Welcome to Carrots! I'm so glad you're here. This is where I share thoughts on liturgical living, faith, parenting, culture, and an extra dose of Jane Austen. You can sign up for my email newsletter here to stay in touch, or look me up on Instagram!
Halloween is over. All Saints Day and All Souls Day are passed. We’re in November. Has it hit you yet? In the blink of an eye we’ll be sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner. Advent will sneak up on us and then BOOM, it’ll be Christmas!
If you’re like me, you’ve just realized that the holidays are right in front of us. And you probably haven’t ordered your Advent candles, yet. Well, you’re in luck, because I get to giveaway a fantastic Advent candle making set to one of my readers!
Two or three years ago, we were living out in the country in central Texas and I wasn’t sure where the closest Catholic bookstore was or if we even had one in the vicinity. When I was searching around online for Advent candles to order, most of the options I found weren’t looking great. I try to be careful about what kind of candles I burn because of the nasty toxins that float around your home from most candles and in general always try to buy natural beeswax candles. I was so excited to find Toadily Handmade’s web site because all their candles are 100% beeswax. Beeswax, a natural product, burns very clean (and it’s traditional for liturgical candles). I love their product so much that I’ve been ordering their Advent candles every year since. This year I asked if they’d be willing to share their wonderful product with one of my readers!
Last year, instead of ordering the already assembled candles, I tried out their Advent Candle Making Kit. It comes with 9 honeycomb beeswax sheets that you gently roll around the wicks that are provided. There’s actually enough supplies included to make three sets of candles! I absolutely loved that it was simple enough for my toddler to do (with some assistance) and he had the most wonderful time getting to participate in making the Advent candles for our table. In fact, he had such a good time that my mom let him help make her some Advent candles, too. He remembers how much fun it was and is already asking if he gets to do it again.
So, one lucky winner will get one “Make Your Own Advent Candle Kit” from Toadily Handmade. Here’s the drill, to enter, leave a comment telling me about an Advent tradition you have (or one you would like to start). For additional entries (1) “like” Toadily Handmade on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you did, (2) and/or subscribe to Carrots for Michaelmas by email subscription or RSS feeder and leave a comment telling me you did, and/or (3) “like” Carrots on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you did. Got it? 
This giveaway will be open until Friday night (November 9, 2012), 9 pm EST.
Disclosure: I was not paid to host this giveaway. Toadily Handmade graciously sent a review kit to me and will send one to the lucky winner. I will only giveaway items that I love and use and mention businesses that I want to support. All opinions are my own.
UPDATE: Giveaway is now closed. Thank you for entering and sharing your Advent traditions! Our winner was chosen by random number generator and it is Sarah who said, “I think this year if we can just commit to candles and prayer every night, I will be happy with our Advent celebration!” Congrats, Sarah! You’ll be receiving an email from me shortly
I was TOTALLY thinking about doing this this year! Would love to win it! We love doing the Advent wreath at dinner time and the Jesse tree before bed. We wait to decorate the tree on Gaudete Sunday and NO Christmas music before Christmas (it’s SO hard!!!). Thanks for the giveaway!
Liked you on FB!
And liked Toadily, too
Thanks again!
Our favorite Advent tradition is doing our special scripture reading and then “lighting” a candle each night before bed during Advent. We’ve being using LED candles so the kids wouldn’t light themselves on fire, but I think we’re ready for the real thing this year. These candles would be great. Thanks!!
Um, does it count if my advent tradition is to start making these candles? : ) We have an advent calendar with pockets that I have been filling with treats, but this year I’m going to include some slips of paper with advent activites – picking out a toy to donate to a child in need, making a Christmas card for their great-grandmother, making Christmas cookies, etc. But I’ll alternate with treats, because I’m not the world’s meanest mom.
I liked Toadily Handmade on FB!
I subscribed to the RSS feed (even though I don’t totally know what that means, but I intend to figure it out).
So far our only tradition has been reading scripture & lighting the Advent candle after dinner. This year we’re going to be giving our son a book every day of Advent that we’ll read together before bed (along with the Scriptures & candle lighting!).
I just ‘liked’ Toadily Homemade on facebook
I already subscribe to your RSS feed (does that count?)!
We definitely need new Advent candles, and my boy would love to help with this! Thanks!
my husband and i are wanting to start celebrating advent this year, reading scripture together with our daughter after dinner.
i follow Carrots via email!
i like Carrots on FB too!
“Liked” Toadily Handmade on facebook. Realized I didn’t tell you about an Advent tradition before: it’s kind of on the other side, but last year I started making a day-by-day 12 days of Christmas calendar, to complement our Advent calendar. I want to remember (and to teach our kids) that those days between Christmas and Epiphany are important too!
Liked you on facebook, too!
I already subscribe. Not sure if that counts, but I do love this blog
We are planning to wrap a gift (used books, special treats, craft supplies, etc) to open each day of Advent. We’ll also be doing Advent devotions from St. Thomas More as a family. Cannot wait for this most wonderful time of year (my favorite by far!).
Just liked Toadily Handmade on FB!
I follow this blog (and have been) following it via RSS for awhile. =)
I *love* Carrots on FB (and p.s., that photo up there of your little man is too cute!)
I subscribe to you via email.
I like you on facebook. : )
“Liked” Toadily Homemade on fb.
Our Advent candles need to be replaced this year–we usually get a couple of years out of them, just lighting them at dinner on Sunday nights. We also have a wooden Advent box that we fill with verses, tiny nativity pieces, and activities that we use during December each year.
We do stockings on St. Nicholas day since we travel out of state for Christmas. We also do an Advent wreath and sing a verse of O Come O Come Emmanuel.
I’m an RSS subscriber already.
Hey Haley!
Thanks for doing this giveaway! A lenten tradition that we started with Angel several years ago is using the Usborne Nativity book for Advent. The book tells the story of the birth of our Savior, and has pieces that you remove each day in order to make a 3 dimensional nativity. This is Angel’s absolute favorite thing about the Christmas season. He gets so excited! Each night we retell the part of the story that we told the day before and add on….such a wonderful way for our kids to remember the true meaning of Christmas. Can’t wait for Xiao Yu to experience it this year.
Like Toadily Handmade on facebook!
And, I like Carrots long ago, of course
These candles are amazing! I haven’t really celebrated advent before, but I’ve got “Watch for the Light” in my Amazon cart, and am wanting to buy it to use it for daily readings this season with my husband.
like toadily handmade on facebook!
subscribe to “Carrots” on RSS
“like” “Carrots” on “Facebook”
We always light the out advent wreath candle before dinner and do our prayer reflection. My daughter was just the other day asking when “that time we light the candles every night” is coming. I know she’d love to help me make those candles!
I’m subscribed to your RSS feed.
We make our advent wreath with branches cut from our tree. Everyone takes turns blowing out candles each night (we are a party of 6 now). To be really cool in the house, you have to pinch out the candles.
Liked toadily handmade on Facebook
I think this year if we can just commit to candles and prayer every night, I will be happy with our Advent celebration!
I liked Toadily Handmade on FB!
I follow you via email!
And I already like you on FB!
What fun! I follow you via email! I don’t have a facebook page anymore (I got rid of it not to long ago.) or I would both like you and Toadily Handmade.
What fun! I follow you via email! I don’t have a facebook page anymore (I got rid of it not to long ago.) or I would both like you and Toadily Handmade.
We don’t really have many Advent traditions yet. We do make Jesse Tree ornaments to decorate the Jesse Tree and we also do the Advent Wreath.
We get Lego Advent calendar for our son each year. We are on our third year of our Christmas cactus… so instead of an evergreen tree, we just decorate our 7 ft cactus with lights so we have more time for the food and gift making. And no, we don’t live in the west. We are Hoosiers!
1. I would love these candles. I am working on creating an advent calendar – little jewelry boxes with lids – for my daughter to open and inside will be different scriptures and activities, including assembling her very own nativity set. This year she might be a little young this year, but I know in the future, she will be very glad to be the oldest and know the drill.
2. I am already a fan of “carrots” on facebook
3. Just liked “Toadily Handmade”
4. I tried to subscribe to you before via email but it wouldn’t let me.
Some of our favorite advent traditions: wrapping our Christmas/Advent books (and the ones we borrow from the library) with one to open and read every night (inspired by Jessica @ShowerofRoses), celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe, and praying the St. Andrew novena.
Liked Carrots on FB!
Liked Toadily on FB!
Already receive Carrots via email! Thanks for the giveaway!
I would totally love to have these and start this tradition with Titus. Currently, we are pretty simple, just using the little book that St. Thomas More gives out for nightly lighting and prayer.
And I’m signed up for the RSS feed.
This year we’re going to do a daily scripture reading every night after we light our Advent candle(s). New for us this year, but hopefully it’ll become a yearly Advent tradition for us.
“Liked” Toadily Handmade on FB.
Subscribed to Carrots for Michaelmas via e-mail.
“Liked” Carrots for Michaelmas on FB.
Yay! Love advent candles!
When we were all still in college, my husband, our good friend (and now our oldest child’s godfather) and I got together every week to talk about our faith and work our way through the catechism section by section. Those weekly get-togethers were a huge part of my adult conversion.
When December rolled around, I made sure we had advent candles to light and we sang the Advent candle song I learned in Catholic school when I was like, eight. You know the one? “Light the advent candle one, now the waiting has begun… Candle, candle burning bright….” The guys teased me about it, but they sang along!
Now the husband and I live in KY with two littles and the godfather lives in NOLA, but we skype the lighting of the advent wreath each week in order to sing the song together. It’s the best part of Advent.
I “liked” you and Toadily on Facebook and I have you in my google reader.
Since I had Swedish great-grandparents and we have a daughter, we dress her up in the white dress and red sash on St. Lucia day, and she anonymously leaves pepparkakor on the neighbor’s porches. We don’t manage lussekatter, however.
My oldest recently turned 3, so we’re ready to put into place a couple of new Advent traditions this year. I love the idea of making Advent candles with beeswax sheets! Would also like to have wrapped one book for each day of Advent to share with our little beans.
We love making our Jesse tree every year. We pick a theme for each day (Adam & Eve, David, Solomon, etc) and take turns drawing an “ornament” to depict it. It is so wonderful to create something together as a family.
2. I liked Carrots on facebook.
3. I liked Toadily Handmade
4. I subscribed to Carrots by e-mail.
I’d love the opportunity to win this kit! We don’t have a favorite advent tradition as this will be our first year celebrating advent.
Blessings!
I subscribed to your blog via email.
Thanks.
I always grew up reading scripture and singing hymns as we lit the advent candles each Sunday during Advent. I finall purchased an advent wreath this year and I am excited to share this tradition with my husband and son.
In my parents’ household, to accompany the candle lighting at dinnertime, we sang verses from ‘O Come O Come Emmanuel.’ Every night in the first week, it was just the first verse. Then the second week, two verses, etc. By Christmas, we were ready to sing all those lovely verses! We kept it lively by mixing up the harmonization to the best of our abilities. Among each of us 7 kids, we’d take turns lighting the candles. It was always a big deal to get to be the first one to light a new candle at the beginning of a new week!
I LOVE Advent! It’s so important to resist the noisy Christmas music in the stores. ‘O Come’ is a very peaceful, meditative antidote to the hubbub.
ps – As my siblings and I have gotten older, we’ve incorprated this tradition into our own households. Forgot to mention… would hate to imply that the tradition died.
I just liked you on facebook… and I’m choosy with my ‘likes.’
Somehow, when I starred this post in my Google reader because it looked like an awesome product, and I always have a hard time finding Advent candles for our wreath, I missed that it was a giveaway! My husband and I were very excited about the product, since we haven’t found a Catholic bookstore in our new home. And we know there aren’t any Lutheran bookstores
and the Family Christian Bookstore doesn’t usually have much in the way of liturgical helps.
We always set out our Advent wreath and do specifically Advent family devotions. “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is usually sung also, the first verse and one additional verse, depending on the week of Advent. I love all these other ideas! I’ll be making an Advent calendar sometime soon; I just need to get the felt. I’m thinking a Christmas tree with Christmassy shapes and Advent appropriate verses. What we do with those verses will be able to be expanded as our daughter (and hopefully other children) get older!
I already subscribe to your blog on Google Reader, so I
*liked Carrots on Facebook
*liked Toadily Handmade on Facebook
I have been wanting to do Advent candles for awhile now! This year is the year!
I follow you in an RSS feed!
As a child, my mother would bring home scraps of branches from the wreath-making fundraiser that the church did every year, and we would stick them into a ring cut from a piece of styrofoam packing until it was completely covered– this was our Advent wreath! My dad would carve holes in the top for the candles to rest in. . . . Even though my dad is an atheist and my mother an Episcopalian (and I’m a Catholic, so there you go . . .), making the Advent wreath and lighting it every week was something we did together.
We used this candle set last year and loved it! My children are teenagers now so our Advent has evolved from calendars and activities to emphasis on quiet reflection and “waiting with Mary”. We do nothing “Christmas-y” until Christmas Eve after the Vigil Mass. Then we decorate the Christmas tree and put out a few house decorations.
My husband and I just became Catholic this past Easter and just got married on Sept 29th, 2012. While we were attending our parish church last year, this year will be our first official Advent as a married, Catholic couple. We do not have any Advent traditions yet, but have talked about making an Advent wreath this year. I would love to win the Advent candle making kit to start our first Advent tradition!
1. I liked Toadily Handmade on Facebook
2. I subscribed to your rss feed via Google
3. I liked your page on Facebook
(Awesome timing for the giveaway since I kept meaning to like your FB page!)
We’re finally in our own home this holiday season and are finally able to really start our own traditions. Mags and I are doing a cut-out Advent count-down (religious related crafts and acts of kindness each day). We’re very excited!
Also, I liked Toadily Handmade on Facebook…
…and I’m already a subscriber and fan on Facebook. Gave you a shout-out on my blog the other day. Does that count for something?
So far our Advent traditions are: Lighted advent wreath and readings at dinner as a family and advent calender activities at breakfast with the kiddos.
Liked Toadily on Facebook
Already like Carrots on FB (does that count?)
My husband and I just discussed doing advent candles this year and we are going to do it. I also just found your blog (LOVE IT!) and am excited to read more. Thanks for hosting this giveaway.
I am subscribed via RSS feed
I liked you on Facebook
Just subscribed to RSS feed (don’t know why I haven’t before now, especially since I’ve been reading here for a while..)
What a lovely idea, to make our own Advent candles! Great giveaway.
Our tradition is to host friends on Sunday evenings for soup supper and the lighting of our Advent wreath each week. Usually we ask them to bring instruments and voices so we can play music afterward.
I liked Toadily Handmade on Facebook.
And I like you on Facebook and subscribe to your feed, because you are one amazing mama.
How am I just now seeing this? I really want those candles!
It seems that Advent is different every year for us, we’ve been in such different places in our lives. So I can’t think of a tradition that we have-but if the candles worked out that could be our new tradition!
and of course I like you on facebook
This Advent, each Sunday I’ll light my candles, pray for John’s soul, and sing an Advent hymn, remembering how he used to make the wreath every year, and how happy we were. And I’ll be happy, because he would have wanted me to be.
My girls color their Jesse Tree ornaments by the light of our Advent wreath each night. They love it.