When my son was little, we added to our Advent a new tradition of writing on small pieces of paper something we were going to do for a gift to bring to Jesus for his birthday, and putting it into a pretty wrapped box by our crèche. In that way, it was a reminder that Advent was a time to prepare—a “little Lent.”

The first weekend of this Advent, we had our little granddaughters over. While I was making a Christmas craft project with them, I told them these stories. My nine-year-old granddaughter asked questions about Advent and the tradition with her daddy when he was a little boy. She liked that idea and asked if we could do that when we set up our crèche.