Seven Reasons You Should Write and Send Christmas Cards

Advent season is a time of preparation and anticipation of the birth of Christ. Christmas cards are an exceptional way to celebrate the Advent season and can accomplish so much more than you can imagine. Below are seven reasons that you should both write and send out those Christmas cards this season. This is a simple act that will send a positive change into the world.

{ONE}

EVANGELIZING:

As Catholics, we are called to share the important news of our Savior and the promise that his birth, death and resurrection mean to us all. Sending a beautiful Christmas Card with a Nativity portrait and filled with words of hope, love and joy is a beautiful reminder of the real reason for the season and it may be the only time someone you knows gets told of the wonderful gift that Jesus's birth is to their families and the entire world. 

It is a tradition in my home that we send out our Christmas cards on December 17th because it is the first day of the O Antiphons and we celebrate the name of Jesus of O Wisdom on this night. Don't be shy to share your love of Jesus and touch the heart of those that need to learn of his love. 

{TWO}

MEMORIES:

The art of handwriting letters, notes and cards is a dying art. I have a small collection of letters and special mementos from over the years that bring me great joy from throughout the year: Mother's Day letter's from my children, love notes from my husband and words of encouragement from friends. Create a work of art that can be saved and enjoyed over the coming Advent and Christmas seasons. These beautifully written pieces will one day be what you leave behind for your friends and family to remember you and the happiness you brought to their lives.

{THREE}

COUNSELING THE DOUBTFUL:

Depending on your relations within your family and friends, you could be completing a Spiritual Act of Mercy with sending out those beautiful Christmas cards. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you hand write a special message to those you love this Advent season. Of the Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy, there are four that I could easily see being accomplished through your Christmas Card:

Maybe you have a friend or family member dealing with a crisis of faith? Your Christmas Card could bring light to them in a time of darkness and help counsel them back to their faith. God works in mysterious ways and you never know when you are being called to do his good work.

{FOUR}

INSTRUCTING THE IGNORANT:

This is another Spiritual Work of Mercy. We all know people that are not taught in the Catholic faith, or maybe have questions about it. A simple card could with an invitation to Mass or Christmas dinner could be the action that opens their hearts and eyes to the love of the Catholic faith. You might be their only link to Catholicism and God is asking you to be their light in the darkness.

{FIVE}

COMFORTING THE SORROWFUL:

The holiday season can be more sorrowful and sad to those that may be dealing with a void of a loved one; whether this be though death, distance or other circumstance. An older widow celebrating their first Christmas without their spouse, a parent who is dealing with an empty nest, a family that is torn by an argument, the list can go on and on. Reach out to someone that has a hurting heart by showing love and compassion for them during this difficult time.

Deployed Soldiers, Wounded Warriors, Nursing Homes, Hospitals, Homeless Shelters and so many other places are always looking for a way to comfort the sorrowful.

{SIX}

FORGIVING INJURIES:

The final Spiritual Work of Mercy you could complete is through forgiving. Forgiveness is hard and can almost feel impossible in certain circumstances. Reaching out to someone that has betrayed you, not only helps show your forgiveness, but can be an amazing gift to offer someone during this season of hope, love and joy. Free yourself of the anger and rebuild relationships that have been broken with the love of God at the center.

There are two sides to this coin: What about asking for forgiveness? If you have wronged someone and not apologized fully or maybe not at all, ask for forgiveness and mean it. Feel sorrow and guilt and attempt to fix your wrong doings with penance.

{SEVEN}

KEEPING CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS

This is one of the most important reasons you should take the time to write and send those Christmas cards this year. The true meaning of Christmas is often overshadowed with the commercialism of gifts, the distraction of shiny new things and to be drawn into the masses of the overwhelming majority that don't celebrate Jesus during Christmas. Take the time for yourself and your family to sit together and pray before you write out your family Christmas cards. Ask that the words you share are ones that help grow your faith and the faith of the recipients as well. Be still and feel the anticipation and longing that is the season of Advent before celebrating the birth of or Savior.

If you are still searching for the perfect place to get your Christmas cards or Holiday invitations, please consider Paperless Post! In addition to offering beautiful and unique products, if you purchase from their RED Christmas Collection, you are supporting the fight against AIDS. Another important aspect of the Christmas and Advent season is charity, so your purchase would help you and help others! This is a special holiday partnership and your support would be greatly appreciated! Remember it is not too late! The Christmas season doesn't end on December 25th, it is only the beginning! You still have time to send out those very special and meaningful Christmas cards.

This is just one of many ideas that you can use to keep Christ in Christmas. I am sharing this with Seven Quick Takes.

Saint Andrew and the Christmas Novena

November 30th is the feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle. He was first a follower of John the Baptist and then Saint Andrew became the first Apostle of Jesus. This particular feast has a lot of strange traditions for unmarried women. In Europe, tradition states that single women who wish to marry ask for Saint Andrew for assistance. The night before his feast, they should sleep naked and they should dream about their future husband. There is another tradition that says that unmarried women should pay attention to the direction of barking dogs on Saint Andrew’s Eve, that is the direction that their future husband will come from that direction. On the day after the feast of Saint Andrew, young men and women gather cups and write their names and "priest" on the cups. The cups are then set to float in a tub. If a specific boy‘s and a girl‘s cup drift together and are met by the cup with “priest” written across, it indicates marriage.

In honor of this patron saint of fisherman, it felt only acceptable to enjoy a seafood feast. I decided to bake some breaded cod, coconut shrimp, shrimp tempura and panko crusted shrimp with grilled asparagus and quinoa. It was a hit with the whole family. NO LEFTOVERS! We also got to finish off some sparking apple cider from Thanksgiving!

Tonight was also the evening we decided to decorate our Christmas tree. It has been a family tradition to decorate our tree on Thanksgiving evening but with my increased work schedule we had to push it off. I really wish that I could convince my family to wait until closer to Christmas to setup and decorate the tree but it's hard to break a tradition we've been honoring for as long as my kids can remember. Another special tradition we have to celebrate our Christmas tree, is we add special ornaments each year that represent accomplishments or something special that we hope to remember and we add that ornament on Christmas Eve. We still are on the hunt for our ornament for this year... I can't wait to share what we decide to get. Do you have traditions surrounding your tree? ornaments? something else?

After the tree decorating and enjoying some hot beverages, (hot cocoa for the kids and hot tea for me and the hubby) we moved onto the kids' Advent Adventures with Holy Heroes. Are you participating? If not, you should! It has been part of our Advent tradition for the past several years and it is amazing! Today the Advent Adventure included information on Saint Andrew, which only added to the excitement of this feast day!

Today is the day to start a famously known novena called the Christmas Novena. You say it fifteen times a day until Christmas Day. It is said that anyone who completes the novena will not be denied their request. I will be completing my novena tonight while I am finishing my Advent devotions.

Saint Andrew Christmas Novena:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment

At which the Son of God was born

Of a most pure Virgin

At a stable at midnight in Bethlehem

In the piercing cold

At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee,

To hear my prayers and grant my desires

(mention request here). 

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.

Saint Andrew, pray for us!

First Sunday of Advent: Stir it Up Sunday

Today is the First Day of Advent! It's finally here! The season I have been preparing for over the past month and I could not be more excited about how the day progressed. Do you have family traditions that begin with Advent? We do! We normally welcome back our Elf on the Shelf (yep, we do it! and we use it to highlight the liturgical year too)! Our Elf is named Buddy.. I know it's real original but the kids' love him and his name.

We always set him up near our Advent Wreath on the day of his return so that the boys remember that it will be our first day lighting a candle in honor of Advent. We also have a Welcome Advent/ Welcome Back Buddy Breakfast! Buddy the Elf is so sweet that he even sets the plates, cups and forks on the table so its less work in the morning. We enjoyed caramel pumpkin pancakes because we love pumpkin everything in this house and it was a breakfast that could be "stirred up" on this Stir it Up Sunday. The first Sunday of Advent is called Stir it Up Sunday because of an old Advent prayer that begins with "Stir up, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people".

If you are interested in the adventures of Buddy and how we utilize him in our Liturgical celebrations follow me on Instagram or checkout #BuddyKongElfAdventures.

After breakfast, we enjoyed a little family time before heading off to the boys' first Christmas Children's Choir practice. Goalie has been beyond excited since he learned he was FINALLY old enough to join the choir this year and has been asking constantly when he could go to practice. Little Man on the other hand, wasn't planning on participating. He actually asked if he could just read while his brother rehearsed. I try my best not to force push my children into activities but I was disappointed Little Man didn't want to participated. It's funny how God intervenes because the music teacher running rehearsals was offering lollipops to the children participating in the choir and that's all it took for Little Man to change his mind and want to join. Go figure!

I have to be honest and say that I was not 100% ready for Advent to begin today and ran to three different stores searching for Advent Candles so we could Bless our Wreath and light our first purple candle during dinner. I was frantic until I came across some ribbon and decided to tie it to our white taper candles as a substitute until I can obtain some colored candles. I guess it looks a little fancier this way too... maybe I'll add the ribbon to the colored candles too? 

I am a SUPER corny person and I love when you can play on words so even though I stirred up some pancakes for breakfast, I thought it would be fun to enjoy some turkey "stir"-fry for dinner (we still have TONS of leftovers from Thanksgiving) and I had plans to stir up some Christmas pudding too! Making Christmas pudding is actually a real tradition that often happens on Stir it Up Sunday but we ran out of time so we will be making our pudding tomorrow afternoon. Looking for an easy recipe? Check out my Menu Plan Monday post from this past week. It includes a recipe for a no steam Christmas pudding packed with protein and a little healthier than most Christmas Puddings. Do you have any Christmas Pudding recipes? If so, please share them!

Dinner was devoured and we ended our evening completing Day 1 of the Holy Heroes Advent Adventure as a family! It has been a tradition of ours for the past four years and the boys love it! Free coloring pages, cute videos and prayers all sent directly to your email each day.. you can't beat that! While I was running around town searching for Advent candles, I purchased some purple folders to hold the boys' Advent Adventure printouts and brand new notebooks for them to utilize in this new liturgical year as a prayer journal and to keep work that we do on the saints throughout the year.

Now that everyone is in bed, I am beyond thrilled to get started on my devotions too! I am using Advent with Saint Teresa of Calcutta, The Little Blue Book and my prayer journal. I will be writing out some New Liturgical Year Resolutions and evaluating why I haven't met some of these resolutions in the past.

What devotions are you trying out this year? I am ashamed to admit that I cannot remember an Advent season that I actually completed a full devotion and it is one of my goals to complete these properly this Advent season. Prayers would be greatly appreciated as I tackle this goal!

I know that it seems that this day was just packed full of family fun but I also am participating in an Advent Photo Challenge hosted by the Zelie Group! It started today but it's never too late to join in the fun. Check out the amazing pictures that were shared with us today by searching through the hashtags listed. How was your start to Advent? If it's not how you planned you still have plenty of time to get things prepared the way you want them! I hope this Advent season is prayerful and meaningful for you and your families.

This is being shared at CatholicMom.com for their Advent Wreath Linkup!

God Bless!

How to Prepare for a Holy Advent Series: Part 4

This is my final post in my Advent Series. If you missed out on any of the previous posts, I included links to this posts below. To finish off the series, I compiled an Advent Bucket List and some Christmas Shopping Guides! These are activities that you may already do but maybe you'll get some ideas for some more family traditions during the Advent season. I have them divided into each week of Advent and are broad options but I will be sharing how my family celebrates specifically throughout the Advent season so make sure to come back and see what we are up to and please share your family's traditions too! I was hoping to have this posted yesterday but you still have plenty of time today to finish preparing and starting your Advent celebrations!

How to Prepare for a Holy Advent Series: Part 1

How to Prepare for a Holy Advent Series: Part 2

How to Prepare for a Holy Advent Series: Part 3

I shared a simple and healthier recipe for Christmas Pudding on my Menu Plan Monday Post if you are looking for a quick and easy family recipe. Make sure to have everyone stir up the pudding together and make a wish!

Do you have favorite holiday movies? I've suggested a few throughout this series but there are so many great films to share as a family during this time.

Remember to send Christmas cheer to your friends and family! Send Christmas cards or bless someone during this week. It's time to Rejoice that Christmas is almost here!

This is the culmination of Advent! Finish your cooking, cleaning and preparations because after this you have Twelve Days to celebrate the Christmas season! Begin to plan your Twelfth Night Party and all your other fun Christmas activities.

Christmas Shopping Guides:

This season is a season to bring joy to friends, families and strangers. A time to evangelize and show the world what being Catholic is all about. Gifts for our loved ones has become a tradition to help spread love and gratitude so in honor of this tradition i have compiled some amazing Christmas Shopping Guides!

The Zelie Group's Christmas Gift Guide

Spiritual Stocking Stuffers for Men

Spiritual Stocking Stuffers for Women

Spiritual Stocking Stuffers for Children and Teens

Frugal and Unique Gifts for Him

Toyless Gift Guide

Minimalist Gifts for Christmas

If you have a gift guide you would like added please contact me with your link. Well that's the end of my Advent series. I will be looking forward to see how everyone starts their celebrations today! We had our traditional Welcome Advent and Welcome Back Buddy the Elf Breakfast this morning but I'll be sharing more about that later today. I am keeping all of your families in my prayers during this holy season. Use the next four weeks to prepare for Jesus!

God Bless!