Advent is a perfect opportunity to start a year round sacred spot in your home. If you have a nativity set, or an advent wreath, think about how you interact with these spots during this season. Perhaps you notice the pleasure with which you set up the figures of your nativity. Holding the pieces and arranging them, you are mindful of how the pieces are telling the story you know so well.
Maybe lighting the candles has found a place in your mealtime routine, or Sunday morning ritual as you are sheltering-in-place.
Having a year-round sacred spot can be on your dining room table, in your kitchen, on your mantle, a dresser. Maybe the place where you’ve set up your advent wreath or nativity set is a good spot to consider. When you take down these items, you could put something else there that can be a focal point, a reminder of the time you are in, of what spiritually is significant for you right now.
Celebrating Christmastide, the 12 days of Christmas, you might replace the advent candles with one large pillar candle with a gold, or red and green underlay. Liturgically, the colors would be white and gold. I think it’s fun to use the red and green Christmas colors, too. When Epiphany comes, you can celebrate the season of Epiphany if that is your tradition, or you can put a green cloth underneath your candle and celebrate the short season of ordinary time between Epiphany (January 6) and Ash Wednesday (February 17).
The spot where you have your nativity might be the spot you want to keep going: after taking down the nativity, you can put a shell, a pinecone, a beautiful stone. As you put an object or two, or an icon or piece of art, remember how handling the nativity as you set it up can be a meditative practice of remembering with your hands something that lives in your heart. You can do this with all the items you set up in the sacred spot. Slow down, choose objects that help you remember God in your home, in this moment of time.