Advent celebrations
ChastMastr
Shipmate
in Heaven
So what are people doing for Advent this year? Any special books you’re reading, music, movies, Advent calendars, etc.?
Comments
I will fish it out and make sure it is to hand when it is needed.
Advent calendars have been sent to the youngest grandsons, and I managed to buy ones that could be posted as Large Letters this year. Last time I had to pay for them as a small parcel, and that was ridiculously expensive for two sheets of thin card.
Actually, it is!
(Okay, I must know, how much Starsky/Hutch romantic fanfic is there?)
I also buy Fair Trade chocolate Advent calendars for our children and their spouses. The ones for our son and his husband have gone in the post (and been received) and the ones for our daughter and son-in-law will be taken over there when we visit later today (yes, I'm in the UK and awake at silly o'clock).
I've subscribed to various Advent email series in the past, and a couple of years have read "Haphazard by Starlight" by Janet Morley. This year I've picked up from our local secondhand book emporium a copy of "The Little Book of Advent" compiled by Canon Arthur Howells so I'm looking forward to starting that.
No worries--I've never been into the series myself (I'm more of a fantasy/SF person than crime drama) and there is other slash out there to my liking.
All righty, so back to Advent, LOL...
I've ordered a book called Glad and Golden Hours that is supposed to be very good.
I have a few Advent calendars (1 Lego City, 2 international snacks) to work my way through.
I keep wrestling with getting LED/flameless Advent candles (I have cats) but maybe next year.
https://sacredspace.com/events/retreat/advent-2025/?utm_source=brevo&utm_campaign=advent2025&utm_medium=email
plus of course a wall calender prefferably with cats and a daily choccy!
Now they have all left home I send each household a copy of the digital calendar produced each year by the company I discovered when I needed to send e-cards whilst based in Kenya. The grandchildren love it, so do I !
We always have a numbered candle too.
I use a variety of books and online resources- whatever appeals each year.
This year I'm also doing a two day retreat at our Cathedral and I try to get to the Cathedral Evensong as often as possible.
I love Advent.
Visiting a national trust property at the weekend.
I'm sure I'll be listening to Messiah on a loop and annoying everyone as a result soon....
Our Place isn't doing anything special for Advent, outside the usual run of services, apart from a couple of short 'study times' after the 10am Monday Mass in December. They will be looking at the two main characters in the Christmas story - Joseph and Mary - which may help a few people who can't get to the Sunday Mass for the homilies homily.
Our local Cathedral is having its customary Advent Procession & Carols this coming Sunday afternoon, in place of Evensong, and this is usually an act of worship well worth attending. Anyone else's Place holding a special Advent (as opposed to Christmas) service?
There are some great Advent poems
here.
In the past, these have been written by a lady, who is AIUI a retired Baptist minister, on behalf of one of the charities which support Anglo-Catholic C of E parishes. She has now bowed out, and this year FatherInCharge has sourced a very nicely-produced little book entitled 'An Advent Calendar Of Prayers' - one for each of the 24 days.
(I used to work many years ago with a lady who had been a Wren officer in Ceylon in WW2. She was something of an expert on TEA, and could tell from the taste etc. how far up the mountain the leaves had been grown...
Same brand, different flavour each day. ☕️
The Advent wreath is on the table where we eat our meals. That will be the only seasonal decoration for at least the first week or two of Advent. (And no greenery with it until Christmas Day. The cat would eat it.)
Ours has purple and rose candles, since that’s what we have at church. We decided when the kids were little that we’d have the same color scheme at home as they saw at church, and our place does purple Advent, not blue Advent. We did have to ditch that plan one year when we couldn’t get purple candles, so we had three darker blue candles and one light blue candle. (It always seems to me that if the blue Advent route is taken, the candle for Advent III should be light blue, not rose/pink. But I get the impression I may be the only one pedantic enough to think that. :lol ) Now, I make sure to get the purple, rose and white candles (hand-rolled beeswax) a few months ahead.
Meanwhile, no Christmas music for me until at least the middle of December if I can help it (which I can’t in the stores). Partially that’s a standing-on-principle thing of not jumping past Advent (and of not wanting to be tired of Christmas music by the time Christmas arrives). But I’ll admit that it’s partially a Grinchy thing, too, as I really don’t like much popular Christmas music. The Choir of Clare College’s CD (well, the iTunes version of it) “Veni Emmanuel: Music for Advent,” however, will definitely get some play.
However this was after dinner which today was Haggis as it's St Andrew's Day and my wife is Scottish!
This is what the nativity set looks like:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/NO4AAOSwbvpnk75r/s-l400.jpg
Thanks so much for this. This Advent I'm trying to avoid shops or partying and just going for long walks and reading poetry, lighting a candle in the summer evenings. It is the Feast of St John of the Cross on 14 December who is very Incarnational in his Canticles...
These are intended mainly for those who find Christmas (and all the faux-jollity) painful, whether because of personal problems involving money, illness, or relationships, or simply because of the dire state of the world in general...
The service is sometimes known as 'The Longest Night' service, taking place on or near 21st December.
Oh, me too!
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I have, I think, about 13 nativity sets - I can't be sure as they have not been brought down from the loft for 6 years.
I do rather miss them, but we never have anyone here over Christmas, and Mr RoS doesn't 'do' special days/seasons so it's not worth the bother, even if either of us could get into the loft these days.
I do have a baby Jesus from the FisherPrice nativity set still accessible, as one of the little grandsons took it home with him the last time the nativity sets were in use, so it comes out on Christmas Day and stays until Jan 6.
Forgot to post this after previewing it earlier - getting very forgetful these days