My Advent Angel, a toy that encourages children to live out Advent virtues, recently spent the day at the Diocesan Pastoral Center. (Amelia Kudela | Catholic News Herald)CHARLOTTE — For years, parents have been moving an Elf on the Shelf who is prone to naughty acts around their homes to get children to behave in the days leading up to Christmas.
Now, there’s a Catholic alternative with a Charlotte connection – an angel who teaches kids how to behave like Christ in the days leading up to His birthday, with no elfish spying for Santa involved!
Meet the Advent Angel, an artisan-made doll developed by an Arizona-based author and broadcaster Catherine Fowler Sample, whose work has appeared on EWTN, CatholicTV and Relevant Radio.
“Instead of putting energy into moving an elf around each day and all the staging that goes with it, Advent Angel puts that energy toward loving God and others,” Sample says.
Sample, whose husband Brian is a Charlotte Catholic High School alumnus, came up with the idea about three years ago when she was thinking of a better way for her three daughters to observe Advent.
She came up with the handmade angel that could be used to guide children – or anyone seeking a more meaningful season – through the days leading up to Christmas. A book and virtue cards – one for each day of advent – accompany the doll in a special kit, for children to follow as they go through the season.
“It started as a desire to have a fun and faith-filled tradition for my own kids during Advent that would feel like more than just a countdown to Christmas,” she says. “I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to have the story of the first Christmas night told through an angel’s eyes?”
Taking wing
Her husband supported her and the idea took wings. Sample and her sister sewed the first angel by hand at her dining room table.
She brought the product out right before Advent three years ago and immediately received support from people in her community, including an Arizona priest who called the doll “just what the world needs.”
“Sometimes we can get swept up in the secular aspects of the season, but I wanted something for my children that would allow them not just to focus on what are they going to get from Santa, but what can they give to Jesus?” she says. 
Sample wrote a book, “My Advent Angel,” which in rhyme tells the story of Christmas and its true meaning and introduces the angel to readers.
“We can each play our part to honor the Lord/Tell the truth, be the best in all you do/Listen to your mom and dad, do every chore/Be kind to all and say your prayers too!” is one verse.
In the year after she finished the angel dolls and the book, Sample and her husband gave them to her daughters on the morning of St. Nicholas Day, Dec. 6.
“When we read the book together, my second child, who was three at the time, realized the baby in the manger was the same Jesus who died on the cross,” she says. “She started crying as she put the pieces together for the first time about who the baby Jesus was and what
Christmas is really about. It was such a beautiful moment together that I’ll never forget.”
Her three daughters – ages 8, 5 and 2 – carry their angels around with them and fall asleep with them at night.
Encouraging acts of love
The positive response led Sample to develop a “Virtue Chart.” Over 28 days, participants can earn jewel and star stickers for practicing different virtues.
The stickers stand for “the jewels and stars added to our heavenly crown through acts of love,” Sample says. Saints are paired with each virtue, and a deck of holy cards tells the story of each saint. There are Virtue Cards which have more than 100 everyday ideas on how to show love for Jesus and others. Advent Angel has also led to talks about virtue at home, Sample said.
“My kids call it being ‘big-souled,’” she says. “When Advent comes, they start collecting toys to give away, put them in a basket, and say a prayer for whoever will receive them. It’s things like these that they do more of – small, ordinary acts of love – that stuck with them even more than I expected.”
And while some kids start asking when Christmas is coming even before December arrives, Sample says her girls routinely ask, “When is Advent coming?”
“I love that so much because that was the whole point – to make Advent more than a countdown to Christmas that we could celebrate together in a fun and faith-filled way.”
— Christina Lee Knauss
More online
At www.myadventangel.com: Lean more and order one