Lifestyles Need Traditions: How to do Advent Wreath