In the Advent hymn “People, Look East,” we are told to “make your house fair as you are able, trim the hearth and set the table.” When do you trim your hearth and set your table for Baby Jesus? Are your tree and lights up right after Remembrance Day? Or do you like to wait until closer to Christmas to decorate? When my mother was growing up in the 1930s and 40s, any decorating that was done for Christmas was done on Christmas Eve. Of course, back then, the commercialization of Christmas was in its infancy, and the holiday truly was that – a holy day.

Our family has tried hard over the years to observe Advent before celebrating Christmas. It’s not easy. When the local Santa Claus parade goes by a few blocks away and it’s only Nov. 25, what do you do? When the school’s Christmas production is held on Dec. 12, just halfway through Advent, what do you do?

There was a time when attending Christmas events so early would frustrate me as a parent who was trying to teach her children the importance of not celebrating Christmas before Christmas. I wanted my children to understand the need for spiritual preparation in Advent and understand that Christmas is its own season that begins on Dec. 25. But I’ve realized that participating in Christmas-themed activities before Christmas can be placed in the context of Advent to help us prepare our hearts for Christ. Some might call that rationalizing, but I call it using the current culture to your Catholic advantage.

The key to keeping the spirit of Advent – of preparing our hearts and souls for Christ’s coming – while in the midst of the decorating/celebrating season, is all about the focus of the activity. “People, Look East,” tells us that the reason we are getting ready is this: “Love, the Guest, is on the way.” We are preparing for a guest, a person. That guest happens to be the Messiah, who is Love incarnate. 

Whenever we choose to start our Christmas preparations, we need to ask ourselves what our motivation is. Do we want our house lit up and decorated because we want to keep up with the neighbours? Do we do it because it’s habit, perhaps even begrudgingly? Or maybe we do it for ourselves because we love an excuse to get more stuff and show off our creativity to the world? So many motivations can have absolutely nothing to do with welcoming Jesus into our homes. 

When my older kids were small, I used to love setting up what I would call “the Christmas room” in our main living room. I would get the tree and decorations “just so” and wouldn’t want the kids disturbing anything, so I would tell them they weren’t allowed to play in that room and to be careful when they went in there. I shudder at that memory. At the time, I thought I was teaching the kids to respect nice things, but I think I was really teaching them that some temporal decorations were more important than the guest for whom we decorated. 

The Advent and Christmas seasons are also a time when we should be ready to welcome guests into our homes in honour of the guest. Last year, good friends invited us to their farm on Christmas Eve for an early meal, followed by a reenactment of the journey of the Holy Family through Bethlehem. We dressed up in simple costumes, braved the cold, travelled to the barn, found a manger, and recounted the birth story of our Saviour. It was a simple and beautiful way to welcome Love, the Guest. 

Standing in that barn last year, it was easy to recall that when God-made-man first arrived on this earth in a small village in Judea, he was not welcomed as the important guest that he was. He was the most significant being to ever be born into this world, but he had no proper place to rest. Some 2,000 years later, we have the opportunity to make our homes a resting place for him. Every time we “trim the hearth” and “set the table,” even during Advent, if we do so with a prayerful heart, we can help our families focus on Christ’s coming. 

Along with the spiritual preparations of attending Mass, getting to confession and spending extra time in prayer, decorating for Christmas in Advent can be a way to prepare for Love, the Guest. Christ was born to personify love to us. Let us “make our house fair as we are able” in his honour. 

Lazzuri writes from her home in Nova Scotia, where she lives with her husband, six children, and her mom. She can be reached at [email protected].