“Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting—that is, of hopefully doing without—will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment.”  {Dietrich Bonhoeffer}

Christmas is a season of anticipation, of waiting.  We anticipate the different celebrations and traditions we hold dear, and we remember the anticipation the Israelites felt as they waited for centuries for their promised Rescuer, the Messiah.  It’s also a season of preparation – cooking our favorite recipes, choosing the right gifts, and planning activities that help build a little bit of magic and suspense into the season.  And, hopefully, those preparations develop in us a heart posture of remembering Christ, His coming and the whole reason why He did.  

So, in the spirit of helping our community prepare our hearts well for what is a distinctly unique Christmas season, we’ve put together this resource list to help you prepare for Christmas.  We hope they serve you well and help prepare you to celebrate with anticipation and thankfulness the baby who came over 2,000 years ago to save us all.  

Our Favorite Music

• “O Come Let us Adore Him” (feat. Chandler Moore & Jekalyn Carr) – Maverick City Music, or listen to their new album “Maverick City Christmas” here.  
• “Mothers and Shepherds” by Common Hymnal
• Shane and Shane and Phil Wickham 2019 Christmas Concert (We know you may miss being able to go to an actual Christmas concert this year, so maybe give listening to this one a try.)  
• “Hope is Alive”, by Ellie Holcomb
• Future of Forestry, Christmas playlist (Beautiful live musical performances to help align your heart posture for the Christmas season.)  

Books and Bible Reading Plans 

A quick word of encouragement here: if the book says it has 25 or more daily readings, and you are starting too late in the month to finish by December 25, that’s ok!  We can celebrate Jesus coming to earth all year long, so even if you won’t finish till January 25, read on! 

• Loving My Actual Christmas by Alexandra Kuykendall  (You may have seen Alexandra’s writing on Grit & Virtue before.  We appreciate her perspective on loving the Christmas that you actually have and think you will too. You can also download this free Advent Bible Study from her website.)  
• Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us Then, Here, and Now by Scott Erickson, foreword by Morgan Harper-Nichols  (This book has 25 days of reflections and art to help you “discover how the wonder of God-with-Us is still happening today.”)
• The Bible Project: Advent Plan on YouVersion, by The Bible Project.  (This simple 28-day YouVersion reading plan is one you can do on your own or with others, including older children and teens  Each week begins with a short video that explains the theme of each week.)
• God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas by Dietrich Bonhoeffer  (This one is a treasure, composed of Bonhoeffer’s various writings concerning the season of Advent as well as Scripture verses to accompany each day’s entry.)

Books and Advent Guides for Families

• Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas by Ann Voskamp
• Jesus Story Book Bible Advent reading guide (This is a free guide you can print out to pair with the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones.)
  • Spanish version of the Jesus Story Book Bible is also available here!  
  • Or, if you don’t want to print it all out, you can purchase The Jesus Storybook Bible A Christmas Collection: Stories, songs, and reflections for the Advent season, where they have compiled all the stories for you and paired them with different songs and reflections to go through together as a family
• God’s Very Good Idea by Trillia Newbell (This book is a beautiful telling of the gospel, which is really the heart of the Christmas season.) 
• Storybooks for Advent by Arnold Ytreeide (This book series contains 4 books but is designed to read only 1 each year with 1 chapter a day to read.  The cliffhangers build anticipation each night and will leave your whole family wondering what will happen)          Books within the Series, listed in order:

• • Jotham’s Journey: A Family Story for Advent
  • Bartholomew’s Passage: A Family Story for Advent
  • Tabitha’s Travels: A Family Story for Advent 
  • Ishtar’s Odyssey: A Family Story for Advent 

Movie Night

• The Chosen Special Christmas Episode  (If you aren’t familiar with The Chosen yet, do yourself a favor and watch it.  You will fall in love with this fictional imagining of what Jesus’ life was like based on the biblical accounts in the gospels.  You can start with the Christmas special, but we’re pretty sure you will want to watch Season 1 too.)  
• The Star (An animated telling of the Christmas story from the perspective of the animals, perfect to enjoy snuggled up with little ones.) 

Whatever you choose to do to prepare your heart for this Christmas season, we pray that God will fill your heart with the light that He came to this dark world to bring.  May you experience His peace here on the earth, His joy in the midst of whatever is going on, His love that was so deep for you that He left heaven to come here for you.  For us.  For this world.  May you be blessed in knowing that Jesus is our Immanuel, God with us.  Always.