Holidays with the Blays Part 1: Advent Season

Holidays to me mean food, family, friends, fun, and faith. The whole month of December was filled with gatherings from all our circles of influences. I always look forward to this most wonderful time of the year because of all of these.

The Christmas season really doesn't begin until Advent ends. So our family did our best to celebrate the Advent season, too. We did not put up a lot of Christmas decors, though our house may be small and easy to decorate. We tried to focus more on praying with the season using our Advent wreath and our Jesse Tree.

Here I share part 1 of our Holiday Celebrations: the Advent Season.

Most people skip Advent and start enjoying Christmas as early as the first candle on the wreath is lit. We challenged ourselves to do it the right way. We went through Advent and awaited Christ's coming. I wish to impart the ways we tried to fight the urge to celebrate Christmas immediately.

Many of us are familiar with the Advent wreath. We used this short Advent Weekly Prayers to guide us. By the way, we have been using this DIY Advent wreath for the three consecutive years already.

3rd week of Advent: 3 candles lit

Now instead of the traditional Christmas tree, we used the Jesse Tree. A guide was also provided along with the tree. 

There are many ways to pray with the Jesse Tree, here is one source similar to what we used:

Jesse Tree

"The Jesse Tree helps us connect the custom of decorating Christmas trees to the events leading to Jesus' birth. The Jesse Tree is named from Isaiah 11:1: “A shoot shall come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” Jesse was the father of King David. We adorn a Jesse Tree with illustrated ornaments that represent the people, prophesies, and events leading up to the birth of Jesus. The ornaments of the Jesse Tree tell the story of God in the Old Testament, connecting the Advent season with the faithfulness of God across four thousand years of history."

The idea is, you read passages pertaining to one significant event from Scripture leading to Jesus' birth. An ornament with a symbol is to be placed on the Jesse tree. As days to Christmas draw near, more ornaments are placed, decorations on the tree increase. Our source also makes cookies as an alternative for the wooden ornaments. But you have to eat them after Christmas. :)

On Christmas day, this is how the Jesse tree looks like

In the future, I plan to make shorter, child-friendly versions of the readings. Most readings were quite long but it helped that my hubby and I knew many of the stories, or else we would have to read them while having dinner. :)

We do our prayers before dinner time. We pray and light the candle/s in the Advent wreath, then we reflect and sometimes share about the readings for the Jesse tree. To be honest, we weren't able to complete the prayers. It was a challenge, especially during the weekends. But I believe God acknowledges our efforts. :)

These two have greatly helped us as a family to appreciate and "wait" patiently for Christmas day. Though it was difficult to stay faithful to them, I find that it has truly been a fruitful time of preparing for Christmas.

With Noah, who found the Jesse tree quite attractive, and our commitment to make time for Advent, our Advent journey was more meaningful this year.