For several ​ADVENT VIDEOS for children, teens, and adults
plus FILM CLIPS to share from the Nativity Story
​CLICK HERE
For your own Advent enrichment, note these "Four Gifts for You This Advent" from Loyola Press.
Find these free downloadable and printable resources from RCL Benziger here:
Ideas for Teachers and Catechists
Prayer for the New Church Year
The Jesse Tree
The O Antiphons
Las Posadas
Prayer for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Find Advent prayers, lessons, and activities for children and teens from Sadlier Religion here and here.
Click Here for an Advent family/community event called Gather In My Name.

Advent Webinars

 Rewrapping Advent : Discover Tangible Ways to Help Others Enhance the Advent Season 
A Season of Waiting For and With: Join Deacon Matt Halbach as we learn to unwrap the gift of presence this Advent Season.
 



​A wonderful FAMILY GAME to get parents and children talking about traditions and memories.  From Good Ground Press. 

Scroll down THIS PAGE for other free Advent resources from Good Ground. 
Get 10 meaningful and doable Advent traditions for families to practice HERE. From Busted Halo
Get the Catholic Relief Services​ online Advent calendar for the whole family HERE.
For adults, Creghton University offers dozens of prayer resources and scripture reflections for Advent HERE. 
Get video reflections, podcasts, online retreats, and more from Ignatian Spirituality HERE. 
Praying in Color has free Advent calendars and handouts to lead sessions for adults and children: 


​Click here for a free family Advent activity book
from the Archdiocese of New York

For An Advent Reading Plan, click here. 

You can alo read one chapter of the Gospel of Luke each day of December. 

Holiday Grief Resources are available.

Advent Feasts and Saints

Saint Nicholas, December 6

This video done beautifully in the style of shadow puppets shows the essence of the life and legacy of Saint Nicholas. 
Reflect on "The Life and Legends of Saint Nicholas" here from Loyola Press. 
Find a prayer and poster for younger children to share here from Loyola Press. 
Enter more deeply into what we really know about the saint here at Franciscan Media. 
The ST. NICHOLAS CENTER has wonderful activities, prayers, articles and more for families, churches, and schools. Find it here.  Some of their craft and activity ideas follow: 
  • St. Nicholas Clay Pot Figure involves terra cotta pots, paint, felt, and gold pipe cleaners. If done with younger children, this craft would require advanced preparations. Elementary.
  • St. Nicholas Bingo appropriate for even young children because it uses symbols as well as words. Could be used in an intergenerational event. All ages, preschool and up.  
  • Activity Teaching Sheet: Who is St. Nicholas? provides a variety of fill-in-the-blank sentences relating to the life of St. Nicholas as well as a word bank. Great learning tool. Upper elementary and middle school.
  • Story: “The Real Santa” covers the traditional stories of his life in simple, easy to understand language. Preschool and elementary.
  • St. Nicholas Paper Bag Puppet involves only a few materials and little preparation. Preschool and elementary.
  • St. Nicholas Stained Glass Coloring Sheet could be used by individuals, or blown up and used by a group. All ages, preschool and up.
  • Skit: Midnight Missions Skit for a two person skit that introduces St. Nicholas. It has simple language but includes some humor that would appeal to adults. Great for an intergenerational crowd. All ages, preschool and up.
  • Writing a St. Nicholas Iconwith pictures of the process and a link to a Russian site with 105 beautiful Saint Nicholas icons. Upper elementary to adults.
  • Skit: A Visit from St. ??? includes eleven roles. The narrative brings together John the Baptist, Saint Nicholas, and the Prophet Isaiah – all of whom prepare the way for the Lord during Advent. Intergenerational.
  • Special Treat Bags for St. Nicholas EventIdeas on what to include in a St. Nicholas treat bag and where to get those items. Preschool and elementary.
 Saint Nicholas books to seek at your local library or bookstore

The Immaculate Conception of the
​Blessed Virgin Mary (December 8*) 

 *NOTE: The Holy Day is being observed on Monday. December 9, 2024

​Loyola Press has lessons for Grades 1-3, 4-6, 7-8, and Family on the readings for the Feast  here.  
"Teaching About Mary on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception" is here from Catechist's Journey. 
The above lessons are about Mary, and what we can learn about her from the readings of the feastday. Franciscan Media explains succinctly here how the gospel of the feast (Luke 1:26-38, the story of the Annunciation) tie to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.
For more resources on The Blessed Virgin Mary, check this page of our website. 

For ideas for St. Juan Diego
(December 9), 
Our Lady of Guadalupe
(December 12), and 
Las Posadas
​(December 16-24),
​CLICK HERE

Books to seek out at your local library:​

The Unsheltered Heart: An At-Home Advent Retreat.  Raab, Ronald Patrick,  Ave Maria Press, 2010.
Makes Advent a transformative journey through spiritual direction within a daily pattern of prayer, reflection, and action. Raab draws on his life and ministry at the St. André Bessette Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, where his daily encounters with people living with poverty, homelessness, addiction, and mental illness complicate the meaning of the Incarnation in a fractured world. The Unsheltered Heart provides a popular five-step retreat format for each day of Advent: pray, read, reflect, write, and act. The Sunday gospel readings for each week of the season underpin the retreat and a guide for optional reflection in small groups is included
A Season of Little Sacraments: Christmas Commotion, Advent Grace,  Swetnam, Susan H., Liturgical Press, 2016.  
The lament swells every December, as perennial as the jingle of Salvation Army bells: the season of Advent is lost in the secular trappings of Christmas preparation. For those aspiring to a reverent Advent but caught up in twenty-first-century to-do lists, A Season of Little Sacraments offers a fresh perspective on the secular-sacred December divide. Susan Swetnam invites readers along on an ordinary woman's day-by-day walk through Advent, demonstrating that the very "distractions" accused of taking Christ out of Christmas can become "little sacraments"—occasions for grace to break through and faith to deepen—if approached with mindful reflection. For readers who want to experience a truly sacred Advent without fleeing completely from contemporary society, A Season of Little Sacraments will be a welcome source of nourishment and delight.
The Catholic Way: Believe + Pray + Live Advent & Christmas.  Naffziger, Ann. Pastoral Center,  2019.
This resource gives you material to offer a faith formation session and/or handouts on Advent & Christmas. It includes:
  • Leader guide for offering a short prayer session on Advent Wreaths, drawing on the themes of light and darkness.
  • Leader guide for offering a general session on Advent & Christmas, including:
    • Waiting for Jesus: overview and spirituality of the season
    • Advent symbols
    • Overview of the Christmas season
  • Two reproducible handouts:
    • The Seasons of Advent & Christmas
    • Ideas for Honoring the Season of Advent
  • A general leader overview, including "Session Preparation" and "Ground Rules for Group Sharing."