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Religious Celebrations and Customs for Children |
ADVENT
The Advent Calendar
An Advent Calendar can be used in the home to help remind young and old of the passing of each day toward the momentous day of December 25th. This is a custom that originated in Germany and is still used today. The Advent Calendar should make use of a religious picture as its theme and should not be mistaken for modern secular ones which provide chocolates or other candies behind each window. Each window should open to a Scriptural quotation using the Advent and Christmas themes or to pictures of the same theme. These can be purchased at any Catholic Religious Goods Store.The Christmas Novena
There is a beautiful Christmas Novena that is to be started on November 30th, the Feast of St. Andrew, and to be ended on Christmas Eve. This Novena should be prayed 15 times each day for a family intention, or for an individual's own special favor requested. The Novena is:"Hail, and blessed be the hour and the moment in which the Son of God was born, of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem in piercing cold.
In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of our Savior Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother. Amen."
The Good Deed Manger
Another custom, which originated in France but spread to many other countries, is the practice of having the little children prepare a soft bedding in the manger by using wisps of straw as tokens of their Advent prayers and good works. Every day the child is allowed to put in the crib one token (piece of straw) for each act of virtue or love performed in preparation for Christmas. Thus the figure of the Baby Jesus will find on Christmas Day an ample supply of tender straw to soften the hardness of the manger's boards.The Jesse Tree Ornament
Hang the daily Jesse Tree ornament and have mom or dad read the daily appropriate Scriptural reading. The daily Jesse Tree devotions will take you through the Old Testament preparation for the coming of the Savior promised to Adam and Eve. For complete instructions and pictures of ornaments, see Jesse Tree.Christmas Letters
An old Catholic custom is the writing of "Christmas Letters" by the children. These letters, addressed to the Child Jesus (NOT Santa Claus) are written or dictated by the little ones some time before Christmas. They contain their wishes concerning Christmas presents, petitions for various intentions, and a promise of sincere effort to please Our Lord in preparation for Christmas. When they go to bed, the children put their letters on the windowsill, from where "angels" take them during the night to bring them to the Child Jesus in heaven. This charming custom helps the parents to impress on the minds of their little ones the importance of a sincere spiritual preparation and at the same time great confidence in God who is concerned with our temporal and spiritual needs. Parents who favor this custom will often be deeply touched when they discover that some of their children put more stress on spiritual graces than on material gifts even on an occasion like this. I t can also alert parents to the need for more guidance and direction toward this goal.
CHRISTMASTIDE
The Blessing of the Christmas Tree
In recent years, in a growing number of Catholic families, there takes place in the home a blessing of the Christmas tree. Parents should remind the children of the part a TREE played in the sins of our first parents and of the sacred wood of the TREE on which Jesus Christ, whose birthday we now celebrate, once paid the price of our redemption.Children love the story of why we use the tree. The tree goes back to the Jewish Feast of Lights. It was St. Boniface who gave the balsam fir tree to the pagan Druids in place of the oak tree, the symbol of their former false god. "The fir tree is the wood of peace, the sign of an endless life with its evergreen branches. It points to heaven. It will never shelter deeds of blood, but rather be filled with loving gifts and rites of kindness. When St. Ansgar preached to the Vikings, he referred to the fir tree as a symbol of the faith, for it was, he said, "as high as hope, as wide as love, and bore the sign of the Cross on every bough."
In some homes, the tree is blessed on Christmas Eve, and the crib on Christmas morning.
| Father: | This is that most worthy Tree in the midst of Paradise |
| All: | On which Jesus by His death overcame death for all. |
| Father: | Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; |
| All: | Let the sea and what fills it resound; let the plains be joyful and all that is in them! All the trees of the forest shall exult before the Lord, for He comes; for He comes to rule the world with justice and the peoples with His constancy. |
| Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. | |
| All: | This is that most worthy Tree in the midst of Paradise on which Jesus by His death overcame death for all. |
| Mother: | God said, "let the earth bring forth vegetation: seedbearing plants and all kinds of fruit trees that bear fruit containing their seed." And so it was. The earth brought forth vegetation, every kind of seed-bearing plant and all kinds of trees that bear fruit containing their seed. The Lord God made to grow out of the ground all kinds of trees pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God saw that it was good. |
| All: | Thanks be to God. |
| Father: | O Lord hear my prayer. |
| All: | And let my cry come to You. |
| Father: | Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, who by dying on the tree of the Cross, didst overcome the death of sin caused by our first parents' eating of the forbidden tree of paradise, grant, we beseech Thee, the abundant graces of Thy Nativity, that we may so live as to be worthy living branches of Thyself, the good and ever green Olive Tree, and in Thy strength bear the fruit of good works for eternal life. Who livest and reignest forever and ever. |
| All: | Amen. |
Christmas Stories for Children
The Gift of Christmas By: Rev. Jude Winkler
The Legend of Little White Hood By: Battistella
A Special Place for Santa - By: Jeanne Piepper
The Littlest Angel / the Original Christmas Classic By: Charles Tazewell
The Little Match Girl - By: Hans Christian Andersen
The Little Fir Tree - By Hans Christian Andersen
With Bells On/ A Christmas Story By: Katherine Milhous
The Christmas Coin By: Nora Burglon (found in "Take Joy" by Tasha Tudor)
The Caravan by: Ruth Sawyer (found in "Take Joy")
The Holy Night by: Selma Lagerlof (found in "Take Joy")
Good King Wenceslaus (taken from "The Classic Christmas Treasury for Children")
The Story of the First Christmas (taken from "The Classic Treasury for Children")
The "Faith and Freedom Readers"
The Christmas Stories of George MacDonald
