Celebrating St. Nicholas Day!

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day? Wonder how or why someone celebrates St. Nicholas Day? Would you like to? It's not too late to put together a nice celebration - St. Nicholas Day is on Dec. 6th. (See some excellent book recommendations at the bottom of this post.)

We've begun celebrating St. Nicholas instead of mingling Santa and Jesus on Christmas day. This allows us the fun of "Santa" without it getting confused with the Birth of Christ. Not that you can't enjoy "Santa" on Christmas, but for us it was getting hard to keep our kids focused on Christ on Christmas. And the whole Santa kneeling at the manger - bleh, no, not for me.

Here is how we celebrated last year:

On St. Nicholas Eve, the children excitedly and carefully laid out their shoes by the fireplace for St. Nick to fill. And they left out a small plate of cookies and crackers, also. In the morning they found their shoes filled with a couple small gifts, sweet treats, and a chocolate santa (a tradition at our house). Even DH and I found our shoes had been laid out for us (by an elf, I presume) and filled with goodies and gifts! St. Nicholas left a few "family" gifts: MadLibs "Christmas", Angela and the Baby Jesus (a lovely, sweet book by Frank McCourt), and some much needed tempera paint.

Our favorite tradition is a true "feast" breakfast! We eat in the dining room with silver and Christmas china. The kids especially love the hot cocoa with a peppermint stick! Who wouldn't love that?

I do some special decorating, too. (We don't have any other Christmas decorations up at this point, so this is really special for the kids.) There are also some extra goodies from Mom and Dad waiting for the kids on the table. A small craft set, chocolate coins, and a fun pencil.

The kids enjoyed breakfast while I read from a little pamphlet about St. Nicholas. I highly recommend these little pamphlets entitled, "St. Nicholas, a Saint for Advent and Christmas" from Creative Communications for the Parish. They are written by Amy Wellbourn and are very inexpensive. I'd love to to buy loads of these and give them out early in Advent. Even if people opt to continue a Christmas eve visit from Santa, they could still celebrate his feast day!

At each place, there is also a nice little postcard with a vintage Santa image. These are our "secret santa" good deed cards. A good deed is done and the postcard left behind. The card recipient then does a good deed for someone else and leaves a card behind. We have 5 cards roaming around the house right now, which may be a bit much. I think 1 or 2 cards might suffice. You could use any card - homemade or otherwise. And, it wouldn't even have to be a Santa postcard - anything seasonal you like would do well!

The rest of the morning was spent enjoying the new books/toys and trying to do secret good deeds!

We ended the day watching a special from ETWN that was a better introduction to St. Nicholas, than most of the clay-mation "St. Nick" shows (even though I love these). They were a little over-dramatic, but the kids liked it and got the message - that Santa was a real man, a kind and brave bishop who loved Jesus.

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day? I'd love to hear about it! If you blog it, let me know and I'll link to your post.

Here are some book recommendations (see more at HERE):


(My favorite)






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Preparing for Saint Nicholas Day!

This is an updated post from last year. . .

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day? Wonder how or why someone celebrates St. Nicholas Day? Would you like to? It's not too late to put together a nice celebration - St. Nicholas Day is on Dec. 6th. (See some excellent book recommendations at the bottom of this post.)

In many countries, St. Nicholas Day is the day on which children get their gifts, while Christmas is reserved for church services and family get-togethers. We've begun celebrating St. Nicholas instead of mingling Santa and Jesus on Christmas day. This allows us the fun of "Santa" without it getting confused with the Birth of Christ. Not that you can't enjoy "Santa" on Christmas, but for us it was getting hard to keep our kids focused on Christ on Christmas. And the whole Santa kneeling at the manger - bleh, no, not for me.

Here is how we've celebrated in years past:

On St. Nicholas Eve, the children excitedly and carefully lay out their shoes by the fireplace for St. Nick to fill. And they leave out a small plate of cookies and crackers, also. I've heard that in some countries they leave St Nick a nice beer (I think Belgium is where this is done) - that might be an addition to this year's celebration!

In the morning they found their shoes filled with a couple small gifts, sweet treats, and a chocolate santa (a tradition at our house - this year we are going to make these into Bishops with the directions from the Saint Nicholas Center). Even DH and I found our shoes had been laid out for us (by an elf, I presume) and filled with goodies and gifts!

Our favorite tradition is a true "feast" breakfast! We eat in the dining room with candles and special plates. The kids especially love the hot cocoa with a peppermint stick and whipped creme! Who wouldn't love that?

We have a small collection of Santa items that I put out as a display. This is the first of the real Christmas decorating we do. There are also some extra goodies from Mom and Dad waiting for the kids on the table, usually chocolate coins and fun Christmas pencils.

At each place, there is also a nice little postcard with a vintage Santa image. These are our "secret santa" good deed cards. A good deed is done and the postcard left behind. The card recipient then does a good deed for someone else and leaves a card behind. You could use any card - homemade or otherwise. And, it wouldn't even have to be a Santa postcard - anything seasonal you like would do well! We continue these for a day or so.

Later we snuggle up on the couch and read about Saint Nicholas. I especially love Ann Tompert's Saint Nicholas book (see below). This year I've added a new book: Santa's Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki (found in on the shelf at Barnes and Noble). This would be especially appropriate for a family that wants to continue celebrating Santa Claus on Christmas. It is a sweetly illustrated book. Santa shares his favorite story - of the First Christmas - with the woodland animals who respond by saying, "How silly we have been,' said the fox, 'to think that Christmas was only about presents." Then all the animals go back to Santa's house to help him finish his Christmas work.

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day? I'd love to hear about it! If you blog it, let me know and I'll link to your post.

Here are some book recommendations (see more at HERE):


(My favorite)

Happy Feast of Saint Nicholas!

This is an updated post from last year. . .

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day? Wonder how or why someone celebrates St. Nicholas Day? Would you like to? It's not too late to put together a nice celebration, you could really celebrate anytime this week! 

In many countries, St. Nicholas Day is the day on which children get their gifts, while Christmas is reserved for church services and family get-togethers. We've begun celebrating St. Nicholas instead of mingling Santa and Jesus on Christmas day. This allows us the fun of "Santa" without it getting confused with the Birth of Christ. Not that you can't enjoy "Santa" on Christmas, but for us it was getting hard to keep our kids focused on Christ on Christmas. And the whole Santa kneeling at the manger - bleh, no, not for me.

Here is how we've celebrated in years past:

On St. Nicholas Eve, the children excitedly and carefully lay out their shoes by the fireplace for St. Nick to fill. And they leave out a small plate of cookies and crackers, also. I've heard that in some countries they leave St Nick a nice beer (I think Belgium is where this is done) - doesn't that sound fun?

In the morning they found their shoes filled with a couple small gifts, sweet treats, and a chocolate santa (you can make these into Bishops with the directions from the Saint Nicholas Center). Even DH and I found our shoes had been laid out for us (by an elf, I presume) and filled with goodies and gifts!

Our favorite tradition is a true "feast" breakfast! We eat in the dining room with candles and special plates. The kids especially love the hot cocoa with a peppermint stick and whipped creme! Who wouldn't love that? This year we have one child who is attending school, so we will celebrate with a nice dinner at the dining room table.  If I can find the box with the Christmas china, I might even pull that out.  For dessert, we'll enjoy hot cocoa with a peppermint stick.

We have a small collection of Santa items that I put out as a display. This is the first of the real Christmas decorating we do. There are also some extra goodies from Mom and Dad waiting for the kids on the table, usually chocolate coins and fun Christmas pencils.

At each place, there is also a nice little postcard with a vintage Santa image. These are our "secret santa" good deed cards. A good deed is done and the postcard left behind. The card recipient then does a good deed for someone else and leaves a card behind. You could use any card - homemade or otherwise. And, it wouldn't even have to be a Santa postcard - anything seasonal you like would do well! We continue these for a day or so.  I'm thinking of hanging these on a garland at the mantel - wouldn't that make a sweet decoration?

Later we snuggle up on the couch and read about Saint Nicholas. I especially love Ann Tompert's Saint Nicholas book. This year I've added a new book: Santa's Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki (found in on the shelf at Barnes and Noble). This would be especially appropriate for a family that wants to continue celebrating Santa Claus on Christmas. It is a sweetly illustrated book. Santa shares his favorite story - of the First Christmas - with the woodland animals who respond by saying, "How silly we have been,' said the fox, 'to think that Christmas was only about presents." Then all the animals go back to Santa's house to help him finish his Christmas work.

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day? I'd love to hear about it! If you blog it, let me know and I'll link to your post.

Virtual Advent Tour - Saint Nicholas

Welcome, Virtual Advent Tourists! 

What is your first memory of Santa Claus?  Was it in the mall at a "Santa's Workshop"?  Was it in a book or a movie?  Was it setting out cookies or digging through your stocking on Christmas morning?  I'm not sure what my earliest memory of Santa is, but my most clear one is the year Santa actually stopped in for a visit on Christmas Eve.

I must have been around 4 years old...maybe 5 or maybe 3.  I just remember being at a neighbor's home enjoying Christmas Even festivities when the adults began to make a big commotion about something.

"Did you hear that?"
"What could that be?"
"Oh, there's someone on the roof!"
"Could that be Santa Claus?"

Just as it began to dawn on me what they were saying, in the front door walks this huge man in a red outfit...Santa Claus!  I remember feeling a little apprehensive, but after some coaxing I approached him and shared with him what I hoped to get on Christmas.  I have no idea what I asked for!  (Mom, do you remember?)  The magic of the moment melted over me slowly.  It is one of the crystalline childhood memories...something you are certain you'll never forget.

After I had kids, we continued the Santa tradition, but adapted it a bit for our family.  We hoped to take a little bit of the "Santa" hype off of Christmas morning by celebrating Saint Nicholas' Day on December 6th.  This is not a custom that either my husband or I grew up with, but our kids have really come to enjoy it.


So what is our Saint Nicholas celebration like?


Following an old European custom we set out shoes on the night of December 5th to be filled with small gifts by the good Saint during the night.  In the morning, we enjoy a special feast day breakfast (the menu varies, but we ALWAYS have hot cocoa with a candy cane in it).  During the day, the kids and I often make gingerbread cookies.  This is the day the first of our real Christmas decorations come out (before that we ONLY have the Advent wreath and a few other Advent items): a small collection of "Santas" displayed together on our mantle.  Christmas "blooms" in our home with little bits of decorations coming out during the Advent season.

As we've grown into this "new" tradition, we've discovered that getting one or two smallish gifts early in the season really has helped relieve a bit of the "wait" for Christmas.   We also enjoy that by celebrating Saint Nicholas rather than just Santa Claus, we get to celebrate a REAL person's life.  And, most importantly, it provides a little separation between Santa and CHRISTmas.  It isn't Santamas, after all!


Would you like to celebrate Saint Nicholas or just learn more?


Saint Nicholas Day is coming up this week on Tuesday, December 6th.  It doesn't take much to start a new tradition...just do a little research and then gather up your family's shoes (and a few small items to tuck inside them)!


Here are some resources:
:-: The Saint Nicholas Center has a huge website with online stories, book recommendations, crafts, and a catalog.

:-: There are some lovely children's books about Saint Nicholas.  My favorites are:  Saint Nicholas by Ann Tompert and Santa's Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day to you!

  If you enjoy what you read here, poke around my blog a little bit and you'll find lots of other posts about Advent from the past few years: 

Church Year Page

(Advent is up currently, I plan to add more during

this upcoming year.  You'll find links to several Advent

Carnivals from past years.)

Nativity Carnival 2011 

(note this one began a couple of weeks ago 

and will run through Epiphany, January 6th.)

Part 4 - Keeping Advent

The Family Calendar
The Advent Season is filled with delightful mini-celebrations that ease our anticipation and kindle our devotion. However, to celebrate or observe every one would be a burden for us. So, we have carefully chosen a few that have particular meaning for us.

The Advent Season is preceded almost directly by St. Andrew the Apostle’s Day. Some people fast on this day in preparation for the beginning of Advent. We’ll have a modified “fast” in which we serve a “feral” meal. “Feral” meals, being the opposite of “Feast” meals, are simple and modest. Instead of our usual Friday night pizza, we’ll have a simple soup and salad meal.

Dec. 1st - today we’ll do the minimal Advent decorating: an heirloom Advent banner and the Advent wreath. The banner is a simple cross-stitched on linen with little loops on which to hang candies – one for each day of December.

Dec 2nd – first Sunday of Advent: We will have our first Advent wreath devotion and light the first candle. We will do this before we go to church rather than at dinner time, because our church now meets in the evening and has a potluck dinner afterwards. Each Sunday, we’ll do the same!

Dec 6th – St. Nicholas Day: We’ve done away with the secular “Santa Claus” and restored St. Nicholas! Our shoes are set out beside the fireplace the evening before and St. Nicholas leaves a small present or two and some goodies. We have a big family breakfast – Daddy even takes the morning off! In the past, we’ve spent the day baking and decorating gingerbread men and bishops. But this year, we might make them a few days ahead of time and then spend St. Nicholas day delivering them to friends with notecards telling about St. Nicholas. This just seems more in the spirit of the day and the saint!

We’ll bring out some of our “St. Nicholas” (or Santa Claus) decorations today. Not too many, just a few. I like to put them all on one table or shelf to make a St. Nicholas display of sorts.

Dec. 9th – Conception of the Virgin Mary (Theotokos): In lieu of the Roman Catholic observance of the Immaculate Conception (on the 8th), I’m choosing to adopt the Eastern Orthodox day. Regardless of what you believe about Mary, this is certainly a good day to spend some time honoring her through prayers of thanksgiving.

Perhaps, we’ll bring out our nativity Mary and Joseph and let them begin a procession around the house until they arrive in “Bethlehem” on Christmas Eve.

Dec. 13th – St. Lucia Day: My MIL’s family is Swedish. She was born there, but her parents immigrated to America when she was quite young. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed learning and adopting some Swedish customs. St. Lucia (or St. Lucy) is a particular favorite of mine because she was an Italian (part of my heritage is Italian). You can read a bit more about how Swedes traditionally celebrate the day and about St. Lucy.

We celebrate the day with special St. Lucia buns, which are rich, saffron bread (like a challah bread). I make small breads for each child and drizzle some icing on top. This year I’ll wake my daughter up and let her help me prepare the special “candlelight” breakfast. We’ll probably serve it in the kitchen, but we might get adventurous and serve breakfast in bed. Later, I make larger St. Lucia breads which are served with orange marmalade rather than icing on Christmas morning.

In the evening, we’ll put up our Christmas tree. The tree is hung with lights and that is IT! No decorating until Christmas Eve. We will also put lights at the windows and other selected locations in the house. (Lucy’s name means “Light” – and we’ll talk about how she reflected God’s light to those around her.)

Dec. 21st – St. Thomas the Apostle Day: This is a new celebration day for us this year, and a particularly Anglican one, too. (Roman Catholics celebrate his day in July.) Besides learning about St. Thomas this day, we will put out the final decorations around our home, including the rest of our “nice” Nativity scene. (Mary and Joseph have been traveling here for sometime, but now they will be getting much nearer!)

Dec. 24th – Christmas Eve: Tonight we begin our Christmas feast with a very full day. We will decorate our tree, remove our Advent wreath (replaced with the Christmas Pyramid), enjoy a festive meal, open a few special gifts, and enjoy the first glass of Svenska Glogg. I know this isn’t really a traditional or Anglican way to spend the day before the Christmas Vigil, but it is an accommodation to my MIL who loves to have a big Christmas Eve feast (Swedish tradition).


In the past our parish has often had a late afternoon family church service. We’ll either go to that or Hubby and I will sneak away (grandparents will stay home with kids) for midnight mass. Maybe both!

Saint Nicholas Feast is nearly upon us!

Jan Steen - The Feast of Saint Nicholas - 1663
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Today I had to run a couple of errands, and so that means, as is almost always the case, a child or two is with me.  This makes shopping for Christmas tricky.  But I'm good at distraction and subterfuge.  Which is good, because I had a couple more things to pick up for St. Nicholas' feast day.

Are you celebrating?  It doesn't have to be a fancy celebration...shoes by the fireplace with a bit of chocolate and maybe a very small gift is certainly in the spirit!  Sometimes we do a lot, sometimes we only do a little.

This year it will be a little feast as we have a busy Saturday.  Some goodies in the shoes and a breakfast of freshly made gingerbread.


Here are some posts to get you started:

• So why Saint Nicholas?

• Santa, santa everywhere....how to turn those Santas into a Saint!

• My own past posts about St Nicholas

• And, if you homeschool, perhaps a little Picture Study using Jan Steen's Feast of St Nicholas (that's the image above).  Here's a little background from the Rijksmuseum where this painting is housed.

I'd love to hear how you celebrate!  Please share in the comments - and link to your blog if you have a post about your celebration!  I'll update here!

Repost: The Advent that Almost Wasn't

In November of 2008 we were at the tail-end of our adoption.   Each day brought new forms to complete and our to-do list was growing exponentially.  We expected to get the call to travel on any day.  It was a very busy and hectic season and it was also almost Christmas.  I'm sure many of you have found yourselves in a busy season and wonder how to add "Advent" to it.  I sure did...

Advent almost got put by the wayside this year for my family. Me, a die-hard devotee of all things liturgical, almost said, "Advent is just too much for me this year."

I almost let it slip away....

Yesterday we pulled out the Advent box and spent
some time deciding what we'll do this year.

It has been a very wild year for our family - but especially so this Fall. The thought of pulling out all the Advent items, thoughtfully planning our Advent activities, and keeping up with our various Advent celebrations...well, it all just seemed too much. We needed low-key, we needed normalcy, we needed quiet. Advent was too much work - or so I thought.

What our December would look like - would it be devoid of all things Christmas, sort of a non-Advent Advent? Or would it, as so often happens when something is removed, just fill up with what our pop-culture considers an appropriate pre-Christams hysteria? That doesn't sound too low-key, or normal, or quiet.

Then, it hit me...Advent is low-key, it is normal, and it is quiet. It is exactly what we need.

That is one thing I adore about the Liturgical year - when it becomes a part of your family culture, it can have a stabilizing affect. As life swirls around us, we have the familiarity of the same activities, traditions, smells, sounds, words to keep us anchored. And what better to be anchored to than the Church - the Bride of Christ and, as the Bride of Christ, Christ himself?

My eldest daughter delivering
St. Lucia buns early in the morning.

We will have a beautiful, low-key, normal and quiet Advent this year - with it's bright spots of St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucia Day, Gaudete Sunday, and other pre-Christmas planning. It will probably be a little less planned out than previous Advents in our family, but that is one of the joys of the liturgical year in the home - the more you do it, the less pre-planning it takes!

I encourage you - if you think Advent is just too much, reconsider! If you've never celebrated or kept Advent before, start simply. If you've done it for many years, scale down if you must. But don't miss it. It is a season of quiet joy and expectation. You'll find that it properly places Christmas at the pinnacle of the season, rather than on a precipice.

Need some ideas for keeping a simple Advent (whether it is your first or fortieth?) Read on.

How do you plan a simple Advent? What are the essentials? Well, there are as many different traditions of Christian worship as there are "essentials" of Advent. But, since you are here, I'll share my family's essentials.




:-: Using an Advent Wreath - Some families are diligent to use their Advent Wreath every day, we are not so diligent...and to be honest, even some Sundays we find ourselves a bit worn out from a full day with our Church family. But pick a night of the week, Wednesdays or Fridays might be logical, to do your Advent Wreath lighting and devotional. There are many suggested devotionals online.



:-: Celebrating St. Nicholas Day - If you have children, I highly encourage you to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. Even if you still have "Santa" on Christmas Eve, you can have a celebration on his feast day and let St. Nick come fill up stockings or shoes with some little treats.

This was an easy but very pretty Advent
centerpiece. 

:-: Limiting Christmas decorations - There are many schools of thought about decorating for Christmas, but if you are going to truly put Christmas at the absolute pinnacle of the season rather than the precipice, I recommend finding some way to limit your decorations. The goal being to save the most flamboyant decorations for Christmas Eve, Day, and the Twelve Days. Some people hold off on any decorations until Christmas Eve, while others bring out certain items on certain days slowly decorating the home over the Advent Season. (We bring out St. Nick decorations, the Scandinavian ones on St. Lucia Day, we light the tree on St. Lucia Day - but no ornaments, and then on Christmas Eve we decorate the tree and put out the rest of our fun decorations.)

My messy kitchen in the middle of making yummy
Christmas treats.

:-: Special Advent Family Reading - Find a lovely story or devotional that you might read together as a family during Advent. There are some nice devotional stories that you might use...or even something classic like "A Christmas Carol", "The Gift of the Magi", or books with wonderful Christmas scenes in them like "Little House on the Prairie", "Wind in the Willows", "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew", or "Little Women". What I love about these types of books is that the story can be timed to reach the Christmas scene just before Christmas arrives - or just after. Here are some other book suggestions for Advent reading.

However you choose to celebrate or keep Advent, I pray it will be a truly blessed one for you and your family! 

Advent in our home this week - week 2

Baby L enjoys Saint Nicholas morning treats: candy cane and pencils.  Do you see her sly little smile?  She's thinking, "They gave me candy before breakfast?  YES!"

E and I discovered this while taking a walk in our woods.  It had fallen out of a tree sometime in the last few weeks.  We found it on the "fort" the kids have been working on.

I love this simple display of candy in mason jars.  I'm going to move them from the window sill to a mantle with lovely twinkle lights around them.  But for now they look pretty glittering in the morning light.

Finally got my advent calendar filled!  Each day has a note with a "treat": Christmas movie, hot cocoa for elevensies, open a family gift, getting a treat from the treat jars, etc.

Our Saint Nicholas display.  I can't seem to find my Saint Nicholas icon (just a little pasted on wood one).  Maybe it will turn up as we unpack more Christmas boxes.  Next year, I'll make SURE it goes in the Advent box

H working on a perler bead kit: a Santa ornament.  We turned on a Christmas story CD (old radio shows) and had a lovely afternoon crafting.

Another fruit photo.  Hubby found this three tier plate rack and I just think it looks lovely with the fruit on it.  It also helps camouflage the dirty dishes in my sink.

It has been positively frigid here!  We have been in the teens at night, which is rare before late January around here.  The days have dawned so clear and cold.  Does this photo capture the chill?

The Advent that almost wasn't

Advent almost got put by the wayside this year for my family. Me, a die-hard devotee of all things liturgical, almost said, "Advent is just too much for me this year."

I almost let it slip away....

It has been a very wild year for our family - but especially so this Fall. The thought of pulling out all the Advent items, thoughtfully planning our Advent activities, and keeping up with our various Advent celebrations...well, it all just seemed too much. We needed low-key, we needed normalcy, we needed quiet. Advent was too much work - or so I thought.

What our December would look like - would it be devoid of all things Christmas, sort of a non-Advent Advent? Or would it, as so often happens when something is removed, just fill up with what our pop-culture considers an appropriate pre-Christams hysteria? That doesn't sound too low-key, or normal, or quiet.

Then, it hit me...Advent is low-key, it is normal, and it is quiet. It is exactly what we need.

That is one thing I adore about the Liturgical year - when it becomes a part of your family culture, it can have a stabilizing affect. As life swirls around us, we have the familiarity of the same activities, traditions, smells, sounds, words to keep us anchored. And what better to be anchored to than the Church - the Bride of Christ and, as the Bride of Christ, Christ himself?

We will have a beautiful, low-key, normal and quiet Advent this year - with it's bright spots of St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucia Day, Gaudete Sunday, and other pre-Christmas planning. It will probably be a little less planned out than previous Advents in our family, but that is one of the joys of the liturgical year in the home - the more you do it, the less pre-planning it takes!

I encourage you - if you think Advent is just too much, reconsider! If you've never celebrated or kept Advent before, start simply. If you've done it for many years, scale down if you must. But don't miss it. It is a season of quiet joy and expectation. You'll find that it properly places Christmas at the pinnacle of the season, rather than on a precipice.

Need some ideas for keeping a simple Advent (whether it is your first or fortieth?) Read on.

How do you plan a simple Advent? What are the essentials? Well, there are as many different traditions of Christian worship as there are "essentials" of Advent. But, since you are here, I'll share my family's essentials.

• Using an Advent Wreath - Some families are diligent to use their Advent Wreath every day, we are not so diligent...and to be honest, even some Sundays we find ourselves a bit worn out from a full day with our Church family. But pick a night of the week, Wednesdays or Fridays might be logical, to do your Advent Wreath lighting and devotional. There are many suggested devotionals online.



• Celebrating St. Nicholas Day - If you have children, I highly encourage you to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. Even if you still have "Santa" on Christmas Eve, you can have a celebration on his feast day and let St. Nick come fill up stockings or shoes with some little treats. Come back on Monday and I'll share our celebration ideas for this upcoming feast day (Dec 6th).



• Limiting Christmas decorations - There are many schools of thought about decorating for Christmas, but if you are going to truly put Christmas at the absolute pinnacle of the season rather than the precipice, I recommend finding some way to limit your decorations. The goal being to save the most flamboyant decorations for Christmas Eve, Day, and the Twelve Days. Some people hold off on any decorations until Christmas Eve, while others bring out certain items on certain days slowly decorating the home over the Advent Season. (We bring out St. Nick decorations, the Scandinavian ones on St. Lucia Day, we light the tree on St. Lucia Day - but no ornaments, and then on Christmas Eve we decorate the tree and put out the rest of our fun decorations.)



• Special Advent Family Reading - Find a lovely story or devotional that you might read together as a family during Advent. There are some nice devotional stories that you might use...or even something classic like "A Christmas Carol", "The Gift of the Magi", or books with wonderful Christmas scenes in them like "Little House on the Prairie", "Wind in the Willows", "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew", or "Little Women". What I love about these types of books is that the story can be timed to reach the Christmas scene just before Christmas arrives - or just after.

However you choose to celebrate or keep Advent, I pray it will be a truly blessed one for you and your family! Come back in the following days, for more ideas - including St. Thomas Day, St. Nick's Day, St. Lucia, and more.

Be sure to read more of this year's Anglican Advent Traditions Carnival ! Want more, check out my series of posts from last year's carnival!

Still want more? See my book suggestions for Advent reading and ideas.

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The Advent/Christmas/Epiphany Binder - in 5 easy steps

Did I sound all uber-organized when I mentioned the Advent/Christmas/Epiphany binder?  Hmm.  Let's correct that....because I'm really not *that* organized.

Over the past few years I've been collecting resources for the holiday season.  I have a great make-ahead Thanksgiving menu that I clipped out of the newspaper in 2007 and have used ever since with a few adjustments to suit my family.  A Santa Lucia bread recipe.  Several cookie recipes.  Lists of books and movies we own (so I won't forget them).  A large stack of activity pages I found on various websites to keep the kids occupied while I wrap gifts.  Lots of scraps of ideas scribbled down. A plan for an Epiphany house blessing.

I bet you have some of this bits and pieces, too.

Mine were all stuffed in a folder and dropped in the Advent box.  It was good to have them in one place, but they got pretty mussed up in that folder.  Last year, I decided they needed to be organized so that they would be more useful.  It was easy and certainly has made this Advent start off more organized.

Here's how you can have a binder, too:

Step 1.  Gather all your bits of paper, clippings, print-outs, inspirational photos, recipes, etc.  Sort them into piles that make sense to you.  (Mine are: the current year's calendar, activity sheets, special instructions (wreath, jesse tree, etc), TV/events, Recipes, previous years' ideas/plans, lesson plan ideas, and poetry - see the bottom of this post for some links.)

Any old binder will do, no need
 for a new one! Save your money
for those stocking stuffers.

Step 2. Find a binder and binder dividers.  If you are like me, you have plenty of these around the house.  They just need to be gathered and cleaned out.  Label your dividers to match your piles.

Step 3. Hole punch your pages.  If you have something smaller than a full page, you can paste it onto a piece of paper.

Step 4.  Make a calendar for this year: Nov 30 - Jan 6.  Donna Young has tons of blank calendars.  This year I'm using her one-page month calendar (full-sized).   Mark your calendar with important dates (parties, local events, feast days, etc).

Step 5. Use it and then don't forget to store it in your Advent box for next year, or whatever box will be the first you open to get ready for Christmas.

Some links to things we have in our binder:

:-: Turn a chocolate Santa into St. Nicholas

:-: Lots of St. Nicholas coloring pages

:-: St Lucia of Syracuse  Santa Lucia and the Star Boy (coloring pages)

:-: Highlights Kids has fun winter and Christmas Hidden Pictures (you'll have to search a bit through the 2 pages of pictures, but there are a good number of them for this season!)

:-: JanBrett.com has lots of coloring and activity pages to go along with her books, many of which are perfect for winter and Christmas.

I just love the old claymation TV specials!

:-: A Jesse Tree coloring page

:-: "Company is Coming" crossword puzzle  (there are probably updated files for this year - dig around there are many more resources here!)

:-: TV listings for Christmas specials

:-: Rosetti's seasonal poems




See, wasn't that easy?

Advent 2011

Our Holiday Season started off with Saint Nicholas' Feast Day on December 6th!  We had goodies in our shoes (left by the fireplace, of course) and breakfast of Gingerbread Waffles, sausage and our traditional Peppermint Hot Cocoa.

L LOVES those waffles!

Girls got new slippers, and we all got Santa hats.

Girls enjoying their St Nick chocolate coins.

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Our former youth director, Dave, came to stay with us for a few days.  Although he lives in Canada now (he's originally from Canada), he was being ordained here in NC.   We had a great time with him and hosted a small reception the day after his ordination.  The youth kids were so happy to spend some time with him again!

We have seating for 26 in our downstairs rooms (dining, kitchen, family), but the kids opt for the FLOOR!  They had quite the pow-wow.

Our former Youth Pastor, Dave.

Our friend Donna said, "He looks so cute in the collar."  Does the elf hat increase the cuteness?

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Our Christmas decorations have begun to slowly find their places.

Our creche scene on the kitchen mantle.

Farmor (Erik's mom) made us three models of buildings from
her homeland (Aland Island, Sweden).  This one is "Christiansund" their family home.

 I made this crochet garland and then hung some traditional Swedish straw ornaments.  There is something sweetly old-fashioned about the look of this garland. 

I love the look of REAL pine roping.  And I love the scent, too.  We wait until it goes on sale a bit, of course.  Had sweet little white twinkle lights hung with the pine garland, but 1/3 of the strand was burned out.  The entire metro area seems to be out of all lights (except pink ), so had to opt for the larger bulbs.  Not my favorite, but they'll do.

 On our little plant hanger out front, I hung a small lantern (super cheap at Lowe's) and wrapped it in greenery (not real, sadly), lights and ribbon.  Do you like the jingle bells?  I put some of the lights in the lantern.  Looks pretty cute all lit up!

 Fresh greens on the door, too!  I think this bow is much prettier in person.

Our Advent "wreath" on our little family altar.

 The Playmobil nativity set is back on the windowsill.  I'm not sure why or how it ended up here last year, but it seems to work.  The girls love to play with these little people.

E has been keeping track of our "Days 'til Christmas"!  Do you see the little "Louie" figurine she made (at a local paint-your-own-pottery store) peeking out from behind the chalkboard?

Our Saint Nicholas collection on the family room mantle.

Our "Julbock" - or Yule Goat.  A delightful remnant from Sweden's pagan Viking past, but we love it!

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Today we took the whole family out to drop S at the ice skating rink.  The rest of us hit the Wal-Mart to do some grocery shopping.

H is very animated in the frozen food section.

 The girls are hamming it up, too!

 All checked out and ready to load up the car.

Waiting for "D Brubbie" (S) to finish up at the skate rink.

These two found some old civil war army men in the back of the van.

Only 6 more days until Christmas!