Advent craft project: Stocking Garland

My advent stocking garland

  The Holidays are upon us and being a Crafty Mom, I try to make at least one new item every year. Being of the Catholic Faith our family observes advent which take place during the 24 days preceding Christmas. It is a time of  spiritual preparation which starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas . In many homes families keep an advent wreath on the table. Every Sunday before Christmas a purple candle is lit . The Advent wreath is part of our long-standing Catholic tradition. However, the actual origins are uncertain. There is evidence of pre-Christian Germanic peoples using wreaths with lit candles during the cold and dark December days as a sign of hope in the future warm and extended-sunlight days of Spring. In Scandinavia during Winter, lighted candles were placed around a wheel, and prayers were offered to the god of light to turn “the wheel of the earth” back toward the sun to lengthen the days and restore warmth.

An Advent wreath

By the Middle Ages, the Christians adapted this tradition and used Advent wreathes as part of their spiritual preparation for Christmas. After all, Christ is “the Light that came into the world” to dispel the darkness of sin and to radiate the truth and love of God (cf. John 3:19-21). By 1600, both Catholics and Lutherans had more formal practices surrounding the Advent wreath.

Children during Advent love to have a calendar that with little doors which are opened each day. There is usually a little candy for each day. You have probably seen these little calendars in shops around Christmastime. I wasn't raised in a Christian home myself and I often wondered what those little calendars were for. According to Wikipedia the origins of the advent Calendar actually come from the German Lutherans.

I wanted to make a garland that could be hung across a doorway. What I did was cut out 48 small stockings which I made a pattern for. That part was time consuming but the rest was easy. I zig zagged them together on the sewing machine but first I zig zagged the numbers 1 to 24  onto the stockings before they were sewn together so I could put a candy in each stocking for an Advent treat. I also sewed on some rick rack and lace to decorate the stockings. I then sewed ribbons onto the stockings forming a loop and strung them on some red ribbon.