Creation and Advent Studies & Curriculum
From Devotionals to Picture Books, Advent Resources for our Good Creation
Advent is here! Let the wonder and waiting begin. I can smell the evergreen wreaths and crisping air from my Oregon home. In my heart, anticipation grows as I look forward to living the story of Christmas again this year.
Christmas and Advent are holy days of faith. But the reality is I will be bombarded with every possible kind of red dye and tinsel before the season is over. Some of this is welcome—festivities!! But in other ways, I struggle with the emptiness of a shop-walk story that only serves a consumeristic bottom line. The risk, as always, for the Christian celebrating Advent and Christmas, is not to get caught up in the consumer pressures to buy—plan—wrap—buy as Christmas day approaches. Without pause and reflection, we risk Advent disappearing as quickly as the eggnog and lose the opportunity to really lean in.
The challenge, then, as always, is finding stories and studies that offer us real Christmas—of wonder and faith—and the opportunity to experience the wait and hope that becomes the promise fulfilled, the Christ child born on earth.
This post is an effort then to bring us all back to earth—this good earth—where Jesus was born. The hope is to remember that during Advent we stand alongside Joseph and Mary, who are sharing together a journey and a pregnancy. They are like us, human beings walking on a dusty path counting the days until their baby is born.
Alongside Joseph and Mary is the entire creation. If we lean into the story in the traditional time/place, we are walking toward Bethlehem in December. We are walking through fields of windflower and sage, knotweed and mustard. The sheep bump along the path before being taken up to hilly pasture. There are sandgrouse and wood-pigeons everywhere. Joseph and Mary knew what we seek to re-learn, that their child would be born next to the moths and lambs and bees of God’s creation.
This selection of resources is gathered with all of this in mind. I seek the wonder of everyday Advent, in order to deepen this holy time to something more.
Below find Advent Calendars & Activities, Curriculum recommends, picture books for children, and links to more:
Advent Calendars & Activities
Eco-Advent Activities. From 2017 but still very helpful, 25 Eco-Friendly Advent Calendar Activities that can be utilized for the family home or in church for activities for all ages.
Food Multiplied! This one is sometimes called a ‘reverse’ Advent Calendar. Place a can or box of food in a basket every day during Advent, then donate the food to a food pantry. Why? Food justice is very much a part of creation justice—God provided food to sustain every living creature, including humans! No one should be hungry.
Multiply Greeting Cards. Break out old magazines and look for pictures of plants and animals to cut out. Cut recycled paper into card-sizes. Fold in half and use the cut-out pictures to decorate the front. On the inside, write a Merry Christmas message. Create these cards during Advent, then take those cards to a rehab center or nursing home on Christmas Eve and share with the residents. Why? God created animals and plants not one at a time, but as a whole community (ecosystem!). Elders can feel isolated at Christmas time. The animals and plants on the card, remind all of us that we are a community—a whole creation—at Christmastime.
Advent Joy Garden. Another great idea from 2017, A Joy Spiral for Advent. This succulent garden can be created by a study group over time, in the home setting, or as a one-time burst for the youth group. Plant succulents and paint rocks with words of hope! Why? Gardens are paradise! As you create, be intentional about the living things in the garden—plants and microbes—and how God created all. Reflect also on the stones, which reflect billions of years of life on this good earth.
Mental Health Advent Calendar. This idea came from helpspring.com, and it is a Multiplying Advent Calendar designed to lift your heart and spirit: Free Advent Calendar that Reduces Loneliness and Isolation. This calendar will need a little bit of adapting to speak to climate grief in particular. All the same, this calendar encourages us to reach out to others which is really important over the holidays and in grappling with big stressors such as climate change.
Laudato Si Calendar. The Laudato Si Movement has created a 2023 Advent Calendar that is devotional with daily prayer and action. You will need to register with them to download this resource. The Calendar offers a range of activities, including how to learn more about the Laudato Si efforts, engage with COP28, and take simple but meaningful steps toward care for our planet.
Advent Studies & Devotionals
World Hunger Study - ELCA. A key global ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America addresses world hunger. Adding to their many resources, they created a World Hunger Advent study for 2023 (with a Spanish translation). Accompanying the study is an Advent Calendar and resource packet. Find the links on their main page.
Daily Earthcare Devotional. From Presbyterian Earthcare Witness a 2023 devotional for Advent beginning on November 27th. Each day offers a short reading for reflection, a prayer, and an action. It is free to download, or you can get it in print. This page includes the link to the 2023 resource as well as to and prior years.
Cultivating Hope. Young Clergywomen International has developed at Advent study free and online: Cultivating Hope (Cultivating Hope, Peace, Joy, Love, and Light) with lesson, prayer, and hymn each week, including one on Christmas Eve.
Indigenous Advent Series. From the Chinook Winds region of The Uniting Church of Canada comes a series of sermons, one each Advent Week, from Rev. Tony Snow. This is not a study, but a group could gather to listen to and discuss one sermon a week. The 2022 sermons are online, the 2023 sermons will be preached this December with the links added. The sermons are based in scripture, and explore Indigenous and environmental themes.
All Creation Waits. A daily devotional from Paraclete Press, All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss and illustrated by David G. Klein, turns to nature as exemplar in resilience and beauty when seasons grow cold or dark. There is now also a children’s edition, The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings—Children’s Edition, also by Gayle Boss, illustrated by Sharon Spitz.
Advent Themes Centering Creation. In All Earth Is Waiting: Good News for God's Creation at Advent Katie Z. Dawson creates a study on hope and climate change, speaking to her own experiences and reflection that the good news of Jesus’s birth was heralded for all creation.
Find more Advent and Christmas Worship and Devotional Resources for prior years from the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement. And a trove of great resources can be found on the Western North Carolina Conference library site.
Picture Books
Most picture books for children fall into three categories when it comes to Christmas. One is an illustrated story from the scriptures. Another one speaks to general or universal themes of community, light and love, but may or may not reference the infant Jesus. The third category of Christmas books are mass-market consumer stories that are often fun, but definitely do not have anything to do with faith.
In choosing the books below, I drew these books from the second category. I am guessing if you are here, you already have favorites that tell the biblical story. After that, there were no picture books that I could find on Advent and God’s call to care for creation together (with the exception of Song of the Stars). As such, the books here speak to more universal themes. I have included ideas of how Christmas values can be drawn from the books for a faithful lesson.
You will also notice the books include many different kinds of Christmas settings and main characters. The climate crisis impacts all living things on a global scale. Our efforts must include renewed care, understanding, and empathy for each other—in other words, getting to know our neighbors better.
Snow Globe Wishes by Erin Dealey, illustrator Claire Shorrock. This book doesn’t mention Christmas, but it is set in the midst of the first snow of winter with a message of community care and peace on earth. This book can be part of a conversation about the changes in climate. When it snows, the power goes out and the family has to get creative for warmth. This is reminiscent of new storms in areas unused to snow, such as Texas. In those times, strength and resilience can be found in being part of a community. Advent then, is a time of coming together and celebrating, and finding community, similar to how people came together and made community at the manger.
The Christmas coat : memories of my Sioux childhood by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, illustrated by Ellen Beier. This book is built around a common Advent experience, the efforts in congregation to have food drives and coat drives so the church can give ‘coats to kids’ and others who need them. This story is the true remembrance of the author, an Indigenous girl who wishes she could have one of the coats to be given away. She learns a Christmas lesson about giving. For children who do not have an Indigenous family or experiences, this book builds cultural empathy and shared understanding. Building these types of empathy connections will be vital to addressing the climate crisis. Thanks to Rev. Tura Foster Gillespie for this book recommendation.
Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrator Alison Jay tells the story of waiting by depicting animals, both wild and domestic, around the world. The whole world seems to wait, and finally the story settles at the manger with the birth of the Prince of Peace. The Star shines over all. This book depicts infant Jesus as well as Mary and Joseph. This book is a lovely one to talk about how Christmas is for all creation.
What's coming for Christmas? by Kate Banks, illustrated by Georg Hallensleben is a story of Christmas at a snowy home and barn and includes a family preparing for Christmas day. The animals experience anticipation, too, that something is coming, and a baby animal is born. This book, too, as the one above, can be used to talk about how Christmas is for all creation.
Christmas farm by Mary Lyn Ray, illustrator Barry Root. This story is about a family with a Christmas tree farm. It celebrates family life on this special farm, and the work of the family as they plant trees and care for them. The trees are harvested after 10 years. The opportunity of this book perhaps is to talk about the importance of planting trees and taking care of them. While at the end these trees are cut down to become Christmas trees, in reading the story you could offer the children a ‘what if’? Perhaps we cut down too many trees. What if these trees were allowed to grow? What would it take to plant a forest and celebrate every year as it grows and grows and grows.
A Child is Born by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrator Floyd Cooper. I bought this book a decade ago and love it still. We don’t necessarily think of this book as a book having to do with environmental or creation justice, but pause a minute to reflect. This book is a gorgeous representation of worth, dignity, wonder and joy—with a black holy family at the center. An ongoing challenge in majority-white churches is to practice anti-racism with whole-hearted storytelling. This book does this simply by being a beautiful book. You can simply present this book to children as it is, and perhaps also share how this book brings you joy. For children of color, they will see themselves reflected as holy in the pages. The take-away is the simple truth that human beings everywhere are beings of divine worth.
The Miracle of the First Poinsettia: A Mexican Christmas Story by Joanne Oppenheim, illustrator Fabian Negrin. This is another book I have had for a decade. I love this book, but more than that this book brings the natural world together with Christmas through the ‘weeds’ that end up being very special and important. The story is set in Mexico and available in Spanish, it tells a story with universal themes of Christmas, and gives an engaging telling of where poinsettias come from. It includes a traditional Christmas song from Mexico on the back pages. Again, representation is important and this book features a Mexican family and is set in Mexico. For children in majority-white contexts, this builds essential cross cultural understanding and empathy.
The Snail and the Whale, Festive Edition by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler. This book has the least of all to do with Christmas. It doesn’t mention Advent or anything at all. The ‘festive’ part is that the writer/illustrators have created a special edition for wintertime—so for children south of the equator, this may not resonate. So, why am I including the book here? Because it is a sweet story. Children north of the equator will associate the snowy ocean and icebergs with Christmastime. Children will soak up the sweet, nature-positive story of a whale and a snail who form a friendship. And when it is read in church, the storyteller can talk about how Christmas is for all creation. Jesus came for us, yes. and for the whales and the snails, too. Yes, even whales and snails!
Tree of Cranes written and illustrated by Allen Say. Like The Christmas Coat, above, this story is an autobiographical tale of a Japanese boy whose mother folds paper cranes and decorates a Christmas tree. This story, again, does the vital work of showing how much Christmas means to people. From there, we can build understanding across borders (language and culture) and make friends among people we might otherwise not have the opportunity to know better. There are elements of nature in the story, fish and trees and cranes. There is also the heart-filling love and wonder of a real-world boy sharing Christmas with his family. For Japanese children, this story will be a celebration of things they know at Christmastime. For others, themes to draw out from this book include learning what it might be like to ‘wait’ and ‘hope’ from a different place or experience. Children could learn some real facts about cranes and the places cranes live in the world. And for an activity, children and adults alike can fold paper cranes to hang on the church Christmas tree, and at home.
For many more books featuring holy days stories and themes, I recommend the children’s book searchable database at Teaching Cultural Compassion, a list personally curated by Rev. Tura Foster Gillespie. She also has a list of books she pulled out addressing the environment.
Further Resources
Thank you to Andrew Hartley for gathering these!
Creation Justice Ministries Resources Hub - Bible study guides, briefs/factsheets, children/youth, curricula/lessons, Earth Day Sunday, Ideas for action, liturgies & prayers, real-world stories, preaching, bulletin inserts, videos, green lectionary podcast, resources by issue topic, resources by event/season
Disciples Home Mission Resources - Resources for Church, Study, Action, Science, Newsletters
Interfaith Creation Care South Metro Twin Cities (Minneapolis / St. Paul) - Videos, Music, Quotes, Prayers, Poetry, Newsletters, Sustainable Solutions, Climate for Families, Stories
Interfaith Power and Light Resources - Congregational Solar, Blog, Federal Energy Funding, Electrifying your Home, Religious Statements, Educational Resources, Worship Resources, Book Recommendations, IPL National Store, Conference of the Parties
Lausanne / World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Network Resources - English resources: Teaching, worship, prayer, Eco Church UK, Whitten’s “On the Care of Creation,” LEAD Asia Environmental Guides/Best Practices
Sustainable Preaching - Sermon suggestions, Documents & links, Organizations
Yale Climate Connections: Religion & Morality - Articles and radio stories about the moral, religious, and ethical dimensions of climate change
Season of Creation Resources - For celebrating Season of Creation: Christian Denomination-specific resources, promotionals, liturgies, advocacy, activities
Christianity & Climate Change with Dr. Katharine Hayhoe - Videos about facilitating conversations on creation care & climate change. Download-able
Climate Change & the Weightier Matters - John Cook speaks about a Christian view on climate change, & exposes misinformation of Cornwall Alliance
Let’s Talk Faith & Climate - Video about connecting faith & climate, & ways to talk about them
The Pope, the Environmental Crisis, and Frontline Leaders - The Letter: Laudato Si Film - Video following 4 voices about the planetary crisis & the toll it’s taking on nature & people
United Women in Faith Just Energy 4 All Webinars - Webinars on advocating for just energy
United Women in Faith Just Energy 4 All Program - Guidance on urging elected leaders to advance climate justice and just energy
US Conference of Catholic Bishops - Prayers on Care of Creation - Prayer Resources
Young Evangelicals for Climate Action Resources - Worship, Prayer, Bible Study, Videos, Books
Preaching for God’s World - Sermon notes & lectionary readings
Following Jesus in a Warming World - Kyle Meyaard Schaap on Un-politicizing Climate Change & Re-Biblicizing It
Many blessings to you on your Advent journey and celebration! Peace, Love, Joy, Hope, Justice,
—Richenda
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