Why We Celebrate Advent

Advent is a time to remember Christ as the baby who came almost 2,000 years ago as our Savior and to anticipate His coming as the King of Kings.

Our Advent calendar

Advent, from adventus in Latin, meaning "coming" or "arrival," is a Christian liturgical holiday observed the four weeks before Christmas.

You may wonder what's the difference between Christmas and Advent if both are about Jesus. Christmas celebrates Jesus' birth while Advent is a time of anticipation and intentional reflection observed the four weeks before Christmas.

However, in our day and age, when people think of Advent, they think of the chocolate boxes you get at any store that has a chocolate or small treat inside that you open from December first through Christmas Eve. But that is far from the Advent that was first established and observed throughout the centuries.

I'll be writing a historical blog post about Advent, so make sure you keep an eye out for it. This post is about why our family chooses to observe Advent.

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I grew up celebrating Christmas like any other family. My family went all out with decorations, trees (we had two), outdoor decorations, you name it! We loved Christmas. My parents received God's gift of salvation later in life, and began to make changes to our family's dynamics. I can't tell you the exact year or how long after they were saved that they made this decision, but during my childhood, my parents decided to stop celebrating Christmas.

Which is doom and gloom when you're a young child.

My parents made a decision with the information they were presented with. They wanted what was best for their children, and this is the decision they made. Of course, to a child, it was the worst decision they had ever made.

My parents got rid of all of our Christmas stuff. EVERYTHING. The news of our family quitting Christmas spread like a wild fire and I remember people asking me "why," as if I could answer them with a fully, thought-out answer.

"We just don't do it anymore." was what I could say. I didn't know what to say because I could not fully understand.

For a couple of years we observed Hanukkah, which was fun, interesting, and a little bit odd. We lit a candle each day on our menorah, played dreidel, and us kids received one gift during the eight days of Hanukkah. We ate latkes, matzo ball soup (my dad's version is so good), and baked a cake for Jesus. The years we observed Hanukkah, people would ask us if we were Jewish or converted to Judaism. Sometimes I would joke and say "yes" just to avoid saying "no," and having to think of some explanation why we observed Hanukkah. Which was not good on my part. It was hard to navigate as a child and as I grew up since everyone around us only celebrated Christmas. My family was the odd man out.

When I was a freshman in college, one of my rebellious ways (towards my parents) was celebrating Christmas. I bought lights, ornaments, clothes and threw myself into the craze of Christmas. I had waited so long to be "part of the world" of Christmas. I gave gifts, listened to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving, and delved into the Christmas spirit. Those "Jesus is the reason for the season" signs were at all stores, and yet, He was no where during the Christmas season. Christians would say this saying and yet, something felt like it was missing. And I carried that feeling well into my married life.

I began to look into Advent in December 2018, which was my daughter's first Christmas. We hardly bought her any gifts because she wouldn't know the difference. But I remember seeing on social media the amount of gifts people were giving their small children as if Christmas only mattered by the number of gifts. I was also pregnant at the time with my first son and the wheels were turning in my head. I didn't want my children to grow up with this unhealthy expectation for lots of gifts. Christmas was becomming more and more about commericalism than what it's original and intended observance was. And it broke my heart.

I took me a while to finally talk to my husband about Advent and the thoughts swirling in my head. Life, a couple of miscarriages, and covid in 2020 encouraged and challenged me as to what I prioritized. And with the Christmas season approaching in 2020, I decided to make a super simple Advent calendar and observe it. My children were 1.5 and 2.5 at the time so our activities were incredibly simple if we did one at all. My husband and I also got covid the beginning of December so it was a rough start to observing Advent. But from then on, I knew our family needed to observe Advent to set our hearts and minds on Christ midst the highly commercialized Christmas with no Jesus at all.

2020 Advent (first Advent for us)

Advent can definitely be more hands on and thought out, but you can make Advent that fits your family schedule. A couple weeks before Advent (which is now) I start to narrow down what our Advent activities will be. I make sure our activities are good for our schedule and the children's interest. They won't completely enjoy every single thing and that's okay! Our minds and hearts will be set on Christ and that's what matters.

I pray that this has been an encouragement to you.

-Chloe Burch