Simply, Advent Simply, Christmas
If you could choose just two favorites (events, traditions, etc) for the holidays, what would they be?
When we focus on just a few things, those things become more meaningful. We can remove the clutter and experience them more fully. This advent season, the planning team was craving a simple, but not sparse, holiday season. We long for the relaxed enjoyment of beloved traditions, when they aren't cluttered with too many other things. It's like the beauty of a winter landscape, with the vast white of snow and just the evergreen trees. It's just 2 things, trees and snow, but it is beautiful in its simplicity. We invite you to show up and relax into a season that is Simply, Advent and Simply, Christmas.
When we focus on just a few things, those things become more meaningful. We can remove the clutter and experience them more fully. This advent season, the planning team was craving a simple, but not sparse, holiday season. We long for the relaxed enjoyment of beloved traditions, when they aren't cluttered with too many other things. It's like the beauty of a winter landscape, with the vast white of snow and just the evergreen trees. It's just 2 things, trees and snow, but it is beautiful in its simplicity. We invite you to show up and relax into a season that is Simply, Advent and Simply, Christmas.
Here are some ways you can enjoy our advent theme:
- Make it a point to attend all of the advent and Christmas worship services, to focus your season on the stories and songs of our faith.
- Use the Simply, Advent calendar (below)
- Identify your two favorite aspects of the holiday season and say yes when an opportunity comes up to include these in your life.
- Say no to things that don't center your season on your favorite things.
- Centering our practices in music and story
- Focusing our visual and space experiences on the simple (not sparse) beauty of winter landscapes
- Doing our best to make as many of our events plug-and-play as we can. If you have time to help with an event, talk to Pastor Michelle. Using your time to allow others to just show up and relax is an amazing gift.
Simply, Advent (calendar)
Here are 24 simple things you can do to be present in your Advent season.
This is not a to-do list, to be checked off until complete.
These are suggestions for little moments of joy and relaxation.
Say yes to the ones that bring you joy and skip the ones that feel like just one more thing to do.
(Art Credit: Kim Jore)
This is not a to-do list, to be checked off until complete.
These are suggestions for little moments of joy and relaxation.
Say yes to the ones that bring you joy and skip the ones that feel like just one more thing to do.
(Art Credit: Kim Jore)
Be fully present in a worship service
Call someone you know who lives too far to visit and sing a Christmas song together over the phone
Decorate your home with Christmas decorations
Do an Advent or Christmas madlib
Find something in your house that is still usable, but that you don’t need, and find a place to give it away.
Go on a walk with everyone in your household
Have a long conversation with someone
Have a picnic dinner next to your Christmas tree
Let someone get in front of you in a line.
Make a favorite family recipe
Make a playlist for your next family event
Make your favorite hot beverage and sit and enjoy it
Play a game with a friend
Put an extra item in your cart when you go grocery shopping and donate it to Ruth’s cart
Read a favorite book
Read the Nativity story from one of the gospels
Say no to something someone asks you to do that you are unwilling to do
Say yes to something someone asks you to do that you are willing to do
Sit and enjoy a sunrise or sunset
Take a selfie with everyone in your household and post it on the social media platform of your choice.
Tour your neighborhood and find the best Christmas lights
Watch a Christmas movie with everyone in your household
Write a Christmas card to a loved one and mail it
Write down everything you have learned from someone and give it to them
Call someone you know who lives too far to visit and sing a Christmas song together over the phone
Decorate your home with Christmas decorations
Do an Advent or Christmas madlib
Find something in your house that is still usable, but that you don’t need, and find a place to give it away.
Go on a walk with everyone in your household
Have a long conversation with someone
Have a picnic dinner next to your Christmas tree
Let someone get in front of you in a line.
Make a favorite family recipe
Make a playlist for your next family event
Make your favorite hot beverage and sit and enjoy it
Play a game with a friend
Put an extra item in your cart when you go grocery shopping and donate it to Ruth’s cart
Read a favorite book
Read the Nativity story from one of the gospels
Say no to something someone asks you to do that you are unwilling to do
Say yes to something someone asks you to do that you are willing to do
Sit and enjoy a sunrise or sunset
Take a selfie with everyone in your household and post it on the social media platform of your choice.
Tour your neighborhood and find the best Christmas lights
Watch a Christmas movie with everyone in your household
Write a Christmas card to a loved one and mail it
Write down everything you have learned from someone and give it to them