Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Candlemas

Arrange a Posada journey, around your congregation, either throughout Advent or during the traditional period of 16–24th December. This is a lovely way to bring the figures of Mary, Joseph and the donkey into people’s homes, whilst facilitating connections between congregants, some of whom might not know each other particularly well.

The Jesse Tree is used to tell the story of Jesus’s family tree during the days of Advent. This could be done daily in your congregants’ homes and/or some key people highlighted each Sunday. Another set of lovely images, connected with the book The Greatest Gift is available online (scroll to the bottom of the page).

This could be set up in church or in people’s homes, and is inspired by this Explore and Express blogpost and its follow-up post here. Create a space to be ‘the stable’ then, from it, create a chain of rocks or shells or pompoms or anything that symbolises each day of Advent. Then, throughout advent, walk the nativity characters along each day towards the stable, and the birth of Jesus. Use your imagination and be creative!

This can be made to place in congregants’ windows during the darkening weeks of Advent. Cut a simple shape out of black A4 poster paper then place coloured tissue/crepe paper behind it. When the lights are on in the evenings, this symbol shines out to everyone who passes. Here is an example of a candle; other symbols might be star, crib, angel, stable, heart, etc.

If you have people in your congregation who sew, this wall-hanging quilt is a way for the very young to have their own Advent Wreath.

Some places create little Easter gardens for people to take home: how about a nature-based nativity scene? They could be made as big or as small as you like, and you could have a making party for people to take home their own. You might even be able to turn in into next year’s Easter garden… Here is a blogpost to explore more!

Many churches places nativity scenes in their grounds or windows. There are traditional ones or more contextual ones to choose from (see this American example). There might be ways to link your congregation’s or community’s story with the nativity in some way…or you might wish to remain traditional. You may also wish to use the same garden “stable” as a tomb in Lent/Easter.

Christmas Tree Festivals are growing in popularity and are a creative way to engage with various community groups and individuals. If Christmas trees are not your thing, then perhaps invite people to build or display nativity scenes (perhaps using recycled materials). Or find another theme to help people engage both spirituality and creativity whilst being in community.

Hide rocks painted with a baby Jesus (or another image, if you wish) around your community. Include a website address to invite people to your Christmas service(s). You could either invite people to take home a rock or find a large number, depending on what you want to achieve. Some examples to look at: Salisbury; Essex; Portsmouth.

Create a trail around your community, with laminated posters or shop windows, with a ‘Lesson’ quote, perhaps an associated image, and a QR link to a YouTube video of an associated carol.

This is an idea from Engage Worship, which combines the opening of Advent calendar doors with a kind of treasure hunt to tell the Christmas story.

Make doors out of cardboard (about A5 in size) and decorated them in different styles. Each door has a part of the Christmas story printed inside. Give everyone a sheet printed with the Christmas story, but with many of the words missing. People then find the doors to fill in the blanks and once everyone had done this, gather back together to read the story aloud.

This might sound obvious or old-fashioned, but how might you encourage the community to join in carols together, particularly outside? Around a community tree, in local shopping area, around different churches, or across different streets?

This is a book published in the USA in 2014, and is based on the idea of the Jesse Tree. There are resources online to complement the book, which could be used in a stand-alone way, although the book offers for each day of December: an image, scripture, a reflection, quotes, and three questions for individual reflection.

This is a resource that can be used across all generations to encourage a different way of praying through Advent. It is relatively easy to download the images and perhaps amend as needed: 2025 sheets are now available.

Each day of Advent, take one of the names/titles of Jesus and reflect on how that conveys who Jesus is for us, and therefore what the incarnation means. There are various ways to do this, and a growing number of resources, here are two: CPO Candle and Card; Harlequin Art.

In 2020, the Scottish Bible Society produced a 20-part audio drama, with each episode being 3–5mins long, called “The Advent”. It is a professional production, which interweaves the stories of nativity characters, Scripture readings, and our own lives with a distinctive Scottish flavour. More information is available on the website, and the whole series can be found via most podcast platforms.

Many people still like using a book of reflections each day or week during Advent. The most popular are those published by Church House Publishing, Archbishop of York’s Advent Book, and Wild Goose (Iona) Publications, which publishing many as e-books, too. See the New for 2025 list above for many of those published this year.

A growing number of organisations use websites and social media to share images, memes, scripture, music or written reflections for Advent. During this busy period, maybe you know of someone you already follow whom you can share…including the Diocese of Edinburgh!

Congregations who use Advent Candles do some variation of: four red, four purple, three purple and one rose candle, plus a white one for Christmas Day. These candles have varying meanings, depending on who you ask. Often it is Hope-Peace-Joy-Love (although you sometimes see ‘peace’ and ‘joy’ around the other way). An alternative is the Patriarchs, the Prophets, John the Baptist, and Mary (in the Roman Catholic tradition it is the Prophets, Bethlehem, Mary, and the Angels). Here are resources from JPIT for 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The Methodist Church also have some liturgical resources, with words and music.

You may wish to include additional liturgical or all-age resources as part of your Sundays in Advent services. CTBI offer extensive links. All Age Worship Resources offers some prayers, scripts and other materials. Re-Worship holds and signposts a who range of prayers, litanies and ideas. USPG offers a range of prayers, litanies and images from around the world.

The Scottish Bible Society have produced a series of worship and all-age resources, based on Luke, for the four Sundays of Advent and the First Sunday after Christmas. These are free to download here.

There are also bundles of resources for 2023 from Longniddry Parish Church; the Methodist Church, and the Salvation Army.

In 2023, Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre published a volume of their Cornerstone journal entitled Christmas Amidst Massacres. In it, a range of theologians reflect on war in dialogue with the Christmas story.

Sabeel-Kairos UK held a 2024 Advent series entitled Palestine-Longing for Peace, which included some interviews with young Palestinians. Their YouTube channel has a range of other videos here.

Advent 4 is a tricky Sunday for some, as some congregants want us to be doing Christmas worship but, for others, there is a desire to honour all four Sundays of Advent. Here are a couple of ideas to add a feeling of Christmas into Advent 4:

• Hold a crib service at the end of the main service.
• Have your tree up during the service with lights on it but not switched on; finish the service with some words from John 1 and switch on the lights then. People can stay back and decorate the tree thereafter.

Holding a nativity service can be stressful and sometimes we want to do something slightly different. There are so many scripts and skits available, it can be hard to know what to use and it takes time to trawl through them all. Here are some tried and tested options: please share what has worked for you.

• Christian Aid’s What-if-ity
• Salvation Army skits
• Messy Church Gingerbread Man Adventure
• Messy Nativity
• Sparks of Hope Christmas Resource Book
• Foolproof Creative Arts have a poem, sketches, play.
• ‘Round the Back‘ is a short skit

There are, of course, many books you can buy, too.

Pop-Up or ‘scratch’ nativities are becoming more popular as the ability to rehearse reduces. Here are two options: Engage Worship; Fay Rowland.

There are a number of scripts available for using chocolate bars and/or sweets to help tell the story, and share some treats with the congregation: just remember not all confectionary types are available everywhere! Graham Rutter; Mike Claridge; Ian Seymour. You prefer to use a Godly Play approach, with the Holy Family and the Mystery of Christmas available to borrow from the Diocesan Office.

You could tell the story in a way that is completely wrong and invite the congregation to correct you… it’s even better if you have a person in training for ministry to do this bit! One example is below.

This is good to hold between 4 and 6pm on Christmas Eve. Again, there are various ideas; here are just some. All Age Worship: Jesus is Born; St Alban’s Diocese; order of service for St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Crib characters could be handed to congregants as they enter church, or you could distribute them once everyone is in to ensure a mix of ages. You could hide nativity characters around the church/gardens (actual figures, or picture cards, or use another media, like ping pong balls!) and ask people to find them, then bring out when telling the story. Or wrap up figures in a pass-the-parcel type of way, passing whilst singing a hymn/carol and then tell that part of the story.

Blue Christmas can be held any time during Advent, usually second half. People tend to focus on loved ones who have died, but it does not need to be that specific. Inclusion of the Eucharist may appropriate. Here are some example liturgies: Andrew Pratt & Marjorie Dobson; Lisa Degrenia.

Longest Night is a variation on a Blue Christmas service but specifically takes place on 21 December, and is more likely to hold broader areas of loss and grief than death of loved ones. A link to a liturgy filmed and used during pandemic lock-downs is below. Other liturgies are: Dan Nighswander; St Mary with St Alban; Jeffrey Spencer.

The first Christingle service took place in 1968 and it has become a popular service for families. Many combine with the crib service on Christmas Eve. More information about it can be found via The Children’s Society. Key things to consider are: what type of service will it be; what else, if anything, will happen during the service; how the Christingle elements will be distributed (laid out on tables, in wee bags, or otherwise); whether the candles will be real, electric or glow sticks; when you will light real candles. Free resources to help with planning can be found via The Children’s Society. If you wish to raise money for a children’s charity in Scotland, Aberlour have resources.

You may also wish to hold your Christingle at Epiphany or Candlemas, rather than Christmas Eve/Day.

This style of service began in Truro in 1880 and was made popular by King’s College, Cambridge, which held its first service in 1918. Readings, orders of service and information can be found via CTBI and King’s College.

It may be that you wish to be more creative with the readings to emphasis a different narrative thread, e.g. motherhood or creation, or perhaps start with Genesis 1 rather than 3. Below is an example based on theme of ‘Angels’.

Here are some thoughts from the Church of Scotland in 2022, including from their Mission Partner in Galilee.

There are various ministries which offer resources for different periods. Many are geared towards children or young people (second list), but many are often suitable for all ages with a little ingenuity. Here is a list of some of them.

• CTBI resource links
• Longniddry Parish Church
• Spill the Beans
• Sanctuary First have a backlog of themed resources, e.g. 2024: All Is Bright, 2023: The Last Straw, etc.
• BRF Ministries: Advent; Christmas
• Messy Church
• Methodist Church
• Salvation Army
• GodSpace resource links
• The Greatest Christmas: go to bottom of page for printables
• Hallow (Roman Catholic)
• A Sanctified Art
• Sacredise
• The Will to Dream from Illustrated Ministry, who have a whole backlog of Advent/Christmas resources as well.
• enfleshed
• Engage Worship
• Praying Advent in the Ignatian tradition with Creighton Online Ministries

• Why Christmas? is a website with lots of info!
• Bible Society
• SU: Scotland; England & Wales
• Diocese of Blackburn resources (many free)
• Godventure
• Muddy Church
• Reflectionary: Advent; Christmas
• Prayer Spaces in Schools
• Sun Hats & Wellie Boots: Advent; Christmas
• Faith in Kids
• Lost Sheep books

Some tried-and-tested places to get affordable items for this period include: Infinite Store; The Works; Baker Ross; The Range. It would also be good to reuse or repurpose wherever appropriate to reduce the waste that is often generated during the Advent-Christmas period.

• Scottish Bible Society Advent podcast
• Stushie Art: small annual subscription
• Jeremy Thomas
• Global Christian Worship: Advent; Christmas
• Art & Theology
• Vanderbilt has images for each Sunday of RCL.

• Busted Halo Advent here and here
• Christmas Sand Art
• Story of Christmas (Saddleback Kids)
• Makaton-signed Christmas songs
• Makaton for church settings

• Royal School of Church Music
• Singing from the Lectionary suggestions
• Trinity College’s Songs for Sunday
• Resound Worship
• Hymns by Carolyn Winfrey

The traditions around Epiphany vary across the world. The links below outline some and might spark ideas for ways to celebrate.

• Blog: The Forgotten Feast of Christmastide
• Blog: 8 International Ways to Celebrate Epiphany

This blessing of a home or building is usually done on either Twelfth Night or Epiphany itself, although it may be an opportunity to visit various people between Epiphany and Lent and bless their homes. Below are various resources with liturgies, prayers, and explanations.

• Rev Bosco Peters at Liturgy
• Godspace
• Buildfaith
• Interrupting the Silence
• Article by Church of England on increase in this ritual

Christingle works well at Epiphany, if not done around Christmas Day: see links under ‘Other Services’ above. A format similar to ‘Lessons and Carols’ can be a good way to draw Christmastide to a close: here is an order of service from Holy Trinity, Stirling. And there is a tradition of Epiphany being ‘Women’s Christmas’! Here are some resources from Jan Richardson.

• Some lovely artwork/colouring from Stushie Art
• An Epiphany Box craft for all ages
• Craft and drama resources from BRF Ministries
• Ideas for Celebrating Epiphany with Children
• Ideas and links from the Salvation Army

Candlemas is the least written about and resourced of the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany period, yet it can be known by three titles: Candlemas; the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple; or the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It might be that you wish to explore what all three mean or pick one to focus upon. A couple of blogs that explore this feast in a little detail are below.

• An extract from a book by Prof Eamon Duffy.
• Liturgy written from a New Zealand perspective.

Christingle works well at Candlemas, if not done at another time: see links under ‘Other Services’ above. Some other resources are linked below.

• Downloadable from Wild Goose/Iona.
• Music, art and more from Global Christian Worship

• Prayers and activities from Roots on the Web
• Creative ideas from Flame Creative Kids
• Paper ‘Candlemas candle‘
• Resources from BRF Ministries