Celebrating Advent within the family: stories, festivities and food!

Christmas is on its way! For children, this is the most wonderful time of the year. A time of great celebration. However, we cannot go straight into the feast of Christmas without some preparation.

Advent allows us that time of preparation. As the days shorten and the nights darken we are given the opportunity once again to begin to share our Catholic faith in the home. Why not use this time to live your Catholic faith more fully with your family? Children love a good celebration, and over the next few weeks we have opportunities to really embrace our faith culture.

A great feast day to start with is today’s feast of St. Nicholas – 6^th December. Not just because he is a  recognisable figure but also because he can teach us a thing or two about being generous.

St. Nicholas was a Turk born in Asia Minor. An orphan, he grew up with a great love for God. He became a priest and eventually was made a Bishop of Myra. His generosity and love of children endeared him to everyone. There are many legends associated with St. Nicholas. The most famous is that of a poor man who was unable to pay for his three daughters dowries. He despaired of them ever being able to marry. St Nicholas, hearing of his plight, threw three bags of coins through the old man’s window, allowing all three girls to marry.

There are many good books retelling the story of St Nicholas. A tradition in our house is to snuggle up with a cup of hot chocolate on the evening of the 5^th of December and watch a lovely film called Santa and Pete. On going to bed the children leave their shoes by the fireplace and the good kindly Bishop fills them with chocolate coins and sweets! What more could you want!

Another good way to celebrate is to get the children in the kitchen baking cookies in the shape of St. Nicholas. They can then use their artistic talents to decorate them with icing and sweets. Here is a recipe which will fill the house with those lovely Christmassy smells.

SPECULATIUS

2 cups brown sugar

1½  cups of butter

1 egg beaten

1 teaspoon of baking powder

3½-4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ teaspoon clove
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon ginger

Cream butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix, adding enough flour to form a very stiff dough. Chill. Roll dough out thinly and cut into shapes or Press  well-chilled dough into cookie-shape boards (flour the mould well, press dough in with fingers, level it off, then turn the board over and bang one on the counter so the cookie drops out). Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350º F for 10 to 12 minutes. Store in sealed container to retain crispness.