Category / Advent

advent candle wreath
by Karen Twinem

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Advent

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The first Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. Do you want a calm Christmas? A holy December? This is where to begin.

Step one is always the Christmas Pledge. I wrote it down decades ago and can’t find the source. But it has served as a pathway for a meaningful Advent.

The Christmas Pledge

  1. To remember those people who truly need my gifts.
  2. To express my love for family and friends in more direct ways that presents.
  3. To re-dedicate myself to the spiritual growth of my family.
  4. To examine my holiday activities in light of the true spirit of Christmas.
  5. To initiate one act of peacemaking within my circle of family and friends.

You can fulfill the pledge in many ways:

  • Give a Christmas present from your family to World Vision or another charity. You can have the youngest child or grandchild pick out the gift. We gave a goat to a family in Africa last year.
  • Prepare a blessing bag with a Christmas card or other Christmas twist to give to the homeless you see. To learn more about blessing bags, click here.
  • Give a warm handwritten note to those you love most.
  • Put up an Advent wreath, lighting the candle of hope on Sunday.
  • Introduce Advent activities into your Christmas calendar.
    • Advent calendars are trendy. You can make a meaningful one digitally or with 25 envelopes. I have a refillable Advent box similar to this. I put mini Christmas ornaments on it for the mini-tree. Others put Advent activities on real calendars.
  • Go through your list of “must do” events to see if they reflect your values.
  • Reach out to family members and neighbors who vote differently than you do.
  • Find an Advent devotional to read each day during your quiet time.

We kick off the First Sunday of Advent with church attendance. Then we set up the barn in our nativity scene … empty. We add the people and animals as the season progresses. We also make Christmas cookies for tea in the afternoon.

On Sunday, I start an Advent devotional from those I have collected over the years. I rotate so this year’s devotionals include “Meditations on the Birth of Jesus: A Renovare Advent Resource for Spiritual Renewal” by Miriam Dixon and Margaret Campbell. I also may add “Hidden Christmas” by Timothy Keller. It’s first on a list of recommended Advent devotionals that you can find on Goodreads here.

Step by step, day by day, you can have the quiet holiday you crave. All you have to do is apply these ideas, based on Christian mindfulness. A holy Advent season leads to a happier new year.

nativity scene reflects Christmas
by Karen Twinem

Start Advent With a Christmas Pledge

As the first week of Advent begins, decide to enjoy the season with Christian mindfulness. I always take a Christmas Pledge.

I wrote this down decades ago, and I can’t find the source online.  It has served me well.

The Christmas Pledge

  1. To remember those people who truly need my gifts.
  2. To express my love for family and friends in more direct ways that presents.
  3. To re-dedicate myself to the spiritual growth of my family.
  4. To examine my holiday activities in light of the true spirit of Christmas.
  5. To initiate one act of peacemaking within my circle of family and friends.

You can fulfill the pledge in many ways:

  • Give a Christmas present from your family to World Vision or another charity. You can have the youngest children pick out what the gift can be. We gave chickens last year.
  • Prepare a blessing bag with a Christmas card or other Christmas twist to give to the homeless you see. To learn more about blessing bags, click here.
  • Give a warm handwritten note to those you love most.
  • Introduce Advent activities into your Christmas calendar.
  • Go through your list of “must do” events to see if they reflect your values.
  • Reach out to family members and neighbors who voted differently than you did.

Advent can be the quiet holiday you crave. You have to view it through the lens of Christian mindfulness, or you will be swept along with the secular tide. A holy Advent season will lead to a happier new year.

by Karen Twinem

Take the Christmas Pledge

As the first week of Advent begins, decide to enjoy the season with Christian mindfulness. I always take a Christmas Pledge.

I wrote this down decades ago, and I can’t find the source online.  It has served me well.

The Christmas Pledge

  1. To remember those people who truly need my gifts.
  2. To express my love for family and friends in more direct ways that presents.
  3. To rededicate myself to the spiritual growth of my family.
  4. To examine my holiday activities in light of the true spirit of Christmas.
  5. To initiate one act of peacemaking within my circle of family and friends.

Amen to that.

by Karen Twinem

Prepare for Advent

The first Sunday of Advent is the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It’s a great time to make sure you have your supplies, books and ideas ready for the season.

Having a mindful Christian Advent is a time of joy and wonder. It’s a quiet time spent intentionally concentrating on the miracle of Jesus’ birth rather than the commercial version of Christmas. This kind of Advent is build peace instead of panic.

two books for Advent

Some ideas for Advent prep include:

  • Get or make Advent candles. (We are doing beeswax candles from a kit this year. You can find the kit here.)
  • Purchase an Advent calendar or stock up one if you have a reusable model.
  • Get the Advent wreath out of storage … or buy one.
  • Order a new Advent devotional or order new ones. This year I’m using two favorites: “Preparing for Christmas” by Richard Rohr and “Living in Joyful Hope” by Suzanne M. Lewis.
  • Get out your Christmas music.
  • Organize children’s Christmas books.
  • Pick the name of a saint or devout Christian. You can study their life during the season. I’m doing Henri Nouwen this year.
Advent candles
by Karen Twinem

Five Ways to Celebrate Advent

The four weeks of Advent are the beginning of the Christian year. Bringing mindfulness and intention to those four weeks helps you create a different holiday season from Christmas … one that prepares you for the commemoration of the birth of Jesus. Advent is quiet, not festive. Simple, not overstuffed. Focused on the spiritual, not the material.

The season is best known for Advent wreathes and Advent calendars. (You can get a Christ-centered calendar in addition to one with toys or chocolates.) Other ideas include:

  1. Use a creche that you can fill gradually to tell the Christmas story. Week 1: Put up the empty creche. Week 2: Add the animals. Week 3: Add the shepherds and their sheep. Week 4: Add the angel. Christmas Eve: Add Mary and Joseph. Christmas Day: Add baby Jesus. Epiphany: Add the wide men and their camels.
  2. Wrap 20ish books in Christmas paper, and put them in a basket. You pick out one book per night to read to your children.
  3. Put out a basket to collect money for a cause during Advent. Keep a list in the basket of all the good deeds that the kids (and you) have done. Discuss the good deeds at Christmas Eve dinner.
  4. Find Advent playlists on Spotify to find out the difference between Advent music and Christmas music.
  5. Make or buy consumable gifts, such as food, to reduce clutter and waste.

Once you are in the Advent frame of mind, you can create your own traditions. When my kids were little, we had a small manger and a baby Jesus. When the kids did something nice, they got to put hay in baby Jesus’ manger to make him more comfortable. One year this did result in a hay-throwing situation, but overall it was successful.

Advent is a joyous time of year that prepares you for the Christmas season. Do enjoy it!

by Karen Twinem

And Winter Solstice Comes

Today is winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. In one of the darkest (and longest) years in memory. And tonight the two largest planets in our solar system will appear as a double planet.

The last time Jupiter and Saturn looked this close together was March 4, 1226. Many are calling the event “the return of the Christmas star.” Hopefully some will be able to see it in the southwest sky at twilight. (Ohio white sky probably will make that impossible for us.)

We bring Christian mindfulness to winter solstice. We offer prayers of gratitude for our relative safety and security as the cold approaches. We prepare for winter. We fill the bird feeders. We generally make our favorite cocoa mix. (This year I went a little nuts on the hot chocolate K-cups, so we’ll skip that.)

Tomorrow the days start getting lighter. My friends in medicine are getting vaccines. My mother-in-law, who is in a memory care unit at a long-term care facility, gets hers next month. Hope is on the horizon.

sign that says joy
by Karen Twinem

How to Find Lasting Joy

The nature of time makes even joyful moments feel transient. I have a PhD in “waiting for the other shoe to drop.” And I know lots of people just like me.

Yet I’ve changed. There is a way to find lasting joy. I have it in writing.

Since 2017, I’ve kept a five-year journal that asks a question each day. It’s so interesting to see how I’ve answered the same question over the years. The question for Dec. 19 is: If you could change one thing about today, what would it be? My answers:

  • 2017: My broken ankle would be healed, and I would be completely mobile.
  • 2018: I would be on track for Christmas. The house would be completely decorated, tree done, presents wrapped and stocking stuffers purchased.
  • 2019: Mother would not be in late stage dementia in a nursing home that is giving her questionable care.
  • 2020: We would be able to see our 3-year-old granddaughter at Christmas because the pandemic would be over.

The broken ankle healed. I am on track for Christmas. Mother’s agony at the nursing home ended with her passing. It all was resolved. Hopefully, next year we will be able to enjoy Christmas with our granddaughter because the pandemic is over.

In a few days, I will be asked to answer this question, “When was the last time you felt joy and peace?” The answers so far:

  • 2017: During morning prayer
  • 2018: During morning prayer
  • 2019: During morning prayer. Mother died this morning.

The 2020 answer will probably also be “during morning prayer.” (I am fortunate enough to have multiple prayer times each day, but I fill out the five-year journal directly after morning prayer.)

The nature of time makes it difficult to feel peace and joy. Unless you are spending time in the presence of Jesus. Christian mindfulness involves experiencing the present in the presence of God. That is how you find lasting joy.

by Karen Twinem

Why Celebrate Advent

Advent is a time of waiting, but not sterile and empty waiting. It is a time of creative expectancy … we know that we must get ourselves ready for the coming of Christ. We know that Christ is with us, but we also know that the full presence of the Risen Lord is never totally a part of our consciousness and our actions. Advent brings that presence into our daily lives so that at Christmas we can say that God is more a reality to us than before we began our waiting.

Rembert Weakland, OSB
Santa with giant bag of presents
by Karen Twinem

Meditate on Santa’s Gospel

The Gospel According to Santa Claus goes beyond commercialization. It impacts the heart and soul of the Christmas celebration. It took its shape as gospel in the 20th century. And it’s going strong today.

What does Santa preach? The late, great nonprofit organization, Alternatives, wrote about it in their compilation “Treasury of Celebrations: Create Celebrations that Reflect Your Values and Don’t Cost the Earth.” 

"The good news of Santa Claus is for the affluent.
Santa's mission is mainly to the healthy and successful.
The heralds of Santa Claus proclaim self-satisfaction.
Pleasure is the dominant theme.
There is no room for self-denial and the cross.
To stimulate business: 'Let one who has a coat get another coat.' " 


"Treasury of Celebrations" is out of print.  Grab it if you can find it.  It's a five-star book for my household. Other good resources for Christian mindfulness are here. 

This Advent, consider how the gospel of Santa Claus contrasts with the gospel of Jesus.  The Jesus who  came to Earth to sacrifice himself, at great cost, so we can join him forever in Heaven. The Jesus who  cares about the poor, the homeless, the sick, the imprisoned. Meditate on this.

girls putting ornaments on a christmas tree
by Karen Twinem

Try It: Rejoice, Rejoice

Let’s open ourselves to the good and glorious for the rest of the Advent season. It’s all around us, even if we are staying inside our homes each day.

Stay in the present moment in the presence of God this Advent. And notice what is good around you. This is Christian mindfulness. It brings us relief from the suffering and fear of pandemic and politics.

Notice the blue sky outside, the Christmas decorations inside. Look deeply at those that have significant meaning … the ones from Grandma or the kids when they were small. Drink in the memories and thank God for your life.

Express your joy to those around you. Especially on social media. It’s catching. And you may share things about your family life that they don’t know.

Pray or journal in silence, asking the Lord to show you how you have grown this year. What are the true benefits of this time in your life as a Christian?

We can expand the good with prayers offering thanks and seeking similar peace, especially for those with whom we disagree.