Going Back to the Beginning
Using Advent to Help Build Family Culture
Sunday, November 30, marked the beginning of the church calendar with the season of Advent. During Thanksgiving Eve Service, I was paging through my prayer book and realized, with joy, that on Sunday, we go back to the beginning.
What does it mean to go back to the beginning during Advent? What does that look like for your family and mine? Advent is intended to be a season of anticipatory joy. A season of hopeful longing. Not Christmas on max volume for twenty-six days. Not a season that causes us to crash into New Year’s Day overweight, overspent, and overtired.
Catastrophically, our culture has no muscle memory for waiting. We don’t know how to anticipate anything. We want it all. Yesterday. We don’t even know how to navigate a four-way intersection calmly and deliberately, much less wait for a feast day patiently and intentionally.
When I think of Advent as “going back to the beginning,” I think of remembering the story of salvation from its start and contemplating my great need for that salvation.
Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. Psalm 25:22 (ESV)
The beginning of the story begins with us as a people prone to wander, with an insatiable desire to be like God. That instead of receiving God as a gift in the form of His Son, we want to usurp His power and deny His lordship. And consequently, our rebellion has led to great darkness and paralyzing fear. What we thought would be freedom has revealed itself as bondage. The beginning of our story is that, like Israel, we are people in darkness in need of a great light. We still need to be comforted with comfortable words.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40:1–2 ESV)
In observing Advent traditionally or liturgically, our families can be radically counter-cultural. Because it is so assumed and ingrained by all around us that this is how Christmas is supposed to be, small abstentions will not go unnoticed. And probably most significantly, it will be of great spiritual benefit to you and your family because you are intentionally preparing yourselves for Christmas. Reclaiming Advent begins with observing boundaries around your space and time that help you “go back to the beginning.”
Go to church. We will be tempted to skip Sunday services and mid-week services because our calendar is full of recitals, performances, and parties. Everyone is tired. Everyone needs a day to sleep in. The recitals, performances, and parties are supposed to be preparatory, not exhausting.
Observe morning and evening prayer. Find a church in your community that offers these services. The readings during the month of Advent will help you remember the story of salvation from its start and your great need for that salvation. If no such services exist near you, purchase a prayer book and pray them devotionally or with your family.
Instead of attending the best Christmas service with its top-notch performers and expensive decorations, find a Lessons & Carols service. These services require your participation (shocking, I know). You will sing along and sing a lot. There will be nothing but hymns and scripture. Rather than being entertained, you worship.
Plan your Christmas parties for December 27, 28, or 29. Be intentional about planning your staff party or neighborhood gathering during the twelve days of Christmas rather than cramming one more thing into Advent.
Bake only what you plan to give away until it’s time to feast. Christmas cookies are for Christmas, not Advent. Plan to bake all of your family’s favorites to be enjoyed for the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Eat simpler meals and refrain from eating out. Christmas feasting is special only if it’s different from what precedes it.
Decorate the house slowly and carefully. Think about which decorations you put up, where you put them and why. Consider donating decorations that don’t prepare anyone for anything. Maybe even wait to put the star on your tree until Christmas Day.
Use an Advent Wreath. Light each Sunday’s candle when you get home from church. Talk to your children about the colors of the candles and the order in which they are lit.
These next four weeks, we will all feel tempted to stuff our calendars with festivities, stuff our bellies with sweets, and stuff our cars full of Christmas gifts. But I want to choose less stuffing this year because my choices about Advent affect my family’s culture. I want to recover the practice of drawing boundaries around space and time so that my family begins to better understand how our lives should be marked by periods of waiting and preparation and our souls nourished by festal celebration.
Where Mrs. Gerth is speaking:
Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Victory, Centennial, CO, January 5, 2026
Labore, Brasilia, Brazil, January 12-16, 2026
Great Hearts Arlington, Arlington, TX, February 6, 2026
Great Hearts National Symposium, Tempe Mission Palms Hotel, AZ, February 25-27, 2026
Northwest Classical Academy, Kennesaw, GA, March 3, 2026
What Mrs. Gerth is teaching:
The Thales College Certificate in Classical Education Philosophy Program(CCEP) consists of eight courses taken in any order, culminating in a certificate. Courses cost just $300 each and are held through Google Meet once every other week. Register by January 5. Classes begin January 13.
Louise Cowan on Greek Tragedy Spring Seminar at the University of Dallas. Five Thursday evenings on Zoom from 6-8 PM: January 22, 2026 - March 26, 2026
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