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Sacred Season Episode 2: Advent

December 1st, 2019 | 2 min read

By Jake Meador

Sacred Season: Episode 2

Thanks so much for listening to the second episode of Sacred Season!

Opening Scripture: Isaiah 40:3

Closing Scripture: Psalm 130

Original podcast music by Shannon Soderlund (who does, btw, have a WONDERFUL Christmas album that everyone should buy.)

Here are a few thoughts on ways to observe a slow(er) Advent with your families – remember that your life season won’t always match up with the liturgical season, and that’s okay! Observe the liturgical season as you’re able.

Resources to use with your kids:

Star from Afar – a fun little nativity activity. You’re supposed to hide the star in different places each day and have the kids find the star and move the wiseman to that spot. It’s a fun way to build anticipation ahead of Christmas and keep the focus on moving toward Christ. 

Little Hearts Prepare Him Room by Holly Mackle – this is a sweet and flexible family devotional book. Please note that this devotional guide gets to the birth of Christ around day 12 so you might have to tweak it to work for your family, but the content is very worthwhile. You could easily stretch it out to use all the way until Epiphany. 

Family Tree of Christ Cards by Tiny Theologians – this is a fun activity for elementary age kids. It incorporates scripture, discussion questions, and once all the cards are laid out, it creates a mural of Christ’s family tree!  

Waiting Is Not Easy by Mo Willems – while this is NOT an Advent book (at all), it IS a good reminder for your kiddos and a great hook for talking about how long the Israelites waited for Christ and how good things are worth waiting for. 

A few possible options for family traditions:

  • Put your tree up slowly. Buy it one week. Light it the next. Decorate a little in the weeks following. Add your star on Christmas Eve. (Or just decorate your home slowly).
  • Light an advent wreath, adding one candle on each Sunday of Advent. 
  • Use an Advent calendar – with chocolate or just the traditional paper doors.
  • Make a paper chain and tear off one chain for each day leading up to Christmas.
  • Remove Baby Jesus from your nativity set until Christmas morning. Stick the wiseman on a shelf far away to show their journey.

Jake Meador

Jake Meador is the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy. He is a 2010 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he studied English and History. He lives in Lincoln, NE with his wife Joie, their daughter Davy Joy, and sons Wendell, Austin, and Ambrose. Jake's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Commonweal, Christianity Today, Fare Forward, the University Bookman, Books & Culture, First Things, National Review, Front Porch Republic, and The Run of Play and he has written or contributed to several books, including "In Search of the Common Good," "What Are Christians For?" (both with InterVarsity Press), "A Protestant Christendom?" (with Davenant Press), and "Telling the Stories Right" (with the Front Porch Republic Press).