Each month this year I want to prepare and look ahead to see what major feast days are coming up. One thing I appreciate about blogging is that it gives me a reason to look ahead at feast days. And that it makes me take the time to learn about them. However, especially with a new baby in the house, sometimes I feel like I hardly realize a feast day is happening until I look at the calendar on the day.
There is only so many times you can say something like “St. John the Theologian, pray for us” with a tone of surprise before getting the feeling there has to be a better way.
So starting this month, I am going to put together a monthly look ahead article. This way I can reference it every year and decide if there is anything I need to do to prepare for the upcoming month feast days. And by sharing it here, I am not just helping me, but providing a reference for any of you who would like to prepare for the month ahead.
*Note, our church primarily uses the Gregorian calendar, though some feasts are celebrated on both Gregorian and Julian. The dates I reference are usually Gregorian, which means if you are on the Julian calendar you have about two extra weeks to prepare for any of these feast days
December
-through to Dec 24th- – The Nativity Fast
6 – St. Nicholas (the wonderworker)
13 – Martyrs Eustratios, Auxentius, Egenius, Mardarius, and Orestes
24 – Eve of the Nativity
27 – Protomartyr Stephen
28 – 2000 Martyrs of Nicomedia
29 – The Holy Innocents (check out our prayer league)
30 – Martyr Anysia, and Martyr Zoticus: Protector of Orphans
31 – Leavetaking of the Nativity
12 Days of Christmas Family Activities
We do our “Christmas gifts” on St. Nicholas Day, so the focus on Christmas leans more towards Christ than gifts. However, regardless of your gift opening schedule, there’s always room for more family traditions! So here are a few ideas for making the twelve days of Christmas extra special!
Christmas Day Family Package
Since we don’t do a gift exchange on Christmas day, I thought it might still be fun to have one gift to open: a family package. What goes in a family package? Everything you need for a family activity together!
I know an evening of snuggling together and watching a movie with popcorn and other snacks will make for a low-stress, joyful family event. So I can grab some popcorn bags, chocolate bars, hot chocolate packets, and wrap them up (perhaps with a DVD or blanket).
Another idea could be to wrap up a new set of pyjama for all the family members, plus a board game to play together.
12 Days of Read Alouds
For this idea, wrap up twelve books, and label them with a day to open them, starting with Christmas Day. Or leave them unlabelled, and let each day be a random pick from a basket of wrapped books. While you can get 12 new to the family books for this, it is just as cool to wrap 12 books you already have. They can be all winter/Christmas/religious books. Or just 12 family favourites. If you are using 12 books you already have, try to wrap the books or set them aside for this activity by December 1st, to make bringing them out/unwrapping them extra special.
12 Days of Christmas Activities
Step One: Make a bucket list of activities your family would like to do over Christmas
Examples: Go for a tour of the Christmas lights in your neighbourhood, watch [name Christmas movie here], go carolling, make snowmen, make paper snowflakes as a family, and so on.
Step Two: Select 12 of those activities to do, and schedule them for each of the 12 days of Christmas
Step Three: Make a checklist of everything you need for each day. And then do a card announcing what each day’s activity is. Use the checklist to make sure you have everything you need! You can put the date on each card for when it should be opened, or you can put the cards in envelops and label the envelops with the date to be opened.
Step Four: Enjoy the 12 days of planned and prepared activities!
The Byzantine Life
Thank you for checking out this week’s article. What are you doing to prepare for a Holy December?
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