Advent + Christmas Round Up
Advent is right around the corner, so now’s the time to spice up your congregation’s plans for outreach, engagement, and spiritual formation. This mysterious, inspiring time of year is ideal for inviting new folks to experience worship, and at the same time deepen your community’s connection with the season, both at church and at home.
Here’s a quick overview of SALT's Customizable Short Films and Printable Resources for your Advent planning pleasure. Click here to find out more about what a Customizable Short Film is, and how it can enhance your church’s website, online worship, and social media engagement (for example, many churches are using the films as components of their in-person and online worship).
Starry Nights: An Advent Devotional Full of Light and Wonder
Presenting SALT’s newest devotional for the Advent and Christmas season, leaning into how it’s very much a season of stars and wonder: twinkling over shepherds, leading Magi to Bethlehem, and filling our own dark Advent nights with glimmers of brilliance.
Perfect for individuals, families, and congregations who want to enrich their faith, deepen their wonder, and follow the stars to a renewed sense of hope, peace, joy, and love.
Check out the devotional here.
This Customizable Short Film is perfect for inviting people into the deeper meanings of the Advent season: the Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love along the four-week pilgrimage to Christmas Day. From Hope – to Love!
Check out the film here. (And each purchase comes with SALT’s all ages Advent poster-and-devotional, House of God: Mary, Jesus, and the Meaning of Christmas (see below)).
House of God: Mary, Jesus, and the Meaning of Christmas
Perfect for all ages, “House of God” is a poster-and-devotional organized around the Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love embodied in Mary’s inspiring story. Packed with activities, practices, scripture, and weekly candlelight services.
Check out the poster-and-devotional here.
Magnify: Mary’s Song and the Magnificent Women of Advent
This Advent devotional focuses on Mary’s amazing song — as well as the many women in scripture who helped clear the way, from Sarah to Elizabeth to Miriam to Ruth to Rizpah to Hannah, and many more. Prepare for Jesus with song — and with Mary!
Check out the devotional here.
Maya Angelou and the Freedom Poetry of Advent
In this Advent devotional, biblical texts and simple, accessible practices interweave with Maya Angelou’s stirring vision of faith, freedom, and dignity. All you’ll need is your favorite Bible and Maya Angelou’s The Complete Poetry (all the poems are also available online).
Week by week, as we wait, and watch, and pray, we’ll walk toward Bethlehem — with Maya Angelou as our guide.
Check out the devotional here.
Advent: Make Something Beautiful
Here’s a Customizable Short Film tailor made for inviting friends — old and new — into a season of simplicity, creativity, and community.
Check out the film here. (And it’s a perfect partner with SALT’s all ages Advent devotional, “The Dawn Chorus: An Advent Devotional on the Wonder of Birds.”)
The Dawn Chorus: An Advent Devotional on the Wonders of Birds
A devotional for families of all shapes and sizes, “The Dawn Chorus” will fill your Advent season with joy and astonishment. After all, songbirds know a thing or two about singing into the darkness, and looking to the light.
Check out the devotional here.
E. E. Cummings and the Joyful Poetry of Advent
The son of a pastor and a thoughtful theologian in his own right, E. E. Cummings created some brilliant, inventive, provocative poems related to Advent and Christmas. This devotional is a companion to those poems (all of which are available online), woven with scripture, practices, reflections, and a simple candlelight service each week.
Check out the devotional here.
Six Steps to a “Less is More” Christmas
With this Customizable Short Film, you can get the word out about your congregation this Advent and Christmas, inviting a “less is more” embrace of the essence of the season.
Check out the film here. And pair it with SALT’s “Less is More” Poster and Devotional for families of all shapes and sizes (both the poster and devotional come with any purchase of the film).
A “Less is More” Advent and Christmas Poster and Devotional
A poster packed with fun, accessible activity ideas, and a devotional to help families connect with the deeper meanings of the season (both are included with any purchase of the “Less is More” Customizable Short Film).
Check out the poster and devotional here.
The Poetry of Advent: An Advent Companion to Mary Oliver’s “Devotions”
Every pilgrimage needs a guide — and what better guide through the shadows and light of Advent than the amazing Mary Oliver?
Check out the devotional here.
Advent Unbound: An Advent Companion to Pádraig Ó Tuama’s “Poetry Unbound”
Truly experiencing the Advent and Christmas depends on connecting the head and the heart — and poetry can help. In this devotional, we let Scripture and Pádraig Ó Tuama’s beloved podcast, “Poetry Unbound,” lead the way to Bethlehem.
Check out the devotional here.
With this Customizable Short Film, your congregation can invite people into the mystery and majesty of Advent in a vivid, personal way: through the power of names, and the connection between the names of Jesus — Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, and more — and the love and justice he calls us to practice every day.
Check out the film here. And pair it with Naming Jesus: A Family-Friendly Advent Devotional (included with the film) for a seamless season of holy name-calling.
Naming Jesus: A Family-Friendly Advent Devotional
This devotional — perfect for families of all shapes and sizes — is all about the many names we give to Jesus, and the life-changing names he gives to us. Organized around the season’s four traditional themes (Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love), it includes simple, home-based weekly Advent services for each week, including scripture, reflection, prayer, singing, and practices — plus a few fun “anytime” activities to do along the way.
Check out the devotional here. And pair it with the Customizable Short Film, Advent: Naming Jesus (and the devotional comes with any purchase of the film).
Advent and Hygge: The Art of Coziness
A printable set of five lovely little devotional table tents (check out this stop-motion film to see them in action!). The Danish tradition of hygge (pronounced “hoo-ga”), sometimes translated as “the art of coziness," is a perfect way for families of all shapes and sizes to live into the season of Advent, lighting candles and snuggling in to what the Danes call “the duvet of darkness.”
Advent is a time of waiting for God, but it’s also a time of God waiting for us. Waiting for us to say “Yes” — brave like Mary, kind like Joseph, daring like the shepherds, and generous like those Wise Ones bearing gifts. Pair the film Advent: Say Yes! with SALT’s Advent Weekly Placemats (included with the film) for a holistic, hands-on Advent season.
This Customizable Short Film frames the season of Advent as a time for simple things, and for keeping things simple. A time for setting aside the stress of busy-ness and the clutter of plastic, and instead remembering together what’s really important: hope, peace, joy, and love. Pair “A Mason Jar Advent” with SALT’s printable Advent calendar (included with the film), and — voila! — you’ve got a sweet, simple, beautiful approach to the Advent season.
Christmas is God's revolution of love, and the season of Advent is our time to get ready for it, to participate in it, to sing with Mary — loud and proud — of a God who turns everything upside down! Pair this bright, upbeat Customizable Short Film with SALT’s “Revolution of Love” Advent Coloring Pages (8 ½ x 11) designed by illustrator Jordan Sunburg of Tin Cup Design (included with the film).
This film features a flexible, modern Advent Calendar, hand-illustrated by none other than Penelope Dullaghan (an award-winning illustrator who has worked with Crate & Barrel, the New York Times, Starbucks, Oprah Magazine, Target, Vegetarian Times, Panera Bread, etc.). And best of all, the printable calendar comes included with the film, giving your congregation a fully-integrated strategy for Advent!
This whimsical, joyful Customizable Short Film invites all of us to slow down and savor the hope, peace, joy, and love at the heart of the Advent season. Because Christmas isn’t about shopping or debt or stuff or worry — it’s about counting down the days until God slips into the world.
Last but not least, here's a lovely Customizable Short Film that draws together three classics: the simple charm of miniature nativity sets, the intergenerational power of Christmas, and Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” A film for the artist in all of us, “Advent Nativity” is a warm and engaging invitation to wait and watch in the beautiful, deep-blue darkness just before the dawn.
And don’t forget our Advent Clip Art!
Well, there you have it — a one-stop overview of some of the resources available from SALT for Advent and Christmas. Order today, and make this Advent and Christmas season more vibrant, engaged, and theologically rich than ever.
Peace,
The SALT Team