December 2nd 2012 marks the beginning of Advent and the new Church Year.
Here are a few printable liturgical calendars for both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the liturgy.
Ordinary Form:
Extraordinary Form:
Blank Color your Own:
More calendars here.
Updated files for 2011: Download My Little Advent cards 2011
Download Christmas calendar 2011
I have found that a key to living the Liturgical Year in the home is having meditative sources so the child can quietly look, explore, read, examine, and ponder all these things in his heart and make it his own. He needs to make his own connections.
There are all sorts of different approaches, such as displays, artwork, figures to touch, crafts, and books. Now that my 7 year old is such an avid reader, I'm finding the combination of both pictures and words really speak to his heart. So I thought I would provide little tidbits to think through Advent on his own, combining the Advent Calendar with something that was little and portable. I was also going to use the same idea for his homeschool Advent retreat, aiming at children from Kindergarten to 2nd grade.
The result is My Little Advent. These are little cards, to cut, hole-punch (and children love to punch holes!), and place on a loose-leaf ring (such as these or these, that can be left as is, or put on a pipe cleaner, shoelace or lanyard. I gave one to my son already and he is just constantly flipping through the cards, singing verses to O Come, Emmanuel and pondering and wondering in quiet. When not in use it hangs on our pantry door near our kitchen table.
The file: My Little Advent Cards
I also created a companion calendar, which has the same images, some of the same text as the cards, but is all on one page.
Several years ago, new to digital cameras I was excited to make a calendar for all of the gradnparents. Each month's picture featured the children in some seasonal pose. It was a HUGE hit.
This year for Christmas I was thinking of making a new calendar featuring the children but with a Liturgical theme. Since we are going to be wearing Saint costumes tomorrow (well they are - I'm not) I was thinking it might be nice to pose the children in costumes featuring a saint or liturgical theme for each month and then have a calendar made. This could be a lot of fun and a really meaningful gift. I intend to invlove the children by giving them a list of the feast days for each month and having them narrow it down to something we can reasonable pull off. After I snap the twelve pictures I will use Shutterfly to have the calendar printed. Shutterfly allows you personalize the calendar so I can put in all of the family's special days as well as holy days and feast days. This is a lot of bang for your buck for less than $20 per gift.
Some other photo sites that could be helpful:
Dotphoto
Photosite - no calendars but lots of other cute things
Discount Photo Gifts
iPrint
This might also be a lovely and personal way to help draw someone you love closer to Holy Mother Church. A beautiful gift with an eternal benefit.
So where is your advent wreath? Do you have candles? I had the experience one year of getting the wreath out of the box and finding a bunch of broken candles. Would not have been a big deal but for the fact that I had the whole family gathered around the table waiting to pray and light the candles. Yup, I waited until after dinner on the first Sunday to get the wreath out.
Don't make that mistake.
Order candles from Candles 4 Less or The Catholic Company. Or go to your local religous goods store in the next week or so.
Advent calendars are also something that can sneak up on you. I have had to settle for an ugly one from the dollar store on December 2nd more than once. It is really important to me to have an Advent calendar with a religous image. The secular ones are cute and very festive and I don't think there is anything wrong with having one in the house but I don't think it should be the only one in the house. I myself have used the candy countdown method to encourage good behavior (yes, I do occasionally bribe my children - it's a family tradition).
This is the one I have. It was a little more money but it does last forever. Catholic Child carries it along with a bunch of other cool things for Advent.
Whatever you decide - get going on it soon there are only 89 days left.
While thinking about Advent calendars why not give some thought to the really nice tradition of setting up a nativity scene and having the kings and shepherds traveling around the room toward the creche. As each day unfolds everyone gets a little closer to the stable in Bethlehem. It is a wonderful visual for children. Older children can read aloud Old Testament verses telling of the coming of the Messiah.
Just an idea....let me know your ideas.
