Category: Traditions

It may be the peak of fall where you live, or maybe even spring, but here at our house, winter has arrived. The ground is covered with snow (which has not stopped falling since yesterday), temperatures have stayed below freezing for the last week, and our snug little cabin suddenly feels much smaller since the unpacking of winter coats and mittens!

My 3 year-old was running around excitedly this morning, asking if we could get a Christmas tree and read all the Christmas books again! Oh, to be a child! I hate to dash his hopes, but we are not going to celebrate Christmas two months early!

Still, it got me thinking about the approaching season of festivity. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to start planning and preparing, even though Christmas is still far away.

Planning for a Simple Christmas

Planning ahead gives us the opportunity to celebrate special days in meaningful ways. It lets us choose intentionally which customs are good for our families, instead of getting swept along with the popular culture.

It also helps us to remain peaceful throughout what can be a busy season, knowing that there is a plan in place and we don’t have to do everything all at once.

Here are some ways that my family prepares intentionally for Christmas and the surrounding holidays. I hope they help you to keep Christmas simply and joyfully!

Which days are you celebrating?

The commercial holiday season starts the day after Thanksgiving (or earlier), and ends on December 25, or January 1 if you’re lucky. After that point, holiday items disappear from the stores, radio stations resume their normal selections, and evergreens can be spotted lying bedraggled and lonely on sidewalks or in backyards.

Did you ever stop to wonder why we celebrate this way?

A month of festivities beforehand makes Christmas Day seem unimportant. People are already surfeited by the premature onslaught of holiday cheer. Wouldn’t Christmas (and Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Day) be more special if that particular day was given more significance?

What I’m suggesting here is, don’t party early. My family’s tradition, along with many cultures, is to save the celebrations for the holiday itself.

Instead of breaking out the decorations and putting up a tree at the beginning of December, we wait until a few days before Christmas. Instead of partying all month long, we use those weeks before Christmas to prepare our hearts and our homes.

During the secular holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we celebrate the season of Advent. This is a time of waiting, of looking forward joyfully to the coming celebration of Christmas. It’s a special time of preparation for a special day… or season, in fact.

Yes, we do celebrate Christmas as a season — just not on the same days as the secular culture does. For Catholics, the Christmas season begins on December 25 with the feast of Christ’s birth, and it continues until the feast of Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan (which is the Sunday after Epiphany).

This way of celebrating makes sense to me. We don’t celebrate birthdays before they happen, so why would we celebrate Christ’s birth early?

Furthermore, the Advent season of anticipation has always been one of my favorite seasons! It helps me to appreciate Christmas so much more when I spend four weeks reflecting on the meaning of the day, without all the distractions and whirlwind activity which characterizes December for so many people.

Advent is for quiet preparations

I said before that Advent is a time of preparation. Just like the nine months of pregnancy, there’s more to it than merely waiting for a baby to be born.

Advent is about preparing our hearts and our homes to welcome Christ when He comes: at Christmas, when we celebrate His birth, and at the end of the world, when He will come as the Just Judge.

Reflecting on these two comings of Christ makes Christmas more than merely a nostalgic time for family and friends. Advent gives us the opportunity to sweep out our hearts and homes to make room for Christ.

This requires a sort of quiet, thoughtful preparation. This time of waiting is by no means boring: there is plenty to do between cleaning house from top to bottom, making and wrapping gifts for loved ones, and preparing delicious foods for the coming festivities.

But it shouldn’t be too busy, too full, too loud and distracting. There should always be space for reflection, and time spent intentionally cultivating family traditions.

Keeping Advent at Home

How do you keep things quiet in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season? Well, you can’t change the secular culture, but you don’t have to let it into your house. Here are some suggestions to keep Advent quiet and meaningful:

Don’t throw a Christmas party before Christmas

What gets you in the “holiday spirit” more than a party? I’m not a Grinch, and I do like parties, but a Christmas party on December 10th seems a little premature, doesn’t it?

The time between Christmas Day and New Year’s (or Epiphany, January 6) is a wonderful time to celebrate with family and friends. If you’re invited to a Christmas party during Advent, it’s up to you. I personally don’t see any harm in going to such parties, provided they don’t take away too much of your peace of mind!

You can always explain to friends or relatives that you would rather wait until Christmas before celebrating. They might think you’re nuts, but they just might reschedule the party!

Don’t play Christmas music in your home before Christmas

I love Christmas music so much that, as a child, I would start playing it in August! Nowadays, I still love it, but I would rather save my enjoyment of it until Christmastime.

During December, we sometimes play music from “The Nutcracker” ballet or parts of Handel’s “Messiah.” There are some secular songs often played during December which are fine for Advent: “Winter Wonderland,” “Sleigh Ride,” and even “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” are a few. These songs are about winter, or waiting for Christmas.

If you search for it, you can find lots of music that is winter-themed instead of specifically about the holiday. But do save the Christmas carols for their proper season!

This really helps if you have young children, who get excited easily! Music that keeps them thinking about Christmas all the time makes the waiting that much harder for little ones.

Do you think the Christmas season is too short to enjoy all of your favorite Christmas songs? Have a caroling party! Whether you walk around your neighborhood singing door to door, or gather ’round the piano at home, this is a wonderful way to keep celebrating Christmas after December 25.

Bake Christmas cookies early, but save them

Have you ever turned away from a tray of goodies on Christmas because you just don’t want any more sweets? When you celebrate for a month before the actual holiday, the novelty wears off — and the significance is utterly lost.

We bake cookies on particular days throughout December to mark special feast days. We enjoy some of the cookies that night, and then freeze the rest for Christmas.

This is a double win for me: we get to celebrate the smaller feasts throughout December in a special way, and I don’t have to worry about baking a ton of cookies when I’m planning Christmas dinner!

You can read more about traditional cookies to make during Advent if you would like!

Make your decorations meaningful and simple

In keeping with the quiet spirit of Advent, we do not decorate much until a few days before Christmas, with one exception.

I make an Advent wreath at the beginning of Advent, and each evening, we light candles and say special prayers together. I love the scent of freshly-cut evergreens, and the tradition is important to our family.

As far as other decorations go, use your judgment. How do you want your house to feel during Christmastime? Festive decorations are fine, but I don’t want a jubilant feeling in my house much before Christmas, if I can help it.

Some people decorate slowly throughout December: first a nativity scene, then some greenery, and then the rest of it goes up a week or two before Christmas.

(One of the effects of living in a small cabin means not owning a lot of decorations, so it takes me approximately half an hour to decorate!) You might need more time, and thus it may make sense for you to start decorating earlier than I do.

What about Christmas trees?

I love Christmas trees, for their rich significance and tradition. If you’ve never looked up the early German traditions, or sung the original (translated, of course!) verses of “O Tannenbaum”, I encourage you to do so as a family activity.

After learning more about them, I was able to adopt my husband’s tradition of lighting the tree after sunset on Christmas Eve. We decorate our tree a few days before Christmas, but don’t light the tree lights until Christmas Eve, per a centuries-old tradition.

It’s a joyful and magical event when the father says a blessing over the tree, and all the lights begin to twinkle in the dusk. Then you know it’s Christmas!

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For more ideas about keeping Advent and Christmas, I highly recommend Kendra Tierney’s book, “The Catholic All Year Compendium.” *This is an affiliate link. Read my full disclosure here.*

I hope these Advent and Christmas traditions help you to slow down and make your celebration more meaningful this year. I love Christmas, and waiting for it has helped me to appreciate this special season so much.

~Kimberly

Fall is my favorite season of all! The air turns crisp and the nights get longer, the leaves turn brilliant crimson and gold, and life starts to slow down from the busy pace of summer.

There are so many different ways to enjoy this season, without even leaving your home! You don’t have to find a fall festival or drive an hour to an orchard to incorporate a little autumn splendor into your life. Here are my top ten favorite fall activities to do at home.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click the links and make a qualified purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read my full disclosure here.

1. Bake with apples and pumpkins

I’m very thankful for preservation methods which allow you to store apples and pumpkins all year, but there’s something wonderful about using fresh produce when you’re cooking and baking. Summer may boast more varieties of fruits and vegetables, but those that ripen in autumn are worth the wait!

The smell of fresh apples is so sweet and heady, it makes me think of sunny afternoons in an orchard. And the deep orange swell of a pumpkin is just about the most homely, satisfying sight I can imagine.

As soon as the first apples are ripe, I reach for my favorite autumn recipes: Grandma’s old-fashioned apple cake, apple dumplings (Land O’ Lakes Treasury of Country Recipes), and of course, apple pie (Farm Journal’s Country Cookbook)!

When the apple harvest is in full swing, I love to make applesauce! It’s so easy, and you can freeze or can it to have on hand all year long. You can mix in other fruits or spices if you like; I just love a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg in mine. On the stove or in the slow cooker, it couldn’t be simpler!

As for pumpkin, everyone has their favorite pumpkin bread recipe! My mother’s is the best. I also make pumpkin spice snickerdoodles all season long, and this decadent pumpkin french toast bake just steals the show!

2. Make fancy coffee or cocoa drinks

I don’t care much for pumpkin spice in my coffee, but I do like cinnamon and maple! Instead of paying coffee shop prices, I love trying different recipes at home. Mixing up a fancy concoction on a slow, chilly morning is my idea of a perfect fall activity!

Here’s an easy way to make steamed milk at home without a milk frother:

• Measure 1/4 cup of milk into a pint jar
• Screw the lid on and shake vigorously for one minute
• Remove the lid and microwave on high for about 45 seconds
• Pour the frothy milk on top of your coffee! You may need a spatula to scrape the foam out of the jar.

There are also plenty of good recipes for making sweet lattes and hot chocolate in the slow cooker, if you like to prepare hot drinks ahead of time for company. A sprinkle of cinnamon or a dollop of whipped cream on top makes it extra special!

3. Go for a walk in the woods

What better way to enjoy the colors of fall than to get outside and surround yourself with them? Fall is my favorite season to walk in the woods.

The bugs are mostly gone, the air isn’t too hot for exertion, and the trees and bushes are transforming themselves into a crazy quilt of colors. Contemplating fiery orange leaves against a deep blue sky is one of my favorite ways to spend an autumn afternoon.

Add a cozy sweater to combat the chilly breezes, and some well-loved boots to keep my feet warm and dry, and I am one happy hiker!

4. Read books by lamplight

Do you read much in the summer? I never seem to have time during the warm, sunny months when there’s always something to do outside. But in the fall, especially on damp and drizzly days, my books start calling to me again.

On those long autumn evenings once the house is still, there’s nothing I like better than curling up with a warm blanket and a good book. Be it philosophy or fiction, literary classic or light reading, I love the whisper of turning leaves and the soft glow of lamplight on my page.

Autumn promises an escape: into another world, or deeper into this one. Good books can help you do both.

5. Have a tea party

Tea parties are the perfect excuse for baking all sorts of themed treats and tidbits, are they not? Spring has its strawberry tart and summer its bounty of berries, but autumn lays claim to squashes, apples, grapes, and nuts of all kinds.

Pumpkin buns and spice cake seem particularly appropriate this time of year. Even if you don’t want to bake with these, you can make cookies in the shapes of leaves, animals, or other fall-themed fancies.

And let’s not forget the most important part of any party: tea! There are many delicious teas for autumn, whether you prefer black or herbal blends.

These warm, spiced varieties are my favorites: Vermont Maple Ginger from Celestial Seasonings, Hot Cinnamon Spice by Harney & Sons, and Cinnamon Plum from The Republic of Tea. Rishi Tea also makes a Cinnamon Plum blend, if you prefer loose leaf teas.

Or make your own Spiced Cranberry Tea for a special treat! You can make it with black tea, decaf, or just water if you don’t want any caffeine.

Read more about hosting an autumn tea party here!

6. Make handmade gifts

After a long summer spent outdoors, I am ready to enjoy more time inside making things. Creating something with my hands makes me happy, especially when I’m making it for someone I love.

As the pace of life slows down a little, my thoughts turn ahead to Christmas and birthdays. I like to start projects early in the fall, so that I have a better chance of finishing them on time!

It’s a very satisfying feeling to squirrel away my finished gifts and think of the pleasure they will give!

7. Dry herbs and flowers

I’m sure some of you harvest and dry herbs all summer long, but I never seem to get around to it until fall. Then I go out to my herb garden and harvest great quantities of herbs on chilly mornings when the dew hangs heavily on the plants.

I rinse the stems, pat them dry, and tie them up in little bundles to dry completely. It’s such a cozy, homely sight to see a string of herbs drying against the wall!

Some herbs do better in the dehydrator: particularly those with large leaves, like basil and parsley. These take a long time to dry by hanging, and they tend to lose their color if dried that way.

If you don’t have fresh herbs to dry, you can press flowers to save a bit of summer color. Preserved flowers and petals can be used for stationery, potpourri, or other craft projects. Dried rose petals and lavender have many uses in the kitchen as well.

8. Dig out your flannel and woolens

I like to organize my closet in the fall. It brings me great pleasure to bring out my heavier fall and winter clothes, and move them to the front of my closet.

The lighter spring and summer pieces retire gracefully to the back of my dresser drawers to hibernate until their season blooms again.

But the feel of soft flannel and thick sweaters in my hands, the smell of leather boots and the heft of a wool coat bring back memories of other autumns, and anticipation of a new season ahead.

9. Preserve garden harvest

Whether you have a garden or not, fall is a great time to preserve fresh produce. Perhaps you have friends who will bestow some of their bounty upon you, or a local farm stand or farmer’s market.

I think of all the animals storing food away for the winter, and it makes me want to imitate their industrious habits!

Whether you prefer to can, freeze, ferment, or dry your harvest, there are plenty of options for preserving fresh fruits and vegetables. (Too many to list here!)

One of my favorite things to preserve in autumn is mincemeat. Stirring a kettle of fruits, meat, and spices makes me feel like I went back in time… to the Middle Ages!

Mincemeat can be canned, or merely kept in a crock in your refrigerator or root cellar if spirits are added. The best mincemeat is somewhat aged, so I make it in September or October so that it will be ready for Christmastime.

My favorite mincemeat recipes are from A Continual Feast and The Alaska Wild Berry Cookbook (original edition).

Send a card just because

This idea is in the same vein as making gifts. Cards or letters are little gifts that don’t need an occasion. It is a great pleasure to receive a handwritten note in the mail from a friend, particularly on an ordinary day.

I like to make cards and send them to friends and relatives all year long, but it seems to happen more frequently in the autumn! I think it’s because autumn is a time of memories and reflection. Whenever I find myself thinking of a particular friend, it’s nice to jot down a friendly greeting, even if I don’t have time to write a full letter.

Why not brighten up someone’s day with a cheery note in a pretty envelope? It only takes a few minutes, and is sure to bring the recipient a smile.

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Those are my top ten favorite fall activities to do at home. See, even homebodies can find plenty of ways to enjoy autumn!

Here are some ways to make your house cozy for autumn. What are your fall favorites?