A Virtual Advent Calendar
Art, poetry, and music to mark the days until Christmas
Can you believe it’s December? I confess I have a lot to do to get ready for Christmas. As I shop and bake and cross things off lists, however, I don’t want to lose sight of why I’m celebrating.
In 2008 as a devotional exercise, I created a virtual advent calendar on my blog. People seemed to like it, so I posted links to it year after year. Now that my blog is archived on Substack, I decided it was time to update the calendar. In doing so, I added some of my favorite Christmas music to the original entries of poetry and music.
I modeled my calendar on the traditional English “Nine Lessons and Carols” service, which starts each Christmas Eve with a retelling of the Fall of humanity—the reason why we need a Savior in the first place. It then focuses on Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah before moving to the Christmas story told in the Gospels.
Of course, 9 doesn’t go into 25 evenly, so I did my best. Instead of clogging up your inbox by sending out a post every day, I’ve included them all in one place so you can go through them at your leisure.
December 1—The Expulsion from the Garden
December 2—The Lone and Dreary World
December 9—Some Children See Him
December 12—Annunciation to the Shepherds
December 14—The Shepherds Worship
Happy Advent and Merry Christmas!
Bravo, Luisa, this is lovely. You might like Wayfare's advent series too:
https://www.wayfaremagazine.org/p/come-lord-jesus
https://www.wayfaremagazine.org/p/choosing-hope
I just shared this on my Facebook account. I love this so much.