Advent Around the Fire
Audiobooks and family togetherness – a recipe for a slower, quieter, and less frantic lead-up to Christmas!
“Smash the television set, turn out the lights, build a fire in the fireplace, move the family into the living room, put a pot on to boil some tea and toddy and have an experiment in merriment, a sudden, unexpected hearth, the heart and first step in the restoration of a home . . . and see how love will quicken in a single winter’s night!”
– John Senior, The Restoration of Christian Culture
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, which means that Christmas is only a few weeks away! Here at the 1000 Good Books Project we have been putting together a fun resource for all of our listeners (paid and free subscribers) to help usher in the Christmas season with a calm and peaceful spirit.
Each Sunday of Advent we will post new Christmas stories on the free channel for all to enjoy!
For years now, our family has developed a tradition of slowing down during Advent in order to better prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Christ at Christmas. So much of December is filled with cookie exchanges, Christmas parties, pageants, shopping and the many other ways people love to celebrate Christmas in the weeks leading up to Christmas. While we do participate in much of this with our children, we like to try at least to have Advent feel like a quieter, set-apart time of year. For other ideas on this theme, Ruth Gaskovski just posted a great article at the School of the Unconformed which we highly recommend reading!
We try to get most of our Christmas shopping done before Advent. We try to cut back on sweets and screens and we also add something new to our prayer routine like a Jesse tree or night prayer as a family. And while all of those attempts at making a focused Advent have been fruitful (some years better than others!), we have found that one of the most effective practices we have done to celebrate advent is to slow down as a whole family and enjoy an audiobook together in the evenings.
After dinner and clean-up we start a fire in the fireplace and light candles along the mantle and throughout the living room. We turn the lights off (no phones or devices allowed in this room!) and turn on an audiobook. We listen for anywhere from twenty minutes to a whole hour, depending on how the evening is going. Then we turn off the book, say our evening prayers, and everyone heads off to bed. The next night we pick-up right where we left off!
Now, you might be wondering many things… What is everyone DOING while listening to the audiobook? How do you do this with small children and toddlers, or with a large range of ages? We usually have one parent reading to the kids before bed, what’s the difference between that and this suggestion?
First of all, what to do while listening? Anything! If just sitting on the couch is your thing, do that. If you enjoy drawing, coloring, crochet, knitting, embroidery, do all of that! I personally like to spend a few of these listening sessions sticking labels and stamps on our Christmas cards. Sometimes it’s nice to just cuddle with a kid who maybe needed a little extra cuddle that day. For younger children, get out a fun bin that is set aside for this time, maybe magnet tiles, blocks or even legos. My daughters love fancy “grown up” coloring books and gel pens.
Ok, speaking of small children. Or a range of different aged children. While the idea of this family activity might sound idyllic (or maybe it doesn’t to you!), I promise you that – while it doesn’t ALWAYS go PERFECTLY smoothly with young children in the mix – the overall effect is a net positive one. Have we ever had a toddler melting down during the family listening time? Yes. Have we ever had two children fighting over a crayon or something ridiculous during the family listening time? Yes. Have we ever had one of these evenings go so horribly badly that at the end everyone is angry and Mom and Dad never want to try it again? YES! But like most things worth doing, consistency is key and it will not ALWAYS go smoothly or perfectly every time. By staying consistent with this tradition we have had way more positive evenings than negative ones. When you have only younger kids, we’d recommend shorter stories. They don’t have to be Christmas themed. If it’s something the parents also enjoy, that’s a major win. So maybe a fairy tale from George MacDonald or a Thornton Burgess animal story. If you have a wide range of ages, in our experience it’s best to play up to the older kids’ tastes. We LOVE the BBC audio drama of the Lord of the Rings. The Chronicles of Narnia is something all ages can enjoy. And of course you can never go too wrong with Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (which is currently on our free channel).
So, why do something like this, listen to a book together as a family by candlelight, rather than have one parent read a story aloud to the kids? For one, practically, it gives mom or dad a little break! We love reading to our children and we do it a lot, so sometimes it’s nice to sit back, relax and enjoy while someone else does the reading. Also, there’s something about the difference in evening routine that really marks a difference in the season. We are physical and spiritual beings so things like changes in lighting, being in the same room as a whole family, a change in routine and listening to a shared story can really cement in a child’s mind a positive association with Advent being a “different” time of year.
To help with this effort, we will be posting new Christmas stories each Sunday of Advent this year on our free channel. We have worked hard to put together some really fun, Christmas themed audiobooks for your family to listen to this Advent and Christmas season. As a reminder, you can listen to the stories in a podcast app like Apple Podcasts, which will allow you to download the stories, save your place, and play for the family whenever you want!
Paid subscribers can listen to any of the other stories in our library. It’s easy and affordable to become a paid subscriber and have access to the whole collection.
We hope the idea of Advent around the fire could be a Blessing to your family. Listening to a fun story as a family can be so unifying and bonding. It’s so delightful when the kids can’t wait for the next evening to find out what happens in the story! Check out our collection of Christmas audiobooks available on our free channel for the Advent and Christmas seasons here.
Maybe you have other questions about this idea. If so, pop them down in the comment box or send us a message. We’d love to hear about ways your family enjoys audiobooks together or sets Advent apart as a time of preparation for Christmas!
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What a wonderful way to slow down the season and bring the family together! Thank you also for the generous mention Cheryl :)
I love this! Excited to explore what you have!