The second week of Advent reminds me of the rejoicing of the plant kingdom as we progress ever nearer to the Nativity.  I love the short, little stories in the “Light in the Lantern” book for this week.  Here are a few more of our favorites this week, focused on the upcoming St. Lucia Day on the 13th, and plants and flowers:

7- Little Tree by ee cummings, story and pictures by Chris Rashka.  My father loved ee cummings, so this little book has special meaning to me.

8-  Christmas Farm by Mary Lynn Ray

9- Night Tree by Eve Bunting

10-  Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

11- A Christmas Tree for Pyn by Olivier Dunrea

12-  The Star Tree by Gisela Colle

13- Grandfather’s Christmas Camp by Marc McCutheon

If you would like to learn more about celebrating the Feast of St. Lucia, please see this back post.   Here is a  lovely gentle story for St. Lucia Day for little ears. 

These are a few of the things we love for this week:

• Creating little moss gardens with floating walnut boats can be wonderful for children under the age of 9, although older children may (secretly) like it as well.  You can use a small tin tub, or a small pottery bowl – fill it with soil and moss and add little treasures throughout the week.   Save a walnut shell with wool for Christmas Day in which to place a little beeswax baby Jesus. 
• This would be a wonderful week to have an Advent Spiral.  I doubt we will get to do one this year, but we have done this for many years and it was always beautiful and reverent.
• Singing!  Many churches have caroling this week, or services of “Lessons and Carols” – Scripture reading and singing.
• Making small gifts – candle dipping, candle rolling or other little gifts can be lovely.  We will be making some things this week.
• Finding beautiful verses, poetry, Scripture to capture the essence of this Season.
• Planting sweet little indoor bulbs
• Spending time in the woods, the meadows, the farm.  Enjoying the solitude.
• Are there any Swedish groups in your area holding special events for St. Lucia?  Could be worth it to check in your community!
• Some wait until the last minute to get a Christmas tree; we usually do although last year I have to say the ones in the size we usually get at our local Christmas tree farm were all gone – so this could be a week to think about a tree if you don’t mind having one during the second week of Advent.

Please share the wonders of your week.

Blessings and joy,

Carrie

Did St. Nicholas come to visit your house yesterday morning?  We have been celebrating St. Nicholas Day for many years now, first as part of the cycle of the year in Waldorf festivals in addition to our Germanic roots, and now as part of our liturgical year in the Episcopal Church.  Such a lovely day!

I love this little quote from Sarah Ban Breathnach’s “Mrs. Sharpe’s Traditions” about St. Nicholas Day:

For parents who feel frustrated by the fact that Santa Claus’s visit inevitably overshadows their religious observance of the birth of Christ, a visit from St. Nicholas can help tremendously.  For modern children who no longer believe in Santa Claus (and to Mrs. Sharp’s dismay, it seems they get younger with each passing Christmas), a celebration of St. Nicholas Day can satisfy a deep desire in children to believe in a benevolent and generous gift giver who rewards the good.

The author goes on to discuss her little treats of choice: seasonal cakes (such as iced gingerbread, lebkuchen,), a small bag of gold foil covered chocolate coins and one longed-for gift.  From Waldorf resources, “Festivals With Children” by Brigitte Barz actually has no mention of St. Nicholas Day (but does cover St. Barbara’s branches!), but Freya Jaffke covers the role of St. Nicholas in the Waldorf School setting quite extensively.  She writes:

St. Nicholas brings another true and resonant image to children on their journey through Advent…Legends about St. Nicholas describe how he emanated love and benevolence and was willing to sacrifice himself. Thus he becomes a figure who prepares and heralds the Christmas festival, at which the birth of Christ can be renewed in us each year.

When St. Nicholas visits a Waldorf classroom, he often carries a large golden book and offers the events of the past few days for small children – Jaffke writes that he does not judge, but  does expresses pleasure at things for the small children.  Only after the age of seven could one expect children to begin reflecting on their actions and perhaps undertake to improve anything or change something.  The author goes on to describe three traditional gifts – the apple (knowledge); nuts (strength!) and sweets such as gingerbread (warmth).  The author writes a lively description of the morning of a St. Nicholas visit  to a classroom with order of events.  Most of all, St. Nicholas becomes an inner preparation for the Advent season for adults and children alike.

In our home, we focus on stories of St. Nicholas and  the life of St. Nicholas.  In the past sometimes we have done homemade gifts and sometimes it was a more major gift-giving day.; sometimes we gave out nuts and fruit and made iced gingerbread.   This year we had gold foil coins and one gift plus a little set of Nativity Icons to color as ornaments for our Christmas tree (which we will get this week, I think).  I didn’t make a golden scroll or note from St. Nicholas, which I have done in past years as well, but we did go to church and celebrate again.   I have kept things as simple as possible this year to just relax and have fun with our children of widely different ages, especially when a Feast Day falls on a day where we will be at church, which is a busy day of the week for us.

This week marks the second week of Advent and tomorrow I will be sharing with you the things I love in the second week of Advent.  Please share your traditions, successes, and joys.

Many blessings,
Carrie

In 2009, I wrote a series called, ‘The Inner Work of Advent” and it featured twelve posts.  You can see the posts in this series in this round-up post.  This year, I would like to approach Advent through the topic of calm and quiet.  I think most people intuitively know this is a time of year to prepare, to wait, to anticipate, but somehow along the way it gets hijacked by commercialism, materialism, busy, too many end of year parties and holiday festivities.  I have fallen into that trap myself, and would like to encourage all of us toward some time of re-centering toward what is important in this time of year.  Creating light to prevail over darkness. Wholeness to prevail over brokeness.  Health to prevail over illness, in body and mind and spirit.

In order to do this, we must carve out time to be at home and not running off somewhere. We must carve time to be in solitude and think and re-center ourselves.  What are our priorities?  What are our values? What is our vision for our family, our mission (more on that soon).  If we homeschool, perhaps we might think, without even putting a label of what “methodology” it is – what do we value?  How do we connect to others in meaningful ways? How do we shine light in our corner of the world?  How do we find ourselves and our joy?

These are big topics, but I hope to dive into these swirling depths over the next few weeks during Advent.  Won’t you join me?

Blessings,
Carrie