waldorf christmas Archives

Advent :: Week One

December 10, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Advent, Advent – A candle shines,
Advent, Advent – A candle shines,
First One – Then Two – Then Three – Then Four,
Then the Christ Child is at the door.

The first light of Advent is the light of the stones,
That shines through the crystals, the seashells and the bones.

One little candle lighted in the wreath,
The earth below – begins to glow.

:: Adding our traditional ‘crystal path’ to the stable area. This leads Mary and Joseph into the stable on Christmas Eve ::

It was asked a few times on various forums, what was in our Belle and Boo Advent bags that we have strung up this year. We are also using elements from the Father Christmas pack amongst our festivities. I like to fill our bags with details of our daily activity. Unfortunately this year, we’re still finishing up the final few weeks of our Grade 1 program. I’d hoped we’d be able to finish up at the beginning of Advent to fully immerse in the Festive preparations, but I’ve just scaled back what we’re doing to cap off the final important lessons amongst our Grade 1 year. I find a lot of these final lessons are predominantly revision and review anyway – which I realise are still important, but they can be done in less formal ways and woven into our Advent happenings. Next year hopefully our plan will stay on track and we’ll have the weeks leading up to Christmas free of school to fully immerse in all of Advent’s loveliness.

:: To be honest – living in a Summer climate for Christmas, I normally try to avoid very heavily based Northern Hemisphere, snowy type Christmas images – and these Belle and Boo Advent bags are very Wintery, but I knew my Belle and Boo loving children would just adore them. Possibly I might have to find a way to incorporate them into our Winter Solstice Activities ::

:: The Graphic Designer in me had to make sure the cards matched the bags! ::

Anyway, I thought I’d share the week in review of what was in our Advent bag for each day. The main source of inspiration I use for our Advent plan is The Advent Craft and Activity Book. I don’t follow the daily plan exactly, but I go through and pick out the activities that we’ll do and then weave them into our Advent program.

Saturday (before Advent commences) – Tell the story of ‘Little Parsley’s Star Crown‘

Sunday (Advent begins) – Prepare for our First Advent Sunday and make the Advent Trifle (this dessert is delicious – page 21 of the book I mentioned. It reminds me of my favourite German cake – The Black Forest Cherry Cake).

Monday – Paint watercolour sheets in golden colours which will be our Christmas cards and tags. I told the story of ‘The Solstice Party’ (as it is Summer here) from page 24 of Earthschooling’s Year of Watercolour Stories program.

Tuesday – Stamp the front of the cards with our Christmas stamps and incorporate the Oak Meadow Kindergarten craft of sponge painting. Summer arrives in our home as well with a ‘Summer cave’ surprise and story in the afternoon. We also begin listening to the Sparkle Stories Audio Advent Calendar.

Wednesday – Answer one of the riddles from The Advent Craft and Activity Book before finding out about today’s activity, which is to make Straw Stars. We also made Date Macaroons (recipe in the book) for Christmas gifts.

:: Marlin was my little helper this week – anytime I sat to do a task, he was by my side asking how he could help or saying “Ma pass Mumma this” ::

:: These are clay tile prints, another Oak Meadow craft. The children imprinted a ‘Christmas Star’ onto the clay pendants and we strung them with Festive ribbon as Christmas gifts for friends ::

Thursday – Baking hazelnut cookies for Christmas gifts with the accompanying story (page 49 in the book)

Friday – Make a pentagram star lantern using previously painted watercolour card. We also spoke about Saint Barbara and the story the author gives in the book about her memories of the cherry branch her grandmother always picked on this day. The children picked a cherry branch to bring inside, remembering the message of Saint Barbara.

:: “Ho Ho Ho – Merry Christmas” – Marlin is playing Saint Nicholas with bubbles from the hand wash bowl ::

:: Chilli and Marlin made gifts to leave out for Saint Nicholas ::

:: The Father Christmas pack from Belle and Boo has these wonderful carrot wraps and signs. The children had a great time walking around the property discussing where Saint Nicholas and his white horse would ‘land’ and then which path they’d take to the house. They laid out the signs directing him to the house and of course, at the front door was this ‘animal parking station’. Our ‘farm kids’ also thought St Nic would need a lead rope to tie his white horse up to! ::

Saturday – Another riddle to answer before finding out about today’s activity. Today is Saint Nicholas Eve so we prepared for that, were supposed to bake Lebkuchen and play the Lebkuchen game from the book. When we finally got around to baking our Lebkuchen, we spoke about the history of Lebkuchen and the differences in the various recipes.

:: Marlin’s current ‘modelling’ stage is to cut the medium into tiny little pieces. I remember this with Chilli when she was the same age and I wondered why she wouldn’t model ‘like she was supposed to’! ::

:: I love that Chilli still lives so much in the magic. On Saint Nicholas morning she said “Lucky Saint Nicholas visits us, Mummy would never buy us these things!” Saint Nicholas’ special gifts this year included modelling bathtime fun from LUSH, Phoenix Raspberry soft drink for their new Frosty mugs, giant – red (organic!!! if you can believe it) candy canes and Saint Nicholas chocolates. Yes, she is quite right – Mummy would never buy her those things! 😉 Luckily Saint Nic also brought his traditional cherries and some pistachios for a dose of good health! ::

Sunday – Celebrating Saint Nicholas Day, baking a star cake and making chocolate clusters for Christmas gifts (recipe from the book).

In reality with still working on a few Grade 1 end of year lessons, some of our baking got missed here and there and we’ve had a big ‘bake day’ this Monday just passed – covering off a few of the missed baking activities from last week so we stay on track with our Christmas gift making.

The things that I love about The Advent Craft and Activity Book is that woven in amongst the recipes and activities there are beautiful stories and verses that I use to accompany activities I feel they pair well with. The stories are Saint legends, fables and experiences from the author’s own childhood. These ‘experience’ stories can easily be told as ‘stories’ to the children – “Once upon a time there was a lady who remembered beautiful things about Christmas’ when she was a little girl. One day she was thinking about the time when…. ” I had seen this book for a few years before I decided to purchase it. Sometimes I do have restraint with my book buying! And when I did, it really inspired and transformed our Advent activities and celebrations. Being of German heritage, I connect very deeply with the activities and remember many of the things the author writes about from my own childhood Christmas’. That’s not to say you have to be German to enjoy nor connect with this book – quite the opposite. The activities, recipes and stories the author shares, the legend and history behind so many classic treats and traditions of the time are really quite wonderful, inspiring and very enriching. I remember the year I did have this book to use in our Advent preparations, I felt there was a deeper ‘richness’ to our Advent period that year, and every year forward since I have used it.

:: Do you remember these Frosty mugs from way back when we were young? I loved my Frosty mug and the children were just as enchanted by this start of Advent and Summer gift as I thought they would be. It is a rather amazing thing. I never cease to be captivated by the Frosty mug! ::

What are some of your favourite or most inspiring Advent resources?

Christmas :: The Gift Bringer

November 29, 2015 | Leave a Comment

This post has some musings from me about my thoughts, our values and what we celebrate at Christmas. I hope it conveys the message that we are very respectful that what is true and right for us is definitely not going to be for the next family. Each family has their own beliefs and what is ‘truth’ for them. That is the beauty in our world. My thoughts here do not pass judgement on what others may do, there’s definitely no right or wrong – only what ‘feels’ right for each individual person and family. All Blessings.

When Chilli was first born and through her early childhood days, it was ‘The Christmas Angels’ that would visit her at Christmas time. They would bring one main gift and maybe 1-2 other smaller things. We were passionate from the beginning about the story of Christmas and the messages of the time being the main focus for her as she grew. Of course there was gifts from grandparents, relatives and close friends – but the receiving of these was spread out over several days as we visited various gatherings. Presents from those that had been sent in the post, were slowly over the 12 days, left out to be enjoyed. We’ve always been mindful within our home, not only at Christmas, but even at birthdays, Easter and other times through the year when gifts are exchanged – that this is done in a calm manner. We hoped the gifts that were given and received would as much as possible be exchanged personally and for our family to sit quietly as the gift was opened – appreciating that gift and the person it was received from. Today in our home with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we try to still bring a quiet and reverent mood to the Festival and especially any present opening times.

When children are young and the world that surrounds them is predominantly of similar values to your own, it is easy to live with the mindset “This is what our family does” – and this is what the children see, believe and take as their truth. But as children grow, it is our experience with Chilli that with that increasing awareness of what other families celebrate, seeing what is around at Christmas time and as their consciousness expands, that it is necessary to be flexible and flow like the river with the story that is held as the family truth.

We’ve never told our children anything negative about what other people believe or celebrate, we’ve just said that this is what our family celebrates and that is what their family celebrates. Each person is visited by the people or beings that their family believes in. If you ask the Christmas Angels to visit, that is who comes to see you, if you ask Saint Nicholas to visit, he will come visit you and if you ask Father Christmas to come then he will be the one to visit you on Christmas – each of them has their purpose and each of them brings their own story. Obviously the question arises at sometime through the years “Why doesn’t St Nicholas visit this friend or that person” and the answer for us has been simple – because he only visits the families that ask him to.

While we are mindful to keep Christmas as uncommercial as possible and as focussed on the story and meaningful coming together through the time, there are also some traditions that are beautiful and that we as parents hold special and dear from our childhood memories. A few years back, I remember deliberating over The Christmas Stocking. I have such fond memories of opening those tiny little parcels on Christmas morning. I’d wake through the night and look over at my door handle to see if the stocking was bulging yet – Had he been? I’d wonder…. I remember the immense joy that was held in each tiny little piece of tightly taped wrapping paper. I remember the feeling of my hand reaching down into the very tip toe of the stocking, hoping and praying that there was just one more teeny tiny little something. Not for the greedy want of ‘more’ but just for that joy of opening those tiny little parcels. Anyone who is a parent knows what joy is held in tiny little treasures for children. Pockets and pouches are filled with any and all matter of tininess. Delicate pieces of coloured paper fold into tiny little fairy notes. Mini jars are filled with tiny little bits and pieces lined up on shelves as thought they hold the most magical contents – because they do! These precious little treasures. There is something magical about the tiny for wee ones. I can tell you that I have vague at best memories of opening any other Christmas gifts through the years, but I can vividly remember sitting year after year alongside my brother unwrapping those tiny trinkets. So I meditated on this Christmas Stocking. Why do we have Christmas Stockings, what is the meaning of them? Would it increase the expectation of ‘more’ and then feed a ‘greediness’ at Christmas time? After much deliberation, conversations with special friends I turn to as mentors and chatting it over with Graham, we decided to include a Christmas Stocking in our celebrations. We also include a lovely little book with a gorgeous story holding the meaning of why we hang stockings. It was the same with candy canes. I stumbled upon organic candy canes and remembered with such fondness the traditions around candy canes when I was younger. It took me again, a lot of meditating and pondering to arrive at the decision to weave these and the story of them, into our family’s Christmas.

Then there is all the fun of the Elf on the Shelf. We never had this as a child, but over the past few years I’ve watched on social media the fun families have with these little folk and thought about including this in our Christmas Festivities. It can be a hard balance – not buying into the commercial hype yet still having fun and giving children modern day relevant experiences. Sure the vintage, Victorian, yesteryear traditions have so much beauty – but our children also live in the world of today. Even if they homeschool, they go to extra curricula activities as they get older where people talk about this movie, that activity and the other new fun thing. I actually didn’t realise the Elf on the Shelf had been around for as long as he has. I thought he was a relatively new little being. Of course I knew if we did the ‘Elf on the Shelf’ thing that I’d not be buying a pre made one, nor bringing the story as is to our children – but I liked the idea of fun weaving through what can sometimes, despite our best intentions for serene and calmness, be a busy preparation time in Advent. There was however a few things about the ‘Elf on the Shelf’ concept as is, that didn’t sit right for me and I couldn’t see it being meaningful or a right ‘fit’ for our family.

I stumbled upon the ‘Kindness Elves’ idea and read these posts. This was getting closer for me – but it still wasn’t ‘there’ as such. I think whatever we bring to our children has to feel ‘just right’. It has to have thought, meditation and mindfulness behind it. Just like Santa, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas or the Christmas Angels – no one thing is perfect for every family, each one will put their own ‘spin’ on it, add their own personal ‘flavour’. I liked the idea with the Kindness Elves – thinking of others, bringing the message of giving into the preparations rather than thinking about ‘getting’.

Whether we talk about it or not, our children are thinking about what they’ll receive for Christmas. They know gifts have been organised and they know on Christmas morning, they’ll wake to fun things to unwrap. So while we don’t need to put a focus on it and make the season solely about this – it is still a part of the season, and I think to weave some magic into this – however a family chooses to do that, also keeps a sense of reverence to the festivities. I remember as a young child (who wasn’t really that young, I was the oldest in my family and amongst my cousins we celebrated with, so I had the magic kept alive for me until I was quite old!) standing on the front lawn in the dark of Christmas Eve, looking up at the sky in awe as we all watched Rudolf’s blinking red nose go travelling across the sky! I couldn’t believe we were actually lucky enough to see that! I am sure I could even hear the sleigh bells! Really and Truely! I remember my Oma telling me how as they walked through the snowy Spring woods of Germany that my Father and Uncle marvelled at the little white flick of the Easter Hare’s tail that they saw as he hopped off behind the tree from delivering their eggs in the woods. Our Easter egg hunt when I was younger was often amongst big old pine trees, because that is what Oma and Opa identified so strongly with where the Easter Hare left his gifts.

Back to the Christmas Elf idea. I knew I wanted to bring this fun to our Christmas. As I said the preparation period can be busy and I think it’s nice for the children to have some fun amongst that. It helps to keep us as parents grounded as well, by keeping hold of that magic in our daily preparations.

There’s also the consideration that as Chilli is getting older, we watch the occasional movie with her. There are so many lovely Christmas movies that I’d like to watch with her – but of course they all have and talk about Santa. So it’s foreign, strange and meaningless for her. It’s also slightly awkward because there is that question that starts to come up now – “Who is Santa”, “If there’s Santa, well then how is there also the Christmas Angels and who is Father Christmas”. I know she’s getting older, but I really want the magic to still live in her for a little while longer yet. She still does live so much in that early childhood Sanguine realm and magic really does make her Melancholy dissolve and let her take joy in a sense, to ‘Jump Up And Live Again’! It’s beautiful.

So after much meditating, pondering and consideration, as is always the way – I sat doing something focussed today – and the idea on how to answer some of these emerging questions, weave in the beliefs of others that Chilli’s starting to become aware of, open up the lovely opportunity for us to enjoy a Christmas family movie with her and to bring the fun of The Elf on the Shelf with the mindfulness of the Kindness Elves into our Christmas celebrations. I had this story take shape in my mind. The story will be brought in the form of a letter that sits on the laps of our Christmas Elves when they ‘appear’ on the morning of sometime around December 1… Notice I say ‘sometime around’ – yes, I still need to ‘bring them to life’! 😉 Here’s some fun ideas I’ve been saving on Pinterest to help these little beings come to life in my mind! I especially like the inspiration from Anna Bradford’s blog.

Hi Chilli and Marlin.

What a lovely home you have. We hope you don’t mind us visiting. We spoke with Mumma and Papa to see if it would be alright if we stopped in for a little while and they said they were sure you’d enjoy a visit from us.

We are Christmas Elves. We have been busy in the workshop this year, not only making some very precious and exciting gifts for you this Christmas, but also helping out some of the younger Elves that don’t work as fast or are still learning home to do certain things. Gosh, we’ve been; knitting, sewing, painting, sanding, glueing, felting, building and printing. There are so many different things that children from all over the world would like or need this year, that even we’ve learnt some new skills! And we hear you’ve been working on some new skills here as well. Marlin you’ve been learning to stitch and Chilli you’ve been doing some beautiful weaving and knitting. We even hear that you’ve been doing fantastically at school this year with learning to write, read and do maths. Our favourite lessons at school used to be the Science lessons. We love learning all about the rain and the clouds and the flowers and the snow. The bees that buzz and the butterflies that dance. Even the frogs that croak and the lizards that scurry make us giggle. For a large part of the year, it is very cold where we live. It has to be, because we are so busy we need it to be cooler. Running here, there and everywhere, tending to task after task, we get quite warm ourselves. When it is really cold, we get to sit around the log fire and do quieter activities like knitting and stitching as well. Marlin – you’ve been doing some beautiful drawings this year we hear, and your watercolour paintings are beautiful as well Mumma tells us. Chilli we heard that you’e been doing some crayoning drawings of your stories. We hope you can show us some of your work while we are here.

Well, since we’ve finished all our gift making now and everything is prepared in the Cottage for Christmas Eve, we’ve been allowed to come and visit you. Each year we’re allowed to choose some children we would like to go and visit if we’re ready early enough. We hear you still have some gifts to make, cards to decorate, baking to do for relatives and friends and that you’ll be going to some fun Christmas events. We’d love to stay with you a while if you’d like and we could help you with the preparations you are still working on. We’d also like to go along to some of the fun events you’ll be visiting, if you wouldn’t mind to take us. Make sure to keep us safe and close by you when we are out. It can get so busy at Christmas can’t it? We’re not really for playing with a lot, we’re not like your babies in Pumpkin House, we are rather delicate us Elves, so please remember to be gentle with us and just sit us beside you while you play or work.

We’ll have to go back home on Christmas Night, but we’ll enjoy to be here with you for Christmas Eve and Day. We hear you’ll be having a great party Christmas Eve and we’ll be excited to see how you spend Christmas Day. When we go back home Christmas Night, there is a great celebration for us after all the hard work we’ve done through the year. There are so many children in the world that we like to send special gifts to, that really we are working for most of the year. When we arrive home, Father Christmas has a big celebration for us. Everyone has normally arrived home by then – The Christmas Angels, Saint Nicholas, Ruprecht, their White Horse, Father Christmas, all his Helpers and The Reindeer that pull Father Christmas’ sleigh. There are so many of us that help to make Christmas special for the children of the world, you’ve probably seen a lot of Father Christmas’ helpers sitting in shopping centres, walking around town ringing a bell, riding on the back of fire trucks in Christmas parades or helping out at Charity events. We used to only need one helper in every town but now-a-days towns are getting so big we often need several! They even sometimes ask us to send Helpers to be in movies about Christmas! Often these helpers are called ‘Santa’ because it’s an English shortening of the original Christmas gift bringer Saint Nicholas who visits you early in Advent to bring the message that soon the baby will be born. Aren’t the stories about him fun. He loves to tell us about the time he threw the bag of coins down through the chimney hole for the girl who needed a dowry to be married. We laugh every time when he tells us how the bag landed in her stockings. We think he is so special, such a caring man, who sailed across the waters to take gifts to the people who had no food. Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas really are, well – The Fathers’ of Christmas! The Feast we have is filled with the most delicious food you can ever imagine. What is your favourite Christmas food? Ours is peppermint bark – but we have to wait until after dinner for that. We like to eat honey glazed ham and Father Christmas always finds the sweetest carrots to roast. That night we sit around the log fire (because it’s cold where we live remember) and we have warm spiced milk with tiny gingerbread houses. The Elves that choose to stay back at the Cottage and watch over everything – tending to any last minute preparations that need to be done, they normally make those tiny little houses for all of us who go to help the children with their final Christmas preparations.

Oh and Mummy tells us that she told you a special story about Little Parsley’s Star Crown – is it just like the Star Crown that Mother Mary wears on Epiphany? Hopefully you’ll be able to tell us that story sometime during our stay. We always like Epiphany – it’s the last Feast before we go back to work the following Monday – Plough Monday … Is that when you start school again? That was traditionally the day when the farmers returned to the fields as well after their Christmas Celebrations and rest time.

We better get busy then. What do you have on today? What can we help with? We’re excited we can help you get ready for Christmas. Oh and we’ll try to behave, but you know us Elves we can occasionally get into mischief, we don’t mean to – we just like to have fun – just like you do! Hopefully we won’t make too much mess while we’re staying. Perhaps if we do, you could help us clean it up so Mumma and Papa don’t get too cranky!

Let’s have a Happy Advent together and enjoy a fantastic Christmas.

Love from – Well, we actually don’t have names! You see, when we’re at home, we’re just called ‘Elf’ so if you could give us a name that’d really be wonderful – we always think it’s so amazing that children have their very own names! Please, could you give us our own name – make sure you think of something special. We’re excited to see what you come up with.

Do you have a magical Elf that comes to visit your children through the Advent and preparation period? What is your favourite thing abut these Elves, and what is the story that follows your little friends?

Preparing :: Little Parsley and her Star Crown

November 26, 2015 | 1 Comment

I always think it is important for stories to really ‘speak’ to children and that the stories we choose to bring to our children, have strong seasonal and local climate/geographical relevance. We adjust to the corresponding seasonal time, some of our Festivals through the year that speak more strongly of seasons rather than dates to us. Others we leave on the date a Festival is generally celebrated and find meaning for that Festival within our own Australian environment.

When Chilli was young and we were living on the East Coast of New South Wales, the days that approached and carried us through Advent in the lead up to Christmas were hot and humid. We’d spend long days swimming in the river and taking family strolls along the golden sands and shorelines of the surf beaches that our East Coast hometown is known for. There are a few stories that bring a beautiful activity to this Summery Christmas time, of collecting ‘Christmas Stars’ (spinifex grass seed heads) that tumble along the beaches at this time of year. Susan Perrow’s ‘The Star Grass Man’ and ‘A Gift of Starlight’ as well as Jacqui Lindon-Smallpage’s ‘The Summer Star’ (which I am sorry I cannot find any link to a resource for this online) bring beautiful summery, Christmas, beach-themed wonder. As well as this, Agapanthus ‘Star of Bethlehem’ heads are in full bloom in that climate during this time, so bringing ‘star’ symbolism to our children in multiple ways through these daily nature walk activities was easy and nourishing.

When we moved south just before Chilli’s 5th Christmas, I was somewhat lost with these activities that we identified Advent preparations with. These activities that were gently woven into our daily Advent celebrations had become our traditions. However here in Tasmania, agapanthus might have the odd head here and there blooming, but from my observations the height of their season is not until early January – it’s beautiful for Epiphany, but slim pickings for Advent and Christmas. The rocky, bay style beaches that are more common here in our new little island home – which have their own immense beauty – don’t from what I have seen have the tumbling spinifex seed heads rolling along in the island breezes, these seem to be more common to those East Coast surf shorelines. I’ve struggled inside myself these past few years for something that is commonly found in our local habitat which can strongly call to the children through their Spring and Summer time immersion that Christmas is coming.

Over the past few years, we’ve found lovely, nourishing activities that bring quite beautifully the star symbolism to this Festive season – but ‘something’ has just still felt to me, in my heart, to be ‘missing’. Something wasn’t ‘filling in’ this ‘nature star’ wonderland. Sure, the garden is full of stars dancing around on springtime flower heads and there is lovely symbolism of the season in plantain ‘candles’ and coriander ‘baubles’, but nothing really ‘jumped up and sang’ like the symbolism of the grass stars do…. Then this week amongst our daily garden time that we’ve been enjoying through this glorious Spring time rhythm – there it was, right in front of me! Standing tall, waving and ‘shining’ just like the grass stars do as they tumble along the East Coast beaches was Mother Mary’s crown of stars that Little Parsley wears, to remind us in our busy Spring garden enjoyment that soon – the Christ Child will be born. Little Parsley calls out “are you getting ready?” 🙂

As I sat there during our nature time, helping the children to arrange a ‘spring garden’ of letters (for the G1 child) and snails (for the nursery aged child) made out of collected nature treasures including lupin flower petals – this story idea trickled through my mind as we noticed the beauty of little parsely’s seed heads. If you look close enough, they look just like tiny little shimmering stars. I mused how every year – Advent, despite my best intentions to be more organised and prepared than the year before, always seems to creep up on us. Every year it seems it is the week leading up to Advent before we even really notice. Our lives are so busy with all our Springtime happenings in this food-garden-tending life we now live.

I’m excited about the weaving of this ‘star crown’ story into our Advent preparations over the next few days. I must of course thank here, Susan Perrow and Jacqui Lindon-Smallpage for their beautiful stories that not only nourished us all those years ago and started a wonderful family tradition for us, but also for that idea of the children being so busy with the warmer, longer days that they almost might forget about Mother Mary and the journey she is soon to make. It was this concept that was so strongly identified with our preparations revolving around the grass star collecting. In my soul searching of weaving something meaningful into our new southern life, this still had to be the essence of our story. This story now speaks to myself and I know it will to our children as well, with the symbolism of our own environment, climate and busy food-garden-farming life that they are immersed in here in their new southern home.

Little Parsley and her Star Crown
A Southern Tasmanian food-garden-tending Christmas story

It had been a long, cold Winter. The children had enjoyed it immensely; tobogganing, maple taffy making, snowman building and animal tracking. Hot chocolates by the fire, plenty of herbal tea and lots of delicious baked treats. It had even snowed at the children’s house where it doesn’t normally snow! The snow was thick and low.
Such a fun, wintery wonderland.

Well as you can imagine, when the first signs appeared of King Winter stepping off the seasonal throne to make way for Lady Spring’s beautiful dance, the children were very excited. They’d spent even more time sitting by the window through this winter – bundled under quilts, propped up against blanket and pillow forts, dreaming of time outside on warm, sunny days; the colours, the perfumes, the fun, the songs and the longer days. This Spring seemed even more magical than ever before – everything seemed to Jump up to Live Again with great gusto – more vibrant and colourful than the children had ever remembered in any other Spring before. The birds seemed to sing louder, the flowers seemed to bloom brighter and the days seemed to lengthen so quickly. It wasn’t long before their Mother was saying “Yes, it is bedtime – even though Father Sun hasn’t put on his red pyjamas yet and climbed into bed, you, my dears do have to go to bed now” … “Ohhhhh” the children would grumble as they tiredly tumbled into bed. Surely they could (yawn) just have (yawn) one more (yawn) little run out (yawn)….. s…..i…..d……e…. zzzzzzzz…. Mother would barely have finished the first lullaby before the children had fallen faaaaast asleep – so tired they really were from all their outside running, jumping, skipping and hopping. Soon they were dreaming, on the dream land train, of all the wonderful things they’d do outside again
in the gardens tomorrow.

Well as Lady Spring had come and swept these children up in all her glorious beauty, they didn’t even really notice that Lady Spring was slowly starting to hand over the reign to Mrs Summer. The children were still so busy in the garden. And who else do you think was preparing for their annual visit? That is right… Joseph was saddling the donkey, Mother Mary was preparing herself and soon the baby Jesus would be born – but the children, they were still spending so much time in the garden, right up until bedtime some nights, they hadn’t even thought at all about who would soon be visiting, nor had they started to think about what treasures they would build their stable with this year!…

The Christmas Angels became quite concerned that these children in all their Spring excitement really would forget about Christmas this year. Oh how Mother Mary always loved to see the children carrying their little nativity figures slowly through their home each night, building a stable for the Holy Family to arrive in and the hanging of the Christmas Star as the Holy Night approached… Stars! Of course! That gave Mother Nature an idea! If the children were so busy in the garden – then she’d fill the garden with stars to remind the children that Mother Mary would soon be walking down
through the stars to visit them.

The Christmas Angels, Lady Spring, Mrs Summer and Mother Nature all worked together – weaving a beautiful array of tiny stars into the garden with flowers from; borage, tulbaghia, jonquils, violets, rampian and lychnis – the plantain sent up tapered tops on long stalks to remind the children of their Advent candles and the coriander burst into little round seed heads to try and call to the children – reminding them of the baubles they hung on their Christmas tree each year. … The Shepherd’s Purse even sent out little love heart shaped seed pods to try and remind the children how much they loved the Christmas season that they were soon going to forget this year – but nothing! … The children still galloped, sung, planted, weeded, mulched, watered and played all through the gardens. Sure – they noticed the pretty stars and created fairy stews and elemental gardens from them as well as the plantain and coriander that they even picked to take inside for their own meals! But even though the whole garden was singing at the top of their voices the children were so caught up in all the fun of their Springtime joy, that still they didn’t think about Mother Mary who was soon going to be visiting…

Then a little voice spoke up from down under the celery, hidden by the great canopy of Cape Gooseberry and circled around by baby oak leaf lettuce. “I think” said little parsley “that if I stretch up very high, right onto my tippy toes and hold my hands up the highest I can reach, that maybe, I will stand tall enough for the children to take notice. And then” suggested little parsley “possibly I could wear that starry crown of flowers and seeds that I’ve seen other parsley sisters wear, please Mother Nature, could I – could I? I really think it might help”. And then everyone smiled. Of course! Why hadn’t they thought of that! So the next day Mother Nature spoke to Father Sun, he shone bright and happy and beautifully warm. Little Parsley reached and stretched and stood up as tall as she could. And then… Right over the top of all the other plants in her little bed she reached high-high-high … And as she did, Mother Nature appeared with the starry crown little parsley had remembered – “Good Luck” whispered Mother Nature as she placed the crown on little parsley’s head….

Then the next morning when the children ran through the garden, singing to Lady Spring and picking a beautiful posy of all the sweet peas in the garden, they stopped and looked at little parsley standing tall and waving to them with the help of Baby Breeze. “Mumma, Mumma, come quick” they said “Look here at little parsley, look at her starry-starry crown! Isn’t it beautiful! Just like the crown Mother Mary wears when the Three Wise Men arrive – why Mother, isn’t Mother Mary coming to visit us again soon?”

And with that the whole garden cheered. The birds sang out loudly, Brother Wind whistled a sweet little tune and all the flowers cheered by letting out a little bit of extra Springtime perfume for Baby Breeze to blow around. The children smiled at all the delicious Springtime Magic and ran inside to prepare all the magic they liked to have awaiting Mother Mary along her journey.

I also wanted to share this beautiful post from The Little Gnome’s Home. It contains a lot of our own family Advent and Christmas traditions, that were also inspired and brought to life by the wise words of Ebba Bodame, all those years ago when our eldest was just a wee newborn baby.

I wish you all a Happy Advent. May your Festival be filled with rich tradition, meaningful stories and warm celebrations.

Handwork :: Advent Calendar

November 26, 2014 | Leave a Comment

Recently, the Father of one of our daughter’s closest friends, suggested the girls should make each other Advent Calendars this year. Ever since, it’s been something Chilli speaks about often. I was a little overwhelmed by the idea, however as I browsed through resources, along with odds and ends I’ve bookmarked and collected through the years – planning our Christmas activities, I noticed a rough hand sketch I’d made many years ago when Chilli was a wee one. The sketch was made during a Steiner Playgroup Christmas evening where parents conscious of how and what we bring to our children at Christmas time, gathered together to listen to a beautiful, seasoned Steiner Teacher who was involved in the foundation of our local Steiner School when it began. The heading on the sketch read “Simple Advent Calendar for Kindergarteners”. I knew Chilli would love this handwork piece and would be extremely excited in making a Calendar to gift her friend as they had discussed and planned.

I wanted to say a quick word at this point about planning for Festivals, especially something that spans a larger time like the season of Christmas. Having said that, the same is true for shorter Festival periods as well – and it is regarding how much we as parents, educators and planners try to cram into our programs and homes. There is a plethora of inspiration these days to totally lose yourself in and be overwhelmed by. After 7 years of doing this homeschooling/homemaking Mumma thing, I’ve finally realised that less really is more. My focus now as I approach a Festival, especially something like Easter or Christmas is to be mindful not to become lost in all the wonderful things that Pinterest shows me I can do. Instead I sit and browse for a small amount of time through resources; books, online places like Pinterest, Facebook groups and blogs as well as pieces I’ve collected and saved through the years on my computer. I save in boards, Evernote and other resource places, things that interest me. To be honest, all through the year I’m bookmarking things in this manner, so that when a Festival rolls around, I have the resources all there ready to briefly flick through for inspiration in our planning. But here’s the thing… I highly recommend being mindful about what you are planning to incorporate and how much you incorporate. It sounds simple enough – but it is all too easy to think you’ll get a whole bundle of things done and then all that happens is yourself and your children end up frantically moving from one thing to another without any real meaning or mindfulness to what you are actually doing.

This year with Christmas, I really thought about the activities we would do. What were their purpose, what did they mean to me in the celebration, what message will they share with my children and our family about this holiday season. Having a wee one again has really made me pull back in a mindful way and embrace the ‘less is more’ philosophy, which brings deeper meaning and mindfulness to the well thought out, purposeful activities that we now incorporate into a Festival. My advice is – don’t have yourself so tightly planned that time for snuggling on the couch, reading a wonderful Festival story together while sipping a nice cup of some beautiful herbal infusion, eludes you. These are the real moments that hold beautiful treasures for our children. Moments of togetherness, calmness and times, as well as activities – imbued with meaning.

Onto this Advent Calendar then. The sketch I had was simple and rough. Inspiration at its best! On a piece of paper, I’d sketched a window in each of the four corners. There was a window to represent one of the Kingdoms through each week of Advent. In the middle is a larger window with a ‘two door’ type opening which is a special one for Christmas Morning. Here is how we made our Calendar;

We took two watercolour paintings from through the year – ‘The Three Kings Followed a Star’ for the front of the calendar and ‘The Rose and The Violet’ for the backing of the calendar (the piece the windows open to.) These Watercolour Lessons are found in the Pre School and Kindergarten Watercolour Lesson Book from Earthschooling. I like to use watercolour paintings for this as the pictures are beautiful and soft – perfect for the calendar, and the paper has a structure to it that once doubling the front and back together, will give great form to the calendar without the need for a mounting board.
In four corners of the star we traced around one of the circular shapes from our Rainbow Stacking Disc set. We flattened off the outer edge of each of the circles. In the centre we traced around a larger disc, again flattening off both the sides this time, as well as drawing a line down the centre of the circle. The line down the centre was cut through as well as the the circular part of the shape on this central window. The two outer sides that were flattened off were just ‘scored’. This makes a ‘double door’ opening.
I carefully cut with a scalpel on a cutting matt, around the circular part of each shape and we then ‘scored’ the flattened part of the shape with the back of the scalpel and a metal ruler.
We then erased the light pencil marks we had used as our guides for these windows.
Placing the top over the backing – we lightly drew around where the windows would sit on the backing.
Chilli then set to work making a little drawing in each window space we’d marked out, on the backing paper. In each window we did the following; Window/Week 1 :: Mineral Kingdom – A star drawing with glitter glue over the star, a gold foil snowflake centred on the star illustration and a tiny crystal chip fixed in the middle of the gold snowflake with a wee ball of Stockmar sticky wax. Window/Week 2 :: Plant Kingdom – A Christmas tree drawing with a mini wire and netting flower tacked again with sticky wax, onto the tree. Window/Week 3 :: Animal Kingdom – A sheep drawing with a little of the fleece from the animals we watch sheared in the Spring glued onto the sheep. Window/Week 4 :: Human Kingdom – A drawing of Chilli and her friend together with little woollen bows tacked onto their dresses. ‘Merry Christmas’/Central Window – Drawing of Mary and Joseph in the stable with the baby Jesus. Hay from the paddock next to a house we lived in once, tacked around the manger.
Before mounting the two pages together, Chilli relished the opportunity to put her new writing skills to good use! She numbered each window so her friend knows which window to open each Sunday and we also put the Kingdom name above each window. On the central window Chilli wrote ‘Merry Christmas’. Above and below the main window, she wrote ‘Advent Calendar 2014’ – she also wanted to sign her work of course! I loved this project for Chilli at this age – it was perfect for her. She had a real sense of achievement, something she’d made that was really functional for her friend. That’s what I love about Waldorf Handwork – the attention to purpose and function. We don’t just decorate a paper plate with pretty tissue paper squares to hang on the fridge – there is a purpose and function to the handwork the children and ourselves undertake. Not to say we don’t make decorations for Festivals and the like – some things are made and hung to look pretty, but it’s always with purpose.
Our final pre-mounting step was to thread the ties through the windows. I strung wool through with a thicker needle, knotted it and created ties on the door and where it met the card as it closed.
Glueing the two together, we were careful to ensure the windows were positioned correctly and then we tied closed our windows, ready to be opened by a very dear friend through the weeks of Advent to shortly come. I made sure to place glue all around the windows as well as the outer edges of the card, pressing all these points together well.
The final touch was to finger knit a short cord which could be attached through two hole punches at the top of the calendar, allowing the piece to be hung somewhere special amongst the Festivities of our friend’s home.

I say this whenever I write about Christmas… At that very same night when the foundation of how we as a family would celebrate Christmas was laid, this wonderful Steiner Teacher who was a beautiful mentor to me in those early parenting days said; Even if we are not religious, go to church regularly or no matter what our beliefs about how the world was created are – bringing these Archetypal stories that have such deep meaning in them, to our children is such a powerful and nourishing way to celebrate Christmas, not just for our wee ones but for ourselves as well. I have always held those very simple but wonderfully inspiring words in my heart and mind about the celebrations we create for our family. Watching the meaning that Mary and Joseph’s journey through our home each year to arrive at the stable that has slowly ‘come to life’ over the four weeks of Advent, has for our daughter and will as well have for our son, is so humbling. Every year I can’t hide nor help the tears of joy that roll silently down my cheeks as I witness the reverence and meaning our celebrations have to our children.

It is my hope that your celebrations bring just as much mindful, meaningful and memory making moments to your family as we experience with the rich traditions the Waldorf way has brought to our family.