The Season of Advent is Almost Here!

We will soon be entering the season of Advent. This introductory message is much longer than our daily Advent Calendar because we’re giving you all the resources and suggestions for a wonderful season in one place. Not to worry, the daily email will focus on inspirational music, art, prayers, and resources throughout the season. You’ll find all of those, plus a short reflection.

To use with the whole family, take the celebration offline with our book, The Joy of Advent! In our book you will find deeper meditations for individuals and children, each day’s Jesse Tree symbol beautifully illustrated, family conversation starters (or journal prompts), fascinating facts about the day’s Christmas Carol, and special features on many of the most-celebrated feast days throughout the Advent and Christmas seasons. You can use this digital resource by itself, but we highly encourage you to follow along in the book.

Read on for tips, suggestions, and resources.

If you haven’t already, download your free printable Preparing for Advent Workbook and find other resources at our Christmas Shop.

If you received this email from a friend, or are reading online and haven’t yet subscribed, join us for daily Advent & Christmas Celebrations delivered directly to your inbox. Subscribe here!

When and What is Advent?

Advent marks a season in the church (liturgical) year that has been celebrated since around the 5th century. Some have even dated it as early as 380 AD at the Council of Sargossa. The word Advent comes from the Latin, adventus, which means arrival, specifically the arrival of someone of importance. It was a translation of the Greek word, parousia. Parousia meant the coming of Christ, both as a human baby and His Second Coming. According to this article, originally, the first two Sundays of Advent celebration focused on the Second Coming, while the final two focused on Jesus’s birth. While that focus has largely been lost, we continue to celebrate Advent as a season of preparation—preparing our hearts for the coming of our Lord, both his birth and his ultimate return. 

Advent always begins four Sundays before Christmas. Christmas being on the 25th of December means that Advent’s beginning changes, as does the length of the season. For simplicity (we’re all craving a bit more of that!) our daily emails will always begin on December 1 and continue through Epiphany (January 6), and this year Advent begins on December 1st! We also offer a Family Liturgy for Sundays in Advent to help you incorporate an Advent wreath into your family’s seasonal celebration. You can find the short liturgy here.

We structure the daily readings around the Jesse Tree, in part because the Jesse Tree is a beautiful, ancient tradition, and because it gives us the opportunity to pull a scarlet thread from the tapestry of Scripture.

What is the Jesse Tree?

King David, son of Jesse, was one of the first and greatest kings of the nation of Israel. As with all kingdoms of old, David’s reign eventually ended, and after generations, the house of Jesse was little more than a stump of a once-mighty tree.

And yet…

The roots of that stump drank from a cistern of promise. From the stump of Jesse’s family tree would come a branch bearing life-giving fruit.

The Jesse Tree itself is a symbol to remind us of God’s promise. And the biblical figures and symbols of the Jesse Tree transform a Christmas tree into a “family tree” of Christ.

Only a privileged few learned to read and write during the Middle Ages. Fewer still learned to read Latin, the primary language of Sacred Scripture in many countries, and of the Church. The common people enjoyed other means to learn about God's works and to help them grow closer to the mysteries they celebrated at church.

The stories of Scripture were lived, retold, and depicted in art. The first dated illustration of the Tree of Jesse is found in an illustrated manuscript, Vyšehrad Codex of Bohemia from the year 1086. You can read more about Advent and the Twelve Days of Christmas here.

For many years we added tiny, handmade ornaments to an equally tiny faux pine tree. When the ornaments, sculpted from homemade salt dough, began to disintegrate, we re-made them with oven-bake clay and found a light-up cherry tree with branches just right for hanging. For the crafty among you, tutorials for all our clay ornaments are right here at Joy of Advent! (If reading by email, click here for inspiration!)

Printable Ornaments

Less crafty? We created printable ornaments to accompany each reading. One set uses stained glass art, while the other uses biblical symbols designed to appeal to children. Find them at our Christmas Shop!

Advent Calendars

For an even simpler celebration, we’ve created a printable Advent Calendar. Color in each day, or print stickers for an easy, hands-on activity, also available in our shop.

A Glance Ahead …

If you’d like to craft Jesse Tree ornaments or simply want to see what figures we’ll cover, the Advent and Christmas topics and symbols are listed in the graphics below. Two holidays important to Catholic Christians are highlighted in our book, but not included in the lists below. Do you know which they are?

A subscriber Exclusive: Printable Jesse Tree Cards to Simplify your Celebration!

Are You Ready to experience Advent?

Look for the first email on December 1st and be sure to add us as a contact to ensure all your emails bypass the spam folder. (Tip: to easily add us, just reply to this email with “Merry Christmas!”)

You Can Help share the Joy of Advent!

We invite you to forward this email to friends, family, networks, and to share Joy of Advent on social media. Thank you for helping us share the joy!

If you experience growth or transformation over the season, please consider supporting our mission so that others might also benefit.