Welcome to December

Welcome to December. The cold winds are blowing, the fire is blazing in the hearth, the kitchen is busy with the smells of baking biscuits and Christmas cake and the table is covered in card, glue, felt, and glitter. This is a month filled from beginning to end with festival and celebration. Advent is the celebrating and preparing of each Sunday as they mark the journey to Christmas. It’s a busy and exciting time but also a time of practicing slow living. As our Stephanie Green says: “In our family we seek slow because this is where we most often find magic moments. It’s where we create the most memories and where we feel the most relaxed and free.” And who doesn’t need this in our busy and fast-moving world?   In Waldorf Schools all over the world they will begin this magical time with an Advent Garden. The Advent Garden is a long-held tradition in Waldorf Schools all over the world. Imagine entering a darkened room, the smell of moss and pine in the air, gentle music playing. An angel enters carrying a light. With bated breath child and adult’s eyes watch as she walks the spiral path to it’s very centre, lights the candle there then retraces her steps and, as suddenly as she appeared…  she’s gone.   Now picture children one by one, big, and small, picking up an apple with a candle in it, taking that long symbolic journey round the spiral to its centre, lighting their candle and placing it down somewhere along the return path.   All the while the music plays and carols are sung.   The Advent Wreath with its lighting of the candles and adding different elements weekly is another much loved tradition. Here is a beautiful verse that tells this story:   The first light of Advent is the light of stone–. Light that lives in crystals, seashells, and bones.   The second light of Advent is the light of plants– Plants that reach up to the sun and in the breezes dance.   The third light of Advent is the light of beasts– All await the birth, from the greatest and in least.   The fourth light of Advent is the light of humankind– The light of hope that we may learn to love and understand.”   There’s nothing to compare to the awed silence of each week as first one, then two, then three, then four candles are lit and the new offerings added.     Happy Advent and Christmas from all of us here at Wilded Family to you in your home.   Helen