Preparing Heart and Home: An Advent Gift For You

I’ve been re-working my seasonal Advent plans and I’m eager to share the plans with you.

It is completely free to download, print and share.

Non nobis – Ad majorem Dei gloriam!

As always, this booklet contains:

• The rich liturgical history of the season of Advent.
• A week by week planner which contains a daily listing of the liturgical feasts and customs appropriate to that day. Each day contains book ideas coordinating with the daily feast, and Advent customs which used to be a part of an overall Catholic culture, a culture we are all trying to reclaim.
• Booklists for you to consider.
• Room for you to jot down new books you’ve found or books you’d like to add to your daily reading.
• O Antiphons listed with a link to a prayer companion for praying the O Antiphons.
• The booklet contains daily plans and ideas from the 1st Sunday of Advent through January 10 (the Feast of the Holy Family) – covering Advent and the Christmas season.
• This booklet is compiled by a lay Catholic who is faithful to the Magisterium and teaching body of the Church. This booklet is not affiliated with an approved ecclesiastical source.
• This booklet is in pdf format – you are free to download, print, read on your tablet (most tablets will allow you to view a pdf in your ibooks or kindle app) or computer. By all means share with your friends! Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

A few of the updates this year:

• A new cover, which I hoped would look nice if you’re viewing and following your plans on your tablet.  It’s far from professional – but I hope it invites recollection and preparation.
• I updated the dates for the planner to reflect this year’s calendar.
• I added page numbers at the bottom of (most) pages – I found myself looking for them frequently, so I hope the addition is a help.
• If there is a difference between the Extraordinary Form and Ordinary Form calendars I noted that on the planner.  Both calendars are represented.
• I added space to journal plans, ideas, extra books, and craft ideas after each week’s plans. I hope this makes the planner useful and personal to you and your family.
• I streamlined and simplified the colors (and amount of color) used so that if you print, there is less drain on your color printer. My printer thanks me – and so will yours!
• All books are now linked at the end of this post.
• This is a 20 page booklet – keep that in mind for printing purposes.

I’m sharing with a prayer that as you prepare your heart and home this season, this humble little offering will serve only to bring you and your family closer to Our Little Lord, whom we await in joyful hope.

Click the image below or the link following this text to download the 2015/16 Advent plans.

Click to download –> Preparing Heart and Home – Advent & Christmas (2015)

The Advent & Christmas Booklist

What follows is a collection of books our family has enjoyed over the years. Many of them are included on the plans. This is not an exhaustive list! We don’t read all of these each Advent season – we choose a few to enjoy. Collect books for your Advent basket a little at a time, keeping choices lovely and reserving enough quiet to prepare for the season. (Please note that I am an Amazon affiliate and most of these links are through Amazon – if you click through these links I do earn a very small amount. Thank you!)

• Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Catholic Children by the Maryknoll sisters – this out of print set (1 – 20 and 21 – 40) is so worth hunting down – we read these for Bible stories, Church History, and as part of our Advent reading.  A worthwhile investment!

• Story Library of the Saints (3 volumes) by Joan Windham

• Twenty Miracles of St. Nicholas by Brenda Bryson

• Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

• Little Lives of the Great Saints by John O’Kane Murray

• The Christmas Story by Jane Werner (a delight – and the new edition retains the older illustrations which are so quiet and charming!)

• Wonderworker: The True Story of How St. Nicholas Became Santa Claus by Vincent Yzermans

• The Real Santa Claus by Marianna Mayer

• Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend: by Julie Stegmeyer

• The True St. Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas by William Bennett

• The Donkey’s Dream by Barbara Helen Berger

• The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan

• The Huron Carol by St. John de Brebeuf

• The Animals’ Christmas Eve by Gale Wiersum (illustrations are more charming in this older version)

• The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe by C. Lourdes Walsh

• Christmas In the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

• Christmas and the Saints by Hertha Pauli (excellent Vision book for readers capable of chapter books)

• Our Lady’s Feasts by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy

• The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie de Paola

• An Advent Calendar by Tasha Tudor

• A Book of Christmas (Pop-Up Calendar) by Tasha Tudor

• The Ageless Story by Lauren Ford (out of print and difficult to find)

• The Friendly Beasts by Tomie de Paola

• Legend of Old Befana by Tomie de Paola

• Merry Christmas, Strega Nona by Tomie de Paola

• An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco

• Marta and the Manger Straw by Virginia Kroll

• Christmas Around the World by Mary D. Lankford

• Waiting For Christmas: A Story About the Advent Calendar by Kathleen Bostrom

• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski

• Wenceslas: The Eternal Christmas Story by Geraldine McCaughrean

• Good King Wenceslas by Jamichael Henterly

• Stephen’s Feast by Jean Richardson

• The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

• The Christmas Knight by Jane Louise Curry

• My Christmas Book by Lee Mero

• The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson

• The Story of Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden

• Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon

• The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola

• The Christmas Flower by Joseph Henry Jackson

• The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

• The Three Gifts of Christmas by Jennie Bishop

• Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey by Robert Byrd

• Silent Night: The Song and Its Story by Margaret Hodges

• Nine Days to Christmas, A Story of Mexico by Marie Hall Ets & Aurora Labastida

• The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie de Paola

• The First Christmas Stocking by Elizabeth Winthrop

• The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown

• Saint Francis Celebrates Christmas by Mary Caswell Walsh

• The Living Nativity by David Haidle

• Silent Night by Susan Jeffers

• The Miracle of the Poinsettia: A Mexican Christmas Story by Joanne Oppenheim

• The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L’Engle

• The Candymakers Gift: The Legend of the Candy Cane by David Haidle

• The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg

• Hanna’s Christmas by Melissa Peterson (Wiley)

• Lucia, Saint of Light by Katherine Bolger Hyde

• Kirsten’s Surprise: A Christmas Story by Janet Shaw

• Lucia: Child of Light by Florence Ekstrand

• Jesus, Son of Mary by Fulton Sheen

• The Last Straw by Frederick H. Thury

• The Gifts of the Magi by Carolyn Vaughan

• Mary, Mother of Jesus by Mary Joslin & Alison Wisenfeld

• Mary the Mother of Jesus by Tomie de Paola

• When Jesus Was a Little Boy by Georgia Moore Eberling

The Juggler of Notre Dame books

• The Juggler of Notre Dame by Mary Fidelis Todd

• The Little Juggler by Barbara Cooney

• The Clown of God by Tomie de Paola

• The Way of the Storyteller (The Juggler of Notre Dame) by Ruth Sawyer

• Story Library of the Saints by Joan Windham (Barnabas of Compiegne :: Barnabas the Juggler :: St Hermann Joseph

• Our Lady’s Juggler: An Antique Legend by Alexander Woollcott (Reader’s Digest WWII Compilation, Oct. 1941)

Board Books

• The Saving Name of God the Son by Jean Ann Sharpe, all images Fra Angelico

• Who Is Coming to Our House by Joseph Slate

• The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore

• One Shining Star by Anne Vittur Kennedy

• Baby’s Christmas by Esther and Eloise Wilkin

• The Christmas Baby by Marion Dane Bauer

Books which may be a blessing in your own home liturgical celebrations:

• Christmas to Candlemas in a Catholic Home by Helen McLoughlin – FREE version is linked; I formatted the free text so it was easier to read and print – you can print it by clicking here –> christmas_to_candlemas

• True Christmas Spirit by Rev. Edward J. Sutfin – FREE version is linked; I formatted the free text so it was easier to read and print – you can print it by clicking here –> true_christmas

• Around the Year With the Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Trapp

• The Christmas Book by Father Francis Weiser, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952

• The Holyday Book by Father Francis Weiser, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1956

• The Twelve Days of Christmas by Elsa Chaney, The Liturgical Press, 1955

• Cooking For Christ: The Liturgical Year in the Kitchen by Florence Berger, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, 1949

• Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year, edited by Hugo Hoever, 1955

• Advent Prayers taken from: Crusade: The Story of the Bible Retold for Catholic Children, Volume #22, Imprimatur, Francis Cardinal Spellman, 1956

---

We wait!