For the last three years, I have sent out a digital Advent calendar, called 24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being. I initially 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.

The goal with this Advent calendar is always 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.

While in the past, the calendar was intended as an antidote to the consumer frenzy that has come to define the season, this year I think we need an antidote for something different. We need an antidote for uncertainty, anxiety, loneliness, and the weariness that 2020 has left us feeling. Fortunately, the antidote is essentially the same, and I think that putting out this year’s Advent calendar feels more important than ever.

We need daily reminders to keep us present, to keep us breathing, to keep us existing, to keep us hoping. We need to remember the things for which we are grateful. We need to be challenged to create a little extra magic in what has felt like a dark and heavy 12 months. If there ever was a year where we needed a bit of seasonal magic to cheer us up, it certainly seems like it’s this one.

With that in mind, this year I am doing the digital version again, but I also made a limited edition print Advent calendar. There’s a daily card with a prompt (featuring versions of some of my favorite prompts from the last few years), something that allows you to just be in analog mode and create some moments of stillness and presence throughout the month. Anyone who buys one get signed up for the digital version as well. Update: these are now sold out.

Just want the digital? If you would like to signup for the 24 Days of Making, Doing and Being digital edition, $5 will get you access to the entire digital Advent calendar. If you are a Patreon supporter of mine, you will automatically be signed up!

The daily email will include artwork, prompts, recipes, etc. all with the intention of inspiring presence, creativity, and gratitude, and you will be able to access the archives during the month too (because I know it’s sometimes hard to keep up with a daily email). 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