We are so fortunate that Advent begins this year on December 3rd!  I always feel a little behind the ball when Advent starts the weekend directly after Thanksgiving.  So, these few days after Thanksgiving are finding me gathering some of the things we need for our first week of Advent, which will cover December 3rd – December 10th.

For me, there are a few main things I love about this week, including gathering the greens for our Advent wreath and setting that up, (along with gathering the minerals, rocks, bones, and other representations of the mineral kingdom we will use in our wreath this first week); finding our Advent calendar and setting it up; and gathering stories and recipes and things to do for this first week that have to do with Saint Nicholas Day, which is December 6th.

If you would like to learn a little more about Saint Nicholas Day, I suggest these two back posts:

Saint Nicholas Day in the Waldorf Home

Musings on Saint Nicholas and Starting New Holiday Traditions by Christine Natale

I also suggest looking at the wonderful St. Nicholas Center.  There are incredible stories there, including ones by Parenting Passageway contributor Christine Natale!

If you are on the hunt for great books to build your Advent library (or some families will wrap 24 books, one to be unwrapped and read for every day of December until Christmas Day), I suggest the Advent book lists by Elizabeth Foss:

Advent and Christmas with Tomie dePaola

Read Aloud books for Advent

And here is a back post with a book list specifically for Saint Nicholas Day:

Favorite Stories for Saint Nicholas Day

Happy Planning!  I will be posting pictures of some of our activities on The Parenting Passageway Facebook page!

Blessings and love,
Carrie