Carrots for Michaelmas

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How to Prep for a Stress-Free Advent {Advent Candle Giveaway–Sponsored Post}

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This post is sponsored by Toadily Handmade Beeswax Candles.

How to Prep for a Stress-Free Advent!

It’s been a stressful year for our family. Job changes, selling a house, moving our three kids across the country, and transitioning to a new town. I still feel like my head is spinning from the move even though we’ve been in TX a whole month. And I find myself longing for Advent–my favorite time of year.

Advent (this year it begins on November 29th) is the beginning of the liturgical year. And it always feels like a new beginning for my life, too. In our home we do everything we can to slow down for those four weeks before Christmas to center, prepare, and enjoy the anticipation of the Nativity of Our Lord so that we can be ready to kick up our heels for Christmas!

But I discovered last year that it was a couple of weeks into Advent before I really got into the groove because I wasn’t prepared mentally for the season.

This year, I want it to be different. I want to take a deep breath of relief on November 29th because we are prepared and ready to go so that it can be a contemplative and reflective season in our home. I am not a naturally organized or plan ahead kind of gal, but I know that my free spirited temperament doesn’t always serve me well when it comes to being prepared and lowering stress in our home. So here’s my game plan:

Make a list of the things you want to do during Advent.

For our family that might be…

Make a list of the things you DON’T want to do during Advent.

For us that might be…

  • Don’t watch Christmas movies and listen to Christmas music yet (we try to save those treats for Christmas!).
  • Hold back with the holiday baking projects.
  • Don’t think about stepping foot in a mall (save me! I like to shop local….or Amazon in advance. I live in the extremes, apparently).

Tackle some tasks ahead of time.

  • Christmas shopping, I’m looking at you. If I knock it out before Advent, there’s no gift scramble during what should be a quiet season. (And psst! Did you know you can do your Amazon Christmas shopping and support Carrots at the same time? Just shop through my affiliate link and I’ll receive a portion of the sale at NO additional cost to you! Thank you kindly.)
  • And go ahead and order those Advent candles so you’re not stressing the first weekend of Advent.
  • Look for the Advent picture books you want at your local used book store or get some from Amazon.
  • Make an Advent playlist on Spotify.

Thankfully I’ve already got my Advent candles ready to go so check one thing off my list! Of the many Advent traditions for the home, having an Advent wreath and lighting our Advent candles is number one for me. If that’s all we do, it will still feel like Advent.

How to prep for a stress-free Advent!

And I just may have that task sorted for you, as well, because I’m giving away TWO sets of Advent candles from a company I adore!

For the past seven years, I’ve been ordering my Advent candles (and Advent candle-making kits because the kids have a blast rolling their own tapers) from Toadily Handmade Beeswax Candles.

They’re made of 100% beeswax which makes my crunchy heart glad because there’s no nasty toxic ingredients and they burn clean and beautifully!

And beeswax candles are also liturgically appropriate. Did you know that religious candles were traditionally made of beeswax and candles used in Catholic churches are still supposed to be at least 51% beeswax? They burn purer and have that sweet beeswax scent and I can’t get enough of them.

And this year, by popular demand, Toadily Handmade Beeswax Candles has sets of solid Advent tapers in addition to their kits and other Advent tapers. So yay!

How to Prep for a Stress-Free Advent!

And one lucky winner will receive a beautiful set of these five Advent tapers: three purple, one rose, and one white candle (as a Christ candle for the center).

How to Prep for a Stress-Free Advent

Another lucky winner will receive one of the hand rolled Advent taper sets. I love the way the hand rolled candles look and we roll our own each year with once of Toadily Handmade’s Candle Making kits. Since I let the kids roll them, they’re always slightly imperfect and I just love it to death. See exhibit A below. Just slightly squashed by happy little fingers.

IMG_4746-600x535

Toadily Handmade Beeswax Candles is offering a 10% discount for Carrots readers on everything on their web site during the month of October! The discount code is ADVENT. And their candle making kits always come with free shipping.

OK, so to enter the giveaway for the solid Advent taper set and one hand rolled Advent candle set…(Only for Carrots readers in the United States and Canada for shipping reasons)

1. Mandatory entry: Visit the Toadily Handmade website and then come back and leave a comment at Carrots telling us about your favorite candles.

2. Additional entry:  Visit Toadily Handmade Beeswax Candles on Facebook and leave an additional comment saying you did.

3. Additional entry: Pin this post to Pinterest and leave an additional comment saying you did.

I will choose the winners by random number generator. Giveaway ends on Thursday, October 15th at midnight EST. Good luck, friends and a stress-free Advent to all!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Review and giveaway items were provided by Toadily Handmade Beeswax Candles. All opinions are my own. I only promote products I would purchase myself and I love giving away wonderful things to my readers!

Comments

  1. Visited the website. I’m trying to set up a little “home altar” in our house so I’d probably go with the handmade votive candles, they’d be perfect!

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  45. I visited the website and I really like the roll your own. I like that they are the honeycomb pattern. The tapers are pretty too.

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  54. I love the rolled pillars! I have pillars all over the place at home. I think they are a little different than what most people use right now and the rolled honeycomb is just gorgeous.

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  73. Definitely the advent making kit. If I don’t win a set, I’ll probably purchase those.

    Quick question–do the rolled candles burn quicker or do they still last a good amount of burning time?

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  79. I really like the advent candles, of course, though they’re pricey for my family’s budget. For no useful reason, I also like the little toad tea lights. =) And the blue and white wedding sets are beautiful.

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  87. Ah it’s like you read my mind – must buy the candles in October or it’s inevitably the eve of the 1st Sunday in Advent and I’m tearing apart cupboards like WHERE DID I HIDE THE CANDLES LAST YEAR?! Love their kids to roll the beeswax candles – I can’t wait to try this with the kids!

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  90. We love the easter egg votives here, although we should probably get a plain pillar to burn for everyday now that we are finally running low on random candles. The candle making kits are also super fun with kids.

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  92. I still love the candle making kits. Particularly the advent one. I feel like included the children in making the candles makes it so much more special for them.

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  98. They have a lovely website! I really like the hand rolled pillars and the dipped votives. I would also love to someday try their Bloom raw honey, and the kids would have fun rolling their own tapers

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  114. I love the hand rolled candle making kit. I think this may become a new Advent tradition for our family starting this year!

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  118. Visited website. Mostly interested in the Advent candles as I don’t normally burn candles in the house. I just forget about them 🙂

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  124. Visited the website–I loved all the colors of the hand rolled candles. I liked the kits best though–so fun and adorable for kids.

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  129. I like the advent candle making kit, but I also really like the the beehive votives. They remind me of visiting Utah on my cross country road trip. (Utah is the beehive state and it was my surprise love during our trip!)

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  131. I love the pillar candles to use during family dinners. I also hav bought their votive Advent candles the last two years.

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  136. Awesome. Great article great giveaway. I get frustrated during the holidays with so much to do and no time to enjoy the beauty of the season. This year has me even more anxious since my baby girl is due in December and I have been plagued with pretty much all things unpleasant during this pregnancy. I pinned this article and will be sharing via fb with my friends.

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  141. Visited the website. I don’t burn a lot of candles (not many places away from little hands!) but I know I do need a new set of Advent ones, so that’s what I’d go with!

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  143. Favorite candle? Definitely the sushi candles. What a cool idea!!!! Except that those candles would make me want to eat sushi all the time, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing haha.

    Haley, thanks for being so on top of life to discuss Advent preparations now! I can totally relate with the free spirited-ness. I love doing wonderful liturgical things, but usually around the week before Advent, it’s a mad scramble for me to start discussing with my husband what we will do! Besides an Advent wreath (because we must have one! Every year!) we started a Jesse Tree last year, which I liked a lot! We definitely fell a day or two behind on the Scripture readings, but it was still really cool. Also, even though I’m fully white girl with no Hispanic connections aside from my Godfather, I also really like Las Posadas! I’ve lived by different Hispanic religious orders before, and they always seem to host them in December. Last year, we got together with a couple friends and did our own in a home, and feasted on Mexican food afterwards.

    I really like your idea of making a list of Advent things, I’m totally doing that! This year, I’ve also been trying to get Christmas shopping done now, because I’m officially the Worst Ever At Presents haha 😉

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  144. I visited the website. So many wonderful products! I have wanted the basket weave solid pillar for quite some time now. It’s beautiful and would look lovely year round. I also love their new Christmas ornaments!

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  156. I visited their page and honestly love the advent tapers. I prefer to only burn beeswax candles, so I’m really excited to see these.

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  163. The roll your own kit is my favorite, closely followed by those Easter egg candles I’ve had from Toadily Handmade

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  167. And I pinned this post! Last year was the first year we were intentional–instead of accidental–about how we observed Advent. I’m looking forward to incorporating more of these great ideas this year!

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  172. Great post! I can’t wait for Advent! It’s my favorite time of year.

    I visited the Toadily Handmade site and I liked the kit that makes 3 sets of Advent candles because I always mean to get out Advent candles for the next year blessed at Candlemas (Feb 2), but I never have them on hand in time!

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  180. I love the toadilly tea lights: I bought several boxes last year and I burn them all the time: I love the sweet but light scent of the beeswax!

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  185. I love beeswax candles, too; I’ve been rolling candles for the past few years to be blessed at Candlemas. It’s such a fun and easy craft! My favorite candles are the Christmas ornament solid candles. How lovely and unique!

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  190. I think their beehive beeswax votives are so cute! I did the advent kit last year with my family and it was so much fun.

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  194. Went to the website, and I love the natural rolled pillars. They are so homey! And even though these aren’t candles, I might have to try some of their raw honey!

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  196. Pinned this page to my home board! Looking to really up my traditions game this year since my son was born in April.

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  197. I’ve purchased the Advent kit before, and we loved it! So, after visiting the site, I love all of the kits to make your own candles. My boys enjoyed being a part of the process.

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  209. I visited and liked the Facebook page? I am currently in the RCIA program at our church and these candles would be perfect for my first advent?

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  211. Went to the website. I loved the advent candles the best but I also really liked the solid pillar Christmas tree. 🙂

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  216. The colors of the candles are awesome! They have such cute votives shaped for different seasons, like the pumpkin and holly!

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  223. Visited webpage. Love all their stuff. Would probably get the Beeswax Pillars in lots of colors, or the plain Beeswax Tealights that burn forever.

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  231. Their bee bags are nice, I guess the do it yourself kits would be the way to go, my kids would enjoy it. Question, where did I you get your candle ring? It doesn’t look like the one on line. I like it because it’s very plain and simple.

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  238. Visited their website! I actually love the idea of the votive advent candles… seems more doable for our tiny kitchen table in our tiny apartment! And the idea of making our own candles is pretty awesome too.

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  241. After looking at the Toadily Handmade website, I love the fancy solid pillar candles, like the Christmas Tree one!

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  244. I love their candles! We ordered the advent wreath set last year, and my kids loved making them.
    My favourite item on the site are the beeswax sheets for candle making.

    I do try to keep Advent things for advent, but not all of the things you do. We don’t eat our Christmas baking, but I DO make it ahead of time. And I also need to have Christmas music. I tried just listening to advent tunes last advent, but it really backfired on me, as I’m a musician, and I need that before hand time to practice. Especially as a homeschooling mom to littles, I only get to practice in fits and spurts, which just left me sad and frustrated in the Christmas season when I was just in the learning process. So back to November 1 for Christmas music for me!

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  246. I visited the website. Love that they sell raw honey. We may buy some of the avocado. I’m partial to the poinsettia floating candles but I know my daughters would love the frog on the lily pad.

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  247. Awesome candles – thank you for letting me know about these. I am totally in love with the idea of having our kids roll our own Advent candles now!! I think my favorite candles of theirs though (ironic, considering we’re talking here about Advent and not jumping the gun on Christmas) are their Christmas candles – such beautiful votives and decorative pillars! Thanks again for sharing about this.

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  251. I visited their website. The little rose tea lights are so pretty. Thanks for this blog post. I’ve been wanting to do more for Advent.

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  254. As a beekeeper, I love everything about their products. Beeswax candles are the best. I think my favorite are the kits to roll your own. My daughter would love those!

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  259. Visited the website. I already knew I loved the hand roll advent candle kit. But I think this year I will also choose the Christmas ornament style solid candle. So many beautiful options.

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  260. Also checked out the Facebook page. Glad I did, found the perfect gift suggested in one of their shared articles.

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  261. I visited their website and my all time favorite is the 6 pack to-go container of shushi candles! How cool!

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  262. I visited their Facebook page! I also saw the post/picture they put up, thanking Carrots for the great premotion post too, way to go!

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  263. Their beeswax Christmas ornaments are so cute! I TOADILY was not expecting to see Christmas ornaments among candles. (Sorry for the shameless pun…)
    Also thank you for the reminder about Advent. I needed that!

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  266. Visited the Toadily Beeswax website. I have to say I find the honeycomb and bumble bee candles super cute. And I would love to have some big pillars one day. 🙂

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  268. Ok, I forgot how to pin things to pinterest on my laptop but I did visit both the Toadily Beeswax page and the Carrots for Michaelmas page. Does that count? 🙂

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  272. I visited the website and I really like the Beeswax Advent Taper Candle Making Kit because I know my kids would love to get their hands on it!

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  278. Oooh, a couple of hand rolled colored pillars would be awesome for our mother’s group’s Advent by Candlelight event.

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  283. Pinned to Pinterest too! And that glimpse of my advent Pinterest board was enough to make me excited for Advent now too!

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  284. This is a wonderful post, thanks! I thought you might be interested to know that the celebration of Advent in the Eastern Catholic Churches differs from that in Western Churches. For us, the season of Advent is a penitential season which begins after Vespers of the Feast of St. Philip the Apostle (Nov. 14) with the Nativity Fast or “Filipovka” (Philip’s Fast), 40 days before Christmas.

    In the home of an Eastern Catholic, you might see an Advent wreath with 6 candles (green, blue, gold, white, purple, red) with the Pascal candle in the center. There is a corresponding prayer & Scripture verse to be read by the family as each candle is lit.

    1st Sunday of Advent the candle is GREEN to express faith. The 1st candle reminds us of faith; the faith we have in God that He will keep His promise to send His Son.

    2nd Sunday of Advent the candle is BLUE to express hope. The 2nd candle reminds us of the hope we have that Christ will come again to bring new joy into our lives, and that we may recognize He is already among us.

    3rd Sunday of Advent the candle is gold to express love. As we light the 3rd candle let us remember the words of St. John when he said that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.”

    4th Sunday of Advent the candle is white to signify peace. The 4th candle reminds us of the angel’s message to the shepherds, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.”

    5th Sunday of Advent the candle is purple to signify repentance. The 5th candle reminds us of our need to repent before we can meet the coming Christ. St. John the Forerunner calls out “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

    6th Sunday of Advent the candle is red to signify Holy Communion. The 6th candle reminds us that Christ, Who came to Bethlehem & Who will come again at the end of time, comes to us now in the great Sacrament of His Presence, the Eucharist. The reason He was born in Bethlehem was that we might allow Him to come and be born in the manger of our hearts.

    7th Sunday of Advent the Pascal Candle representing Christ is lit. The service begins with the lighting of all 7 candles representing faith, hope, love, peace, repentance, Emmanuel (God with Us) in Holy Communion & Christ born in Bethlehem: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given and His name shall be called Wonderful.”

    God bless!

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  306. Visited them on Facebook – love the memory of rolling beeswax candles in 4H or something, maybe Brownies…I can’t remember when or where, but the smell is burned into my nose and heart. I’d love to do that with my kiddos for Advent.

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  308. Hi Haley, I checked out the Toadily website and it’ll be my new go-to site for sheet wax.. While I do love their classic pillar candles, the DIY kits for rolled tapers are probably my favourite. My dad was a beekeeper and I grew up rolling coloured taper candles to sell beside my parents’ stand at the farmers’ market. Then, I’d blow all my pocket change on cookies 😉

    I’ve never had an Advent wreath before, so this would be a real treat!

    Reply

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