Celebrate Advent

Cut the greens, decorate a wreath, prepare your Advent devotions, light the candles one by one. Get ready for the season of Advent and the celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany.

Whether your congregation gathers all ages in the fellowship hall for bringing in the new church year on the first Sunday of Advent, offers a devotional guide for families to use at home or decorates the sanctuary at a “hanging of the greens” party, festivals take planning and a variety of resources.

Help your congregation celebrate the season with the resources below.    

• All-season resources
• Advent resources
• Christmas resources

All-season resources

Things to Make & Do: Advent & Christmas
Martha Bettis Gee

Children need to hear and experience our faith story. The Christmas season is an especially important time to reach children about the true meaning of the season. This resource invites children to discover the joy and meaning of the story of the Word made flesh.

Cosas para Hacer y Crear en Adviento y Navidad
Jaime Delgado

Es un libro de actividades disenado para fascinar e involucrar a los ninos mientras experimentan y exploran la maravillosa y real historia de Navidad. Estas actividades tienen como objectivo que los ninos entiendan el verdadero significado de la Palabra hecha carne de una forma divertida e informativa.

English $12.95 Item 095520		Spanish $12.95 Item 079520

Download samples of Things to Make & Do

Sample Advent activities

• English
• Spanish
• Korean

Sample Epiphany activities

• English
• Spanish
• Korean

Sample Christmastide activities

• English
• Spanish
• Korean

Eight Practices for Home and Family during Advent and Christmas

The Winter 2003-04 issue of ideas! magazine shares some practices that can become a part of family life and assist in keeping the focus of the season on the birth of the holy baby. Learn more.

Advent resources

How Do We Keep Advent Four Sundays Long?

Every pastor and worship planner knows the challenge of keeping Advent in church. As the malls are blaring Christmas music and everyone is having Christmas parties, as the Christmas lights come out at Thanksgiving and everyone dons special Christmas clothes, somehow we are supposed to restrain ourselves from celebrating the coming of the Christ child until Christmas Eve. Why are we supposed to do this? And how is it possible?

New Year's in November

It makes sense to have a "New Year's" party on the first Sunday of Advent; it is the beginning of the Christian calendar and the liturgical year. A Christian New Year's party could be a small party or could be expanded to the one-hour format of Sunday school or even to adults and children together, perhaps with refreshments added. Learn more.

Ideas for the Advent Wreath

The most important point of the Advent wreath is that it visually marks the time leading up to Christmas and symbolizes the increasing light as Christ draws near to us. Over the years, some have attached particular meanings to individual candles, such as shepherds, angels, Wise Men, and Mary or hope, faith, love and joy. More important than any direct correlation of candle to meaning, however, is our growing anticipation of Jesus’ birth. Learn more.

Christmas Resources

Open Hearts in Bethlehem Pageant Package Set
A Christmas Musical Drama

Kenneth E. Bailey

Renowned biblical scholar Kenneth Bailey presents this exciting Christmas drama that pastors, Christian educators and lay volunteers in local congregations can perform. The product package includes 13 scripts (one for each part) with program notes, an 1800–word essay that provides the exegetical background for the drama, printed music for one hymn and five folk songs, and an audio CD.   

Item # 978-0664228729 • $34.45

Christmas Service of Hope

Advent and Christmas herald for us “good news of great joy to all people,” yet for many of our church members the holiday season is a time of grief and loneliness, a time when losses feel especially acute. Learn how to hold special services of hope, with an emphasis on ministry to the sorrowful in this article from the Fall/Winter 2002-03 issue of ideas magazine.

O Chrismon Tree, O Chrismon Tree

In 1957, Francis Kipps Spencer created the first Chrismon tree. She coined the term Chrismon as a combination of Christ + monogram to reflect her desire to create decorations for Christmas trees that “proclaim the name, the life, and the saving acts of Jesus the Christ.” Learn more.

The Twelve Days of Christmas?

If we have made room for a fuller celebration of Advent during the weeks leading up to Christmas, we will have a better chance of celebrating the coming of Christ during the entire twelve days from December 25 to January 6, our season of Christmas. This period includes Christmas Eve as well as two Sundays. What can we do to maintain the joy of Christmas in worship during this season?