There are many wonderful celebrations of light, love, and gratitude during this holiday season.  December 2nd begins the season of Advent this year, and with it many of the activities for winding down the school year for the first semester.  It can turn quickly from a time of cherishing family, home cooking, and love to recitals, end of year banquets and parties for sports teams, multiple family and friend gatherings and a chaotic feeling of trying to get everything done.

So, this holiday, I hope we can all keep the holidays BRIGHT instead of feeling lost in the chaos.  I love the idea of choosing meaningful things to do throughout the season, and really keeping Advent as Advent and the twelve days of Christmas as Christmas!

It is never too late to begin anew!  Here is a wonderful guest post by Christine Natale“Musings on Saint Nicholas Day and Starting New Holiday Traditions”

So, in honor of this idea of everything having its own time and place, here are the things we will be celebrating during this season:

• Dec 2- The First Sunday in Advent (ideas here)
• Dec 6- The Feast of St. Nicholas- this is one of my favorite celebrations of the entire year!  You can see more about that here and favorite stories here
• Dec 9- The Second Sunday in Advent (ideas here)
• Dec 13- The Feast of St. Lucy!  Here is a post about Celebrating Santa Lucia in the Waldorf Home
• Dec 14- Birthday for our eighth grader!
• Dec. 16 – The Third Sunday in Advent (ideas for the third week and preparing for the Winter Solstice)
• Dec 23- The Fourth Sunday in Advent (ideas here)
• Dec 24- Christmas Eve
• Dec 25- Christmas Day – the First Day of Christmas (see more about  Celebrating Christmastide here)
• Dec 26- Boxing Day
• Dec. 31 – New Year’s Eve
• Jan 1- New Year’s Day
• Jan 6-  Epiphany / Three King’s Day (see here for ideas )

Our main plans include seeing holiday lights at the botanical garden (which we already did); making an Advent wreath; baking gingerbread;  ice skating on the  outdoor skating rink; going to see a production of The Nutcracker as a family; driving around to see holiday lights; having a family night with a hot chocolate bar and games; and I am seeing about planning an outdoor winter scavenger hunt for the kids.  Some of you may be interested in hosting a Winter Spiral at your home; we did this for many years.

Here are some thoughts about favorite gifts and holiday gifts for children. There was a series I did in 2009 about the inner work of Advent and it begins here if you are interested in tracking those posts down.  One of my favorite ways to do inner work is while walking outside; I find it is very important for me to get outside this time of year.  I also start thinking about the word for 2019; a word that symbolizes and helps me envision the entire year ahead.

Here is to a merry and bright (but not overwhelming) holiday season!

Blessings and love,
Carrie