The Gift-of-Self Guide: Non-Material Ways to Celebrate Christmas
The Advent season is a hectic time, and it is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of purchasing gifts for loved ones. The material rush can often leave us feeling drained by the time Christmas actually rolls around.
Instead of compiling a list of material items for you to buy, the Live Today Well team has created a list with our favorite non-material ways to ring in the Christmas season. Call it a “gift-of-self” guide! This year, we invite you to reorient yourself back to what really matters: preparing your heart for the Birth of Christ through selfless acts, prayer, and creating memorable experiences with your friends and family.
Our hope is that this compilation will bring you inspiration to pursue peace, happiness, and holiness this Advent season as you prepare for Christmas.
Prepare your hearts through fasting and abstinence
In the Byzantine Rite, we fast for all of advent (we call it the Nativity Fast). We give up all meat, dairy, and wine. Since I'm pregnant we will modify, but it is our family's little way of preparing our hearts and focusing on what really matters. -Rebecca Hamilton
Immerse your little ones in rich, liturgical rituals
Each year, we do the Jesse Tree devotional during Advent. My kids like to hang the little ornaments each night. Even more than that, they love blowing out the candle we light for prayer time! We close our prayer each night with one stanza of "O Come, O Come, Emmanel." -Cameron Bellm
Wrap gifts with prayer and intention
One of my favorite parts of preparing for Christmas is carefully wrapping presents. I find it is a simple yet profound way to pray for my loved ones during the Advent season. As I wrap each gift, I think of the person who will receive it and ask God to bless him/her. I love picking out the wrapping paper and decorating each present with bows or ribbons. I will often drag all of my supplies out of the basement and wrap on the floor in front of the Christmas tree after bedtime. It's even better when my husband joins me and we are able to spend quality time together doing something nice for the people we love. -Catherine Sullivan
Create lasting memories at the Christmas tree farm
We usually go on Gaudete Sunday weekend to cut down our Christmas tree. The Christmas tree farm we go to also has a lot of games, farm animals, and a fire pit to make s’mores. It’s a memorable day with our kids and a way to bring in the fun and anticipation for Christmas while still being in advent. We usually leave the tree bare for that week and decorate closer to Christmas Eve. -Victoria Mastrangelo
Donate toys to low-income families
Growing up, my parents asked my brother, sister, and me to go through our toys each year during Advent to donate to an organization that distributed them to children with low-income families. It served as a reminder of our own privilege at a time when we could have easily gotten caught up in our wish list for Santa, and it gave us an early foundation of philanthropy by teaching us the importance of giving. -Taryn Oesch DeLong
Mary Beth Keenan, @mbkeenan_captures.
Create meaningful homemade gifts for family and friends
I’m all about meaningful homemade gifts! Last year I designed a linocut of the nativity and I’m hoping to create a new art piece for this year to give to family and friends. -Mary Williams
Extend an invitation to non-Christians and share your traditions
I like to tell stories, decorate, make food and present it in a way that is accessible to my non-Christian boyfriend and friends. It is absolutely my gift of self. Christmas CAN be for non-Christians in non-commercial ways, it just takes creativity and acceptance! Since high school, it’s been a regular tradition at my Christmas party with friends (where I am the only Catholic) that we sit around the fire and I tell the story of the Nativity in casual and colloquial terms. It gets a good laugh and brings joy to everyone. Every year I decorate Christmas cookies using my great grandma’s recipe of evaporated milk and food coloring. Last year I made and decorated salt dough ornaments that I strung up around the apartment (some of them were secular things my boyfriend loves, likes stars and space). I invited my boyfriend to set up the Nativity scene, which he’s done since he was young. It connects him back to his childhood and allows him to rewrite his relationship to Christianity and Christmas. -Madison Chastain
Visit and bring cheer to retired priests
The last few years, I have gone to visit the retired priests of my diocese who live in a retirement home together and we make holiday crafts, snacks and decorate their common living space with them during the season of Advent. -Mary Mailloux
Feed your soul through song and beauty
One other thing I like to do in a month with so many Marian feasts (Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe!) is to listen to Schubert's "Ave Maria." It is utterly transporting, and never fails to move me and remind me of the beauty of Mary's "fiat." -Cameron Bellm
Care for the littlest ones in the community
When my boys were younger, we would bring small baby gifts to church on Christmas Eve to be donated to local pregnancy center -Maureen Eaton
Give the gift of sweet rolls and memorable breakfasts
The last few years for St. Lucy’s Day (December 13th), I have made some kind of sweet roll. Sometimes I have the energy to bake the traditional Swedish saffron buns, other years I pop open a can of cinnamon rolls and call it a day. I serve the rolls for breakfast that morning, and decorate the table with candles. The observance of the day with sweet rolls and beautiful candles brings cheer to the hearts of my family. I enjoy the opportunity to serve my family with a special treat, and we all treasure the memory of that candle-lit breakfast. -Marissa Federline
Pray over each Christmas card
Each Advent, as our Christmas cards arrive, we tape them up around the doorway going into our dining room. Once Christmas arrives, we pick one card a night to pray over. That card gets placed on our dining room table, and we pray for that family and their intentions. It's a beautiful way for our family to carry our loved ones in prayer throughout the Christmas Season (and often beyond, too!). -Kara Becker
Meet The Live Today Well Team
Comprised of women of in all seasons of life, the Live Today Well Team seeks to serve God and this community wholeheartedly. To get to know our individual ministry team members, head over to the Our Story & Team page.