Recommendation from Jane Grizzle

Song of the Stars tells the story of that very first Christmas… That night, the whole universe is breathless with anticipation… a rumor drifts over the open fields, a song floats over the hills, the faces of little flowers lift to the skies… it’s time! it’s time! The skies shouted it to the seas that thundered it to the waves that roared it to the great white whales that sang it to the starfish in the deep. And tiny sandpipers danced it on shining sands… “It’s time! It’s time!” On one quiet night, creation whispered a secret. Grass and bees, robins and trees all spread the word.Sheep tell their young while angels sing the song to the shepherds. Together they join in nature’s great chorus of praise to the Newborn King and The Song of the Stars. The long-awaited child has arrived!

Recommendation from Josh Bascom

The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear, and hit little kids. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant.

None of the Herdmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale (the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating) has a lot of people up in arms. But it will make this year's pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.

Don’t miss the audiobook narrated By Elaine Stritch!

Recommendation by Jen Sapunarich

This beautiful album from the Porter’s Gate features our own Paul Zach! I play it on repeat all December! Favorite tracks include: Make a Way & Simeon’s Song.

Recommendation from Lizzy Girvan

These fifty devotions invite the reader to contemplate the great themes of Christmas and the significance that the coming of Jesus has for each of us – not only during Advent, but every day. Whether dipped into at leisure or used on a daily basis, Watch for the Light gives the phrase “holiday preparations” new depth and meaning.

Recommendation by Dave Zahl

We tend to think of Advent as the season of anticipation before Christmas—and while it is that, it’s also much more. Throughout its history, the church has observed Advent as a preparation not only for the first coming of Christ in his incarnation but also for his second coming at the last day. It’s also about a third coming: the coming of Christ to meet us in our present moment, to make us holy by his Word and Sacrament.

In this short volume, priest and writer Tish Harrison Warren explores all three of these “comings” of Christ and invites us into a deeper experience of the first season of the Christian year.

Recommendation from Josh Bascom

Advent is a season of waiting and anticipation in which the waiting itself is strangely rich and fulfilling. Poetry can help us fathom the depths of Advent's many paradoxes: dark and light, emptiness and fulfilment, ancient and ever new. For every day from Advent Sunday to Christmas Day and beyond, the bestselling poet Malcolm Guite chooses a favourite poem from across the Christian spiritual and English literary traditions and offers incisive seasonal reflections on it. In the spirit of the season, he blends the familiar and the new, ranging from from spiritual classics such as Edmund Spenser, John Donne, George Herbert and Christina Rossetti, to contemporary voices Luci Shaw and Scott Cairns. His own acclaimed sequence of sonnets for the great Advent antiphons are also included.

Mockingbird Article from Jane Grizzle

Recommended by Jen Sapunarich

An EP influenced by the theology of Fleming Rutledge.

This 1517 Advent Devotional tells the stories of the clothing of the King. Stories that describe a wardrobe at once splendid and sin-stained, with fabrics that reveal who we are and cover us freely. The clothing of the King is tattered and worn and glorious in its incorruptibility. It isn’t ours, yet he gives it to us all the same.

From 1517.org: “We pray whether you use this as a personal devotional or in a group setting, that these Scripture passages and reflections provide you with a detailed view of Christ’s robe of righteousness, constructed for you on that workbench of Calvary. We’ve included an entry for every day of Advent 2023, beginning on the first Sunday of Advent and ending on Christmas Day. Each entry includes a Scripture reference, short reflection, and prayer.”

Advent, says Fleming Rutledge, is not for the faint of heart. As the midnight of the Christian year, the season of Advent is rife with dark, gritty realities. In this book, with her trademark wit and wisdom, Rutledge explores Advent as a time of rich paradoxes, a season celebrating at once Christ's incarnation and his second coming, and she masterfully unfolds the ethical and future-oriented significance of Advent for the church.

Recommended by Amanda McMillen

Narrated by the legendary Andy Griffith, the animated special The Three Wisemen is a charming re-imagination of the classic Christmas story following the three wise men on a wondrous quest to meet the newborn king. The story includes a soundtrack of holiday carols by The Brothers Cazimero and a new original song, "Just A Breath Away (Noel)," by Grammy Award-winning songwriter Jonas Myrin.

Family resources (puzzles, coloring sheets!) can be found here https://watchthethreewisemen.com/store/

Mockingbird Article from Jen Sapunarich

“If parenthood followed a liturgical calendar, then pregnancy would most certainly be Advent. The season of Advent is marked as a period of expectant waiting and preparation, for both the promised birth and second coming of Christ. Pregnancy has the same features: waiting and preparation. The miraculous thing about pregnancy is that whether you read any books or not, after about 9 months in your belly, your baby is born. The same principle is true for Advent. Whether we’re ready for it or not, stockings hung over the chimney with care, or not, Christmas arrives.”