AMA: What are some ways I can encourage my kids to care for others during Advent?
I can’t believe it's only 2 days until Advent starts - and then the real run into Christmas begins. I don’t know what it’s like for your family but every year I want to help my kids engage with Advent and every year it's just a little bit too busy to do “properly.” The reader who posed this question thought so too, so here are some ideas that I have come up with to help our kids remember others during this Christmas season that can be as creative and complicated, or as quick and easy, as you need it to be.
Use Christmas as an excuse to build relationships with your neighbours.
Knocking on a neighbour's door can be quite intimidating in a country where we don’t do that much, but Christmas is a great excuse to either bust out the baking or to buy biscuits from the local shops, and to gift them to your neighbours. Starting conversations is always easier with an excuse and who doesn’t love some extra presents?
Make a Reverse advent calendar.
Advent calendars countdown the days until Christmas and as a result they are quite popular with many children and adults. One way to get your kids to look at others this Christmas is to create a countdown calendar which grows with every day that passes. The concept is simple: every day during December, simply take something OUT of your pantry and put it in a donation pile for one of the charities that provide food for people in need. On Christmas Eve, or after Christmas, go and donate the goods.
(Quick Tip: I’ve been hearing a lot about community pantries being overrun with pasta and baked beans at the moment. Try to be a bit creative in the things you donate - maybe something like soup packets, tinned fruit or hygiene products - would be more helpful).
Learn about different expressions of Christmas around the world.
Every year I try to do something creative with this idea and normally run out of steam, but last year I discovered I had a bit more luck with just reading about different Christmas celebrations over dinner each night. I love talking about how different cultures celebrate in different ways and exploring what is significant to others which might seem totally foreign to us. And the best bit - there’s an entire Wikipedia article that summaries things nice and easily for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observance_of_Christmas_by_country
Light the Christmas wreath
Each Sunday group together to light a Candle. Traditionally there are 4 Candles which are lit in the four weeks leading up to Christmas representing Hope, Love, Joy and Peace. Here’s some quick prayers you might want to use and some more history of the wreath: https://www.catholicyyc.ca/blog/advent-wreath-athome
Donate toys with Baptist Care or the Smith Family
You may remember a few weeks ago, we talked about the importance of giving parents agency in choosing gifts for their children - well I have found a couple of agencies that are doing that this year.
Baptist Care South Australia are running a toy appeal, where anyone can donate gifts of NEW toys or books for up to a value of $40 for children experiencing homelessness. These toys are to be dropped off, unwrapped, by next Friday 3rd December to the WestCare Centre, (11-19 Millers Court, Adelaide.) The week after, parents are invited into the Centre to a Santa’s wonderland where they are given the opportunity to choose a present for their child from the donated selection. You get to give and the parent’s get the credit - perfect!
(Full disclosure: My husband works for Baptist Care and told me about this set up).
Similarly, if you don’t want to choose the present, The Smith Family are trying out a new way to do their Christmas appeal this year. The Smith Family works with families experiencing poverty or disadvantage to ensure that the kids reach their full educational potential. They are asking for gift cards valued at $30 that they can give to parents to use to buy their kids a present.
I’m excited to see some of these options becoming used by some popular and large agencies and I hope that they gain some traction in the community.
So there are my ideas. What are some ideas that you have for helping your kids remember that Christmas is not just about the presents they get?
