Prepare Our Hearts: Advent and Christmas Traditions for Families

By Muriel Tarr Kurtz

When we join a group, be it Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Rotary, or Kiwanis, we expect to give it time and energy to fulfill the mission of the group. If we dont participate, we receive no benefits from our membership. We dont join a family, God puts us into one, but the same thoughts apply. Being in a family that lives separately under one roof is a huge loss. God could predict this, so we have the passage in Deuteronomy 6, which is worth re-reading from time to time. Prepare Our Hearts will give you new thoughts about your Christmas celebrations. It may help you appreciate that many people before us have longed to be ready for the birth of the Christ child and have taken time to alter their patterns and make room for activities that inspire. Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, can be a wonder-filled time for families to begin the practice of gathering as a family for a common purpose. During Advent, we prepare our hearts, thoughts, and homes for the coming of the Christ child. It is a perfect time for sharing, reading Scripture, and special stores about Christmas, singing, praying, and lighting the candles in the Advent wreath. The family is encouraged to plan for others and enjoy activities together. Families need encouragement in our day when many forces intrude. Think seriously how your family lives in December. Use the suggestions to make your own traditions. Most importantly, dont allow the precious years with your children to vanish into nothingness. Prepare Our Hearts will contribute to memory-making that will be remembered long after the gifts exchanged no longer fit or hold interest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449762896

Muriel Tarr Kurtz

Muriel Tarr Kurtz is a wife, mother of four, grandmother of five, and a former teacher. She was challenged by the suggestions for observing Advent her children brought home from Sunday school. Prepare Our Hearts and Return Another Way record that adventure and the precious memories that followed.

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Copyright © 2012 Muriel Tarr Kurtz.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6288-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6289-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012914698

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Revive the Magic of Christmas by Catherine Marshall is reprinted with permission of Guideposts Magazine. Copyright © 1974 by Guideposts Associates, Inc. Carmet, NY 10512.

The Leaky Roof and a Christmas Miracle by Richard Bauman is reprinted by permission of the author. Originally published in GRIT, December 4, 1978.

Christmas Humbug Fades in Snowstorm by Louis Cassels is reprinted with permission of United Press International.

The Boy without a Name by W. Bardsley Brash is reprinted with permission of Christian Weekly Newspapers, Ltd. Originally published in British Weekly, January 1, 1931.

The Night the Chimes Rang by Raymond Macdonald Alden from the book Why the Chimes Rang and Other Stories published by Bobbs-Merrill, 1906. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Company.

All scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952, and © 1971 by the Division of Christian Education, National Council of Churches in the United States of America, and are used by permission.

Cover & Interior Illustrations Created By Theresa Tonnesen-O’Brien

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/22/2012

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Contents

Introduction

Making Time for Christmas

The History of Advent

The Nature of Advent

Family Worship Times

The First Week of Advent

The Prophets’ Candle

The Second Week of Advent

The Bethlehem Candle

The Third Week of Advent

The Shepherds’ Candle

The Fourth Week of Advent

The Angels’ Candle

Christmas Eve or Day

The Christ Candle

The Twelfth Night

Our Response to Christmas

Appendix

For Small Children

For the Empty Nest

Additional Advent Material

Dedicated with a grateful heart

To the memory of my late parents,

F.W. and Esther Tarr,

For their abiding faith in Jesus Christ and

THEIR EFFORTS TO MAKE HIM REAL FOR THEIR CHILDREN

FOR THOSE WE LOVE

Almighty God, we entrust all those who are dear to us to thy never failing care and love, for this life and the life to come; knowing that thou art doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer

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Introduction

Making Time for Christmas

Every year I wanted Christmas to be different. I really did. Yet every year, once past Thanksgiving, I could hardly bear to think about what was in store. Everything I belong to had its own Christmas party, and long ago I decided that some of those parties should have been held at Halloween! Truly, they had nothing in common with the way I wanted to celebrate the birth of Jesus. But what could I do about it? Did I make a point by staying home and appearing to be cold and disinterested? Being with people is fun, but I began to wonder if being with people was a valid goal.

So long ago, when our children brought their little Advent books home from Sunday school – pasted together with flour paste and decorated with childish hand – we decided to take the time to do something about Advent. The years have added to our collection, and further study has enriched our appreciation of how meaningful a time this can be for a family.

You may well ask questions like: How can I find the time? How long does it take? How do you expect me to make time for one more thing when I am so swamped already? These are legitimate questions. I have asked them myself, but I know that I had to make choices in order to find deeper meanings. I came to realize that the times spent with our children in the Advent setting were times never to be repeated. Such joyful times had significance for us. I did not give up anything in order to have our family in an Advent circle on Sunday evenings before Christmas.

Thinking about Advent as a family season has caused me to do several things differently. First, we don’t send Christmas cards anymore. They seem to take too much time at a time when, it seems to me, there are more important things to do. I have noticed, too, that some of our friends are trying other approaches (I have one cheerful friend who takes early January to catch up, and it is pure delight to hear from her on a snowy day!), and I believe that Christmas cards are often not the best expression of Advent, particularly if they take time from other, more meaningful observances.

In the hopes of having more of my kind of cards available, I would love to share with you what has been our custom for many years now. As soon as the Christmas card books are available in late August or September, I go out in pursuit of a card with a Thanksgiving feeling. Yes, they are hard to find, but I persist. Isn’t Thanksgiving an appropriate time to express gratitude for memories, friendships, our common heritage, and our purpose as Christians? More and more, I am coming to think of Thanksgiving as a wonderful time for expressing myself. I try to avoid cards with lots of holly and Christmas trees, Santas, and reindeer. Our cards are primarily nature scenes. Perhaps one day, there will be a beautiful Advent card which depicts the season that begins four Sundays before Christmas and speaks to the preparations Christians should be making for Christmas.

We must speak to the world in a different way. We need to be creative and persistent about what we think is important, for the world is not likely to help make our witness.

Another way I make time for Advent is to buy gifts all year long. Admittedly, this is hard when children are growing and changing shapes, sizes, and interests; but I have always shopped this way in part and with success. Perhaps part of this secret to successful early shopping is to make decisions and then get on with it. If I get an inspiration and think about it for a bit and then later still think it a good idea, I act and move on to the next thing. My shopping behind me, I am ready to focus upon Advent. Shopping this way, contrary to being a burdensome task, becomes a source of satisfaction. One year, I thought that perhaps I had missed out on one of the joys of Christmas by not being in the stores during the rush season. Once quick trip to the shopping center cured me of that idea!

Entertaining before Christmas used to take valuable time away from our Advent observance. I would work myself into a tizzy with decorations, cleaning and cooking. Parties just seemed called for, and often I signed up to have group parties in our home. It is fun – sometimes – but one season we were fortunate enough to be in Williamsburg after Christmas. We were able to enjoy the decorations, the special foods at the restaurants, and, in the evening, a lovely concert at the governor’s palace. If you have been there, you know what I am describing – candlelight, beautiful eighteenth-century costumes on performers, decorations and arrangements of fresh greens appropriate to the rooms. I was in an eighteenth-century heaven! Much of the music was unfamiliar, but at the end of the concert the soprano soloist