Christmas Eve

Today is December 24th, Christmas Eve.  This is the ending of the season of Advent which starts four Sundays before Christmas.  It is also the beginning of the Christmas season which continues for another 12 days.  

 I love that these are seasons.  Understanding the time and significance of the these seasons allows me to do much of what I want to do and also take time to reflect, contemplate and pray about the significance of the holidays.

A few years ago I was involved with some planning at my church.  We initiated the process by sharing a poem that encouraged dreaming of all that could be and not being afraid to dream.  I have not been able to get my hands on it, if I should I will post it. 

In the meantime, this planning process started at about the beginning of Advent and the poem inspired me to do an Advent Collage. 

I set some limits for myself.  I limited my materials to what I could get at the Dollar Store and what I already had at home; and the total budget was limited to $40.00. My major supply was holiday gift bags.  And I was really thrilled to use both Christmas and Hanukkah designs. 


With an assortment in hand, I then spent my evenings sketching, then cutting and gluing.  I was and still am very pleased with the end result and so were the members of St. James. 

Here are pictures of the finished collage which graced our church wall for quite some time, and was re-hung the following Advent.