Advent Sunday Dinners

Do you feel like you've already dropped the Advent ball? Suzanne Beck shares a simple way to use the remaining time to create special memories.

How is your Advent progressing? We are almost halfway through the blessed season of waiting, hoping, and pondering. How are you doing? Are you waiting more patiently? Hoping more fervently? Pondering more like Mary? Have you blessed your children and family with a Jesse Tree or an Advent calendar to make the days leading up to Christmas more meaningful?  

Or maybe not?  

I am long an empty nester, and I look back and most of the time reminisce about how I could have done so many things better. But this is one memory that the whole family agrees was a win, so let me tell you about how we came to do Advent Sunday Dinners. They were pretty easy, and you could easily add them even now, at this late stage of the game, and salvage some of the Advent spirit of waiting. 

A Family Tradition Born from Conversion and Confusion 

Years ago, I was in the process of converting to Catholicism from a fundamentalist/evangelical background. I knew it was necessary. My brain told me it was the right thing to do, but my heart, raised with years of what I now know were theological errors or misunderstandings, was really torn. Mass was confusing, and the whole process was really painful. Friends, or those who I thought were good friends, were silent and absent, slowly retreating from my world as they didn’t even begin to understand what I was doing, and I think they were simply afraid to ask.  

I was loving what I was learning, but I was also confused by many things. My sons at the time were 4 and 7ish; and the change didn't seem to phase them too much; they just knew that we were going to a different church that seemed weird! 

Then came Advent. I had never heard of this season as a Protestant, and wasn’t really sure how to proceed. This was in the days before Pinterest, cool Christian blogs, or any such virtual world of trendy ideas. I desperately wanted to make this a thoughtful, introspective time of waiting for my boys, but how?  

After much prayer and scouring magazines and old Catholic catechism class resources, I came up with a few lessons and decided we would have Sunday-evening Advent dinners on the four Sundays of Advent. That’s how the tradition started, and it actually continued for several years with the boys looking forward to them!  

We ended up having a lovely sit-down candlelit dinner in the dining room with our nice dishes, a tablecloth, and we dressed up! We introduced the concept of the Advent wreath and lighting a candle each of the Sundays. I came up with a lesson, usually something simple to do with hope, peace, joy, or love. We would read a related Scripture, and I’d ask a few questions about the topic and get their thoughts.  

I don’t know if it was the dressing up, the tablecloth, or the candlelight, but the usual noisy and lively boys were quiet, well-mannered, and respectful (that, in and of itself was a win!). We’d talk about the theme of the week, and I’d try to have a small activity they could do at the table — maybe a dot-to-dot, a picture to color, or an object lesson. We would end with just a few minutes of quiet prayer.  

The whole event usually only lasted 30 to 45 minutes, including dinner, but I look back on those dinners with great fondness. It was a good exercise for me as I was researching more about my own faith, but it was good for us as a family to take a few minutes during the week to recognize that there was something special about this time of year and honor the waiting with prayer. In retrospect, it honestly wasn’t much, but we were doing the best we could at the time, and I know that God was pleased and honored with our feeble attempts.   

Give It a Try! Just Add Candles! 

How about it?  With all the online resources at one’s fingertips these days (Pinterest, Catholic Mom blogs, YouTube, Catholic Mom's Sunday Gospel Activities, and so much more) it would be pretty easy to pull together even a quick lesson to add to any of the remaining Advent Sundays; you don’t need to be a catechist or theologian.

And you are probably going to have dinner anyway, so add a tablecloth, a few candles, an Advent wreath (and maybe a party dress or a tie?). Read a Scripture passage, ask some questions of your kids about how we wait in joyful anticipation for the Christmas season, and say a prayer! You’ve just accomplished a major win, and God is smiling!  

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Copyright 2025 Suzanne Beck
Images: Canva