For us, the season starts on the 1st December when Lumi the elf arrives with the advent hamper. Inside is the advent calendar (a fabric nativity scene with a finger-puppet to attach with velcro each day as you tell the Christmas story), seasonal books and films, storytelling cards, colouring sheets and (the most exciting part) a letter from Father Christmas about what Lumi has been up to this year. Lumi hasn't been sent as a spy, but to learn more about Christmas and share ideas.
The children look for Lumi every morning. Sometimes she will be playing, and sometimes she will have a note introducing an activity.
During December we will:
- look at the lights
- go to the Festival of Angels, a local event with mulled wine and ice sculptures
- visit Father Christmas at the museum
*be in/attend the school carol concert and nativity play
*go to the school Christmas fair.
We make decorations, bake biscuits for the tree and collect greenery to decorate the house.
Quite early on, Lumi will leave a note asking the children to think of something they would like for Christmas and to write to Father Christmas. They also have to find at least one toy and book they no longer want, something they no longer need and any clothes they have outgrown to give away. We decide who to give them to. We post the letter to Father Christmas on the way to the charity shop/ post office/ recipient of outgrown stuff.
On the evening of the longest night, we have a special meal, tell a story by candle light, and set out our figures of Mother Winter and the Holly King. We light an electric tea light and leave it on all night. In the morning, they have been joined by the baby Sun. We take the sun figure outside at dawn and hold it up to welcome the first rays of light and sing a song.
We get a Christmas tree and bake biscuits to hang on it.
On the weekend before Christmas, we invite all our friends to drop in for a while in the afternoon and evening. We have mince pies, mulled wine and mulled apple juice. Everyone is invited to play music, tell a story, read a poem, tell a joke, bring something they've made (art, food, glittery pine cone etc). We sing carols. It's fun, but chaotic as we have a teeny tiny house.
We do stuff like ice skating and pantomime and another theatre or cinema trip between Christmas and the start of school; the tickets come as presents.
On Christmas eve, I take the DC to the crib service, and we go for a walk, looking out for the signs of Christmas magic When we get home, Lumi has gone back to help Father Christmas deliver the presents and left a hamper. Inside are pyjamas (not necessarily new), stockings to hang up, a letter from Lumi, a copy of The Night Before Christmas, a bath bomb, a set of thank you notes for the children to fill in and hot chocolate. We watch a film (or The Snowman), and have a nibbly meal with olives and salami.
Then we put out food and a letter to Father Christmas, have a bath and hang the stockings at the end of our beds.
DP and I watch a film while setting out the presents, then I go to midnight mass and fill the stockings when I get home.