Around this time of year people start to get ready for Christmas – stir the pudding, buy the presents, write the cards (unless you’re me). But it’s also worth taking a little time to get ready for Advent.

Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas – this year it falls on Sunday 29th November, or the evening of the 28th if you start with the vigil.

The Advent calendars and candles you can buy in shops always start on 1st December. But if you want a candle that actually lasts right through advent, you’ll need to make your own.

Take a tall, slender candle – a 12″ dinner candle is ideal. The symbolic colours are purple for Advent, symbolising fasting and preparation, or white for the revelation of Christ. (You can get red ones too,but I think that’s just because it’s christmassy)

Then take a ruler and felt tip pen. Start about an inch from the bottom so there’s enough candle to stand up. Then mark all the way up the candle, twenty-six evenly spaced segments.

You can then simply use your felt tip pen to mark the dates (starting at the top) 29, 30, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., all the way to 24 at the bottom

If you want to make your candle very beautiful you could cut a tiny notch at each place and mark with gold paint, although be warned that it tends to sizzle slightly when it burns.

You then choose a time every day when you can burn one segment. A slender candle takes 10-20 minutes, depending on the length, width and quality of wax.

What to do while the candle burns? You might like to make a family commitment to eat breakfast or dinner together while it burns. Or you could use the time to sit in silence, or read, or pray. Advent is traditionally a time of waiting: you could pray every day for a person or place that is waiting for news, or peace, or healing.

Steve Taylor suggested in the comments here praying every day for one place or person that needs blessing.

I once read a charming story about a child who cut off a section of the family advent candle because there was an emergency (something to do with a birth, I think) and he thought he could make time go faster by shortening the candle. Does anyone remember where the story comes from?

In a few days I’ll tell you how to make an Advent wreath.

Andy is a regular commenter here, and a firefighter, and he has added a comment below as a safety reminder, which seem especially important after the sad events of Bonfire night:  never leave candles burning unattended, and keep them out of the way of curtains and clothes. And if you have long hair, be very careful indeed around candles!