by Neta Jackson
Traditionally, purple has been a color that reminds us of sorrow and repentance, but it is also the color of royalty. The evergreens remind us of the eternal life Jesus Christ brings as His gift to us. The glow from all the candles reminds us that Jesus is the Light of the World.
The first candle is often called the Prophets’ Candle and is meant to signify the hope of Messiah. The second is the Bethlehem Candle, reminding us that God came in a humble manner. The third candle (sometimes pink to express joy) is the Shepherds’ Candle. The fourth candle is the Angels’ Candle, symbolizing the good news of peace they brought. The white candle is the Christ Candle to be lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Celebrating Advent
Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas (usually the first Sunday after Thanksgiving).
On the first Sunday, do the full celebration (see “A Family Advent Celebration”) for that week together as a family. Repeat the Call and Response, read the first week’s scripture, light the first candle while saying its meaning and allowing it to burn during your meal, and sing the first verse of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”During the week, do an abbreviated version: Light the first candle each night while repeating its meaning, and sing the first verse of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
On the second, third, and fourth Sundays of Advent, do that week’s full celebration, adding the second, third, and fourth candle lightings as appropriate. On the weekdays of those weeks, do the shortened version of lighting all candles to date while saying their meanings, but sing only that week’s verse of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Each Scripture passage is read only on its respective Sunday. The lighting of the candles, however, is added accumulatively until all the candles are burning together the fourth week and on Christmas.
A Family Advent Celebration
First Week
Call and Response
LEADER: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
ALL: Those who dwelled in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
LEADER: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders.
ALL: And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Read the first scripture: Isaiah 40:1–5.
Light the first candle, and say:
I light this candle in memory of God’s promise to send a Savior who will forgive our sin and deliver us from injustice.
Sing the first verse and refrain of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Second Week
Call and Response—repeat from the first week.
Light the first candle, repeat its meaning, and sing the first verse and refrain of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Read the second scripture: John 8:12.
Light the second candle, and say:
I light this candle in memory of Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the World.
Sing the second verse and refrain of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Third Week
Call and Response—repeat from the first week.
Light the first and second candles, repeat their meanings, and sing the respective verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Read the third scripture: Luke 1:32–33.
Light the third candle, and say:
I light this candle in memory of Jesus, born of the house of David, in the town of Bethlehem.
Sing the third verse and refrain of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Fourth Week
Call and Response—repeat from the first week.
Light the first three candles, repeat their meanings, and sing the respective verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Read the fourth scripture: Revelation 5:9–10
Light the fourth candle, and say:
I light this candle for Jesus Christ, who was born to be Lord of the nations.
Sing the fourth verse and refrain of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Christmas Day
Call and Response—repeat from the first week.
Light the first four candles, repeating their meanings, and sing the respective verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
Read the Christmas scripture: Luke 2:1–20.
Light the Christmas candle. Say:
I light this candle for Jesus Christ, who was born in a manger on Christmas Day.
Sing “Away in a Manger.”
Suggestions:
Doing the celebration each day will undoubtedly use up your candles, but the daily meditation can be meaningful, so just replace the candles with new ones.
Let each child and/or parent be responsible for lighting one particular candle and saying what it means (e.g., oldest child lights first candle, second child second candle, a parent lights third candle, etc.).
If the full Advent celebration is too long for your family, just read the new scripture and light the new candle each week.
O Come,O Come, Emmanuel
1. O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appears.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!
2. O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
3. O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
4. O come, Desire of nations, bind
All peoples in one heart and mind.
Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease.
Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.3
Celebrate a New Year’s Eve “Watch Night”
New Year’s Eve! The beginning of a New Year is celebrated all over our globe—though not all countries celebrate on December 31. China and Israel, for example, have calendars based on a lunar month, so the date of their New Year celebrations, while consistent on a lunar calendar, change on the “standard” solar calendar most of us use.
Many of us remember the New Year’s Eve not too long ago when the calendar flipped from 1999 to 2000—the second millennium was here! Wahoo! What an historical event! (Though, to be honest, the next day pretty much resembled the one just before it. The sun rose, the sun set, in that wonderful rhythm of God’s awe-some creation.)
Reflect
Undoubtedly, people have commemorated New Year’s Eve ever since primitive calendars were able to identify the date. But Christian “Watch Night” services seem to have begun with the Moravians, a small community of believers in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in the eighteenth century. These Christians, persecuted because of their protests against a state church and its many excesses, fled to Bohemia and eventually to the New World in search of freedom to worship God according to the New Testament model. In 1733, they held their first Watch Night service, a time to give thanks to God for His blessing and protection in the year past, and to rededicate themselves to God’s service in the coming year.
John Wesley borrowed the idea for his followers, who were later known as Methodists. Since then, many modern Christians have observed some sort of New Year’s Eve service reflecting on God’s goodness during the past year and recommitting themselves to Him for the New Year. Two biblical themes are often emphasized: Jesus’ words before His betrayal, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41 NIV; emphasis added), and His warning to be ready for His return at the end of the age, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:13 NIV; emphasis added).
However, African-American Christians experienced special significance in this observance on the night of December 31, 1862, which for them was also “F
reedom’s Eve”—the night before the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect and all the slaves in the Confederate states were declared free. As they came together in churches and private homes all across the nation, hope, fear, and prayers gave way to shouts of joy, songs, and thanksgiving to God when word spread after midnight that the Proclamation had not been retracted. It’s an event that all Christians can incorporate into their Watch Night services, praising God for bringing us through another year and thanking Him for both physical and spiritual freedom.
A Watch Night Celebration
If your usual New Year’s Eve consists of sacking out in front of the TV and watching “the ball” fall in Times Square . . . or leaving the kids with a babysitter while you hold a glass of bubbly and sing “Auld Lang Syne” at the office party . . . consider celebrating a family-friendly Watch Night. The following Watch Night celebration can be adapted for use in a church setting, or at home with family and friends.
Invite!
“Make new friends, but keep the old . . . ” the old camp song goes. A New Year’s Eve celebration is an excellent time to celebrate “old friends” and “new.” A youth group from one church could invite a youth group from another church. A family could invite another family—or two! One “old friends” and one “new.”
It’s important to keep our children’s hearts—and our own—open to those Jesus loves but who are often overlooked. “Birds of a feather flock together” is not in the Bible!
Eat!
Begin the evening with a potluck meal. If your church or neighborhood involves many nationalities, this could be an “international night” with foods from different countries.
If done at home with family and friends, plan a festive meal for which various participants help prepare different dishes.
Play!
After the meal, play games that adults and youth can play together—relays, guessing games, icebreakers.
Play charades . . . but instead of using the traditional categories of book title, movie title, song, etc., pantomime events with which everyone is familiar from the preceding year. Agree on categories such as Happy Event (demonstrated by pulling one’s mouth into a grin with fingers), Sad Event (pull mouth down into a frown), Crazy Event (circling fingers around ears), Scary Event (holding eyes exceptionally wide with hands), God’s Provision (fingers raked down over one’s head like falling rain), etc. Other gestures may follow the game’s typical sign language. (Google “charades” on the Internet for examples.) No words or sounds may be spoken. No letters may be “drawn” in the air to spell out a word. Rather than dividing into teams, each player can take a turn portraying an event while everyone else guesses. Little ones may need an adult’s help.
Reflect!
Before midnight arrives, explain some of the background of Watch Night services as mentioned earlier in the “Reflect” section. Read Mark 13:28–37, in which Jesus told how we can recognize when the time for His return is approaching and encouraged us to be ready by watching and praying. (You may want to use the King James Version, which uses that language.)
Sing!
Sing songs about God’s faithfulness, either from a hymnal or some of the contemporary praise and worship songs.
Commit!
Invite individuals to renew their commitment to the Lord as they prepare to enter the New Year. This could be a spontaneously worded commitment with a particular focus, or, for the younger ones, it might reiterate these words from Joshua 24:15: “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (NIV).
As each person makes a commitment, let him or her light a candle and put it in a candleholder on a table or plant it in a bed of sand in a large pan. The more candles, the brighter the light.
Bless!
An alternative (or an addition) might be to pray blessings on the children and teenagers as the parents light a candle for each one. For inspiration, read Mark 10:13–16, imagining what Jesus might have said as He took the children into His arms, placed His hands on their heads, and blessed them.
Ring in the New Year!
At midnight, ring in the New Year by letting everyone ring a bell, jingle keys, shake a tambourine, or tap lightly on a glass with a spoon.
Conclude the evening by singing “This Little Light of Mine.”
Sing all the usual verses and make up your own: “All around my neighborhood/ With all my friends/ Every day in school/ When I go to work, etc. . . . I’m going to let it shine! Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!”
Recipes
* metric conversion on page 246
Jodi’s Hungarian Chicken and Dumplings
Jodi’s not Hungarian, but who cares? It’s all that paprika! When the weather gets cold, the Baxter clan starts clamoring for chicken and dumplings, the perfect cold-weather comfort food.
1 chicken, cut up, or eight pieces
1 tbsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 stalks of celery, split and cut into 3 inch pieces
4 med. carrots, split and cut into 3 inch pieces
2 med. onions, quartered
4 cups of chicken stock (or dissolve 2 tbsp. bouillon in water)
Rinse the chicken, pat dry, and cover with the paprika, salt, pepper, and thyme, rubbing it in. Sauté the chicken in the oil until brown (about 15 minutes).
Add the vegetables and chicken to the chicken stock and bring it to a boil in a large pot. Simmer for about 30 minutes.
Don’t get sidetracked by the phone or the newspaper. You still have to . . .
Make the dumplings:
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (or 3 tsp. dried)
2 tbsp. solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup milk
Combine ingredients (reserving some parsley for a garnish) and form into golf-ball-sized dumplings. Drop the dumplings into the simmering broth, arranging them so they will expand to cover the surface. Put a lid on your pot and cook for another 15 minutes.
Garnish with reserved parsley and serve in bowls to accommodate the juice. Makes 4 to 6 servings—but don’t count on any leftovers.
Consider coleslaw or cucumber salad as a side.
Estelle’s Orange-Smothered Pork Chops
Don’t tell anybody, but Estelle accidentally invented this when she had a dab of marmalade she didn’t have the heart to throw out, so she threw it on the pork chop she was cooking instead. It was so good, she keeps a jar of marmalade now just for chops.
One pork chop per person (select chops about 1/2 inch thick)
Corn oil
1 tbsp. orange marmalade per chop
1/4 cup orange juice per chop
Pinch of ground, rubbed sage per chop
A couple dashes of seasoned salt per chop
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
In a skillet large enough to accommodate your chops flat on the bottom, put about 1 tbsp. of corn oil. (More may be required if your chops are particularly lean.)
Cover each chop with the seasoned salt, sage, and pepper.
Sear the chops in the skillet over high heat until brown on both sides. Pour off excess grease and allow the pan to cool slightly. Mix the marmalade into the orange juice and pour over chops. Increase heat and gently simmer for about 20 minutes or until the orange juice thickens to a syrup, turning the chops 2 or 3 times. Do not allow the syrup to scorch.
Serve on a bed of rice, pouring the juice over the top. Garnish with sprigs of fresh, curly parsley. (And it’s okay to puff out your chest and whisper, “Secret recipe,” when your family raves. Estelle won’t mind.)
Estelle’s Holiday Corn Puddin’
“Corn pudding?! Never heard of it!” Just smile smugly and tell them Estelle guarantees this will melt in their mouths. It looks pretty, too, with those bits of red and green p
eppers.
1 can (15 oz.) of creamed corn
3 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
2 dashes nutmeg
2 dashes black pepper
3 eggs, beaten well
3 tbsp. melted butter
1 cup milk (for richer flavor, try soy milk)
1/4 green bell pepper, finely diced
1/4 red bell pepper, finely diced
Paprika
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine creamed corn and all dry ingredients, mixing well. Stir in the eggs, butter, and milk. Add the peppers, and pour all ingredients into a greased 11/2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle the top with paprika and bake for 1 hour or until the pudding is firm and a knife comes out clean. Serves 4 to 6.
Jodi’s Flaky Piecrust
Jodi says, “Can’t knit . . . can’t skydive . . . can’t dance the light fantastic. But I can make a good piecrust.” Denny likes to make her prove it (he has a weakness for pie).
Jodi’s hint: a piecrust that flakes like good pastry is as much technique as the right ingredients.
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup vegetable shortening, divided
cut 1/3 cup shortening into dry ingredients with a pastry blender until well blended
cut in remaining 1/3 cup shortening
5 to 7 tbsp. ice water (fill a small bowl with ice cubes, then add water)
Sprinkle 1 tbsp. of ice water at a time onto the flour/shortening mixture while you toss it with a fork. Add from 5 to 7 spoonfuls . . . just until dough can be gathered into a ball.
Divide dough, slightly more than half for the bottom crust. Roll out dough quickly and gently on a floured counter or board. (Too much handling is what makes it tough.) Pat any tears with a dab of water to stick the dough back together.
Turn over once. Dust with flour as needed to roll smoothly to a diameter about 1 inch larger than your pie pan. To transfer a rolled-out piecrust to the pan, roll it up around the rolling pin, then unroll the crust into the pan. Open it and cut off excess, leaving 1/2 inch extending beyond the edge.
Fill with your favorite filling.