Advent's Peace on Earth

I suspect that when my daughters have moved away and started their own families, their homes will drip with Christmas decorations as soon as Thanksgiving is over.  The reason for this is that I have “deprived” them their whole childhood of having their home look like most people’s during this season leading up to Christmas.  While stores try to convince us to purchase a “perfect” Christmas gift even before the fall leaves have hit the ground and many people begin decorating their homes with Christmas trees and lights around the beginning of December it is not so at the rectory.   My girls are required to DO Advent whether they like it or not. 
 
Every year we are the ones who get one of the last remaining trees at Stew Leonard's though our luck has held and they have not looked quite like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree with wilted branches and brown pine needles.  I have noticed that when I ask my daughters what music they are listening to on their iPods, they respond. “Oh, Mom, you wouldn’t like it.  You know our tastes are so different from yours”.  Of course, I know that they are listening to Christmas carols because I can hear them humming along.  My daughters are always so thrilled to get through the fourth Sunday of Advent because I will then let the Christmas festivities and decorating begin.
 
I like to think that my rigidity about Advent has a few positive results for my girls.  Yes, they will probably want to talk about their lack of Christmas stuff during most of the month of December to a therapist some day – which might get me off the hook as regards some of my less stellar moments as a parent.  But I hope that they also share how on each Saturday before Advent starts, I go to the basement and pull out the bag that has a simple Advent wreath, four purple candles, and a reusable Advent calendar that we have had since my oldest daughter was a baby.   The girls have no choice but to focus on the same Advent calendar every year and that is currently hanging in our kitchen.   It is a two-foot long banner with the outline of the world in the center.  At the bottom are little pockets that hold two-inch figures representing twenty-four nations in the world.  Each morning in Advent, my daughter takes the appropriate figure and velcros it to the world above.    By the end of Advent, the world is covered with figures of different races, colors, and creeds.  The one common element is that all the figures are smiling.  In large letters at the top of the banner, it reads:  PEACE ON EARTH.  As we wait for the coming of Christ, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all do a little something to work towards peace in the world.  Maybe along with decorating with beautiful Christmas ornaments and tinsel, we could also decorate the world with peace and love.  After all, that is why Christ was born – so all could know God’s remarkable love for each of us and for the world.
 
Mary Grace+