For the last two years, I have sent out a digital advent calendar, called 24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being. I started it because I wanted to offer a bit of respite for people during what is often a very frantic and stressful time of year.

December means the arrival of the solstice, and in the Northern Hemisphere, winter begins. Perhaps just like we’ve lost the meaning of the holidays—trading experiences and togetherness for mass consumption—we’ve also lost the winter way of being. We have forgotten how to slow down, how to hibernate. Instead we sprint as fast as we can to the “big day” and then count down the days to the New Year when we can give ourselves the gift of a blank slate.

Think of all the advertising and marketing that happens at this time of year; so much of it is focused on selling a cozy, slow image. Why? Because that’s exactly what we’re craving. Here’s the secret to that kind of living: you can’t buy your way to that feeling, you have to create it yourself.

The goal with this digital advent calendar is exactly that: to create a little magic every day during the month of December, so that’s it’s not just a countdown but an everyday celebration. It’s a focus on slowing down, finding balance and contentedness. The calendar is created as an antidote to the consumer frenzy that has come to define this month, a challenge to ground yourself wherever you are and reconnect with both yourself and the people around you.

If you would like to signup for 24 Days of Making, Doing and Being, $5 will get you access to the entire advent calendar. The daily email will include artwork, prompts, recipes, etc. and you will be able to access the archives too. For the last two years, I have kept the calendar free of charge, but as it has grown it has taken more and more time and energy to produce, and offering it for a small fee allows me to keep the production of it just a little more sustainable.

To sign up, please click here.

Can you sign someone else up for the calendar? Of course! Just be sure to include their email address so that I know who to send it to.

I hope that you consider signing up.

Anna