24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being Digital Advent Calendar: 2023 Edition
A digital Advent calendar that's all about slowing down and making space for presence, creativity, and gratitude. Consider it a little dose of seasonal magic.
Hello friends,
Today I wanted to introduce you to my digital Advent calendar which will be starting in a few weeks.
This will be my seventh year creating this seasonal offering (where does the time go!?). Since a lot of you here are new to my work—and most likely, the Advent calendar—I wanted to give you a little background that will hopefully encourage you to sign up.
THE BACKSTORY
Back in the late fall of 2017, I was thinking about how I should figure out a way to do some book marketing that didn’t feel too, well…. markety. The US edition of my book Live Lagom was about to come out, and it seemed like a good time to get a newsletter list going.
I didn’t want to take part in the holiday consumption madness and push people to buy a book, but I did want to figure out a way to focus on some of the seasonal things that felt important to me. I wanted to create a sense of seasonal magic that I had felt growing up, something that wasn’t just about buying things.
I decided to write a digital Advent calendar, a daily email between December 1st and December 24th that would provide a prompt of some sort—something to do, something to make, or something to think about. 24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being was born.
The Creative Fuel newsletter actually grew out of this whole endeavor—after writing the 2018 edition of the Advent calendar I wanted to keep the momentum going, so I started writing a monthly newsletter devoted to creativity. And well… here we are today.
That’s to say: we often plant creative seeds without knowing it.
HOW DO YOU SIGN UP?
This year marks the 7th edition of the Advent calendar, and it’s the first time that I am going to run it on Substack. I am looking forward to seeing how it does here.
The calendar is a perk for paid subscribers and starts on December 1st.
If you’ve been following this newsletter for a while I hope this encourages you to become a paid subscriber. If you’re already a paid subscriber, you’re good to go!
Now for some some more details…
WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS CALENDAR?
The calendar is a daily newsletter that runs from December 1st through December 24th.
It originally started as an antidote to the consumer frenzy that this season is known for. But every year that I write it, the whole offering feels even deeper and more poignant than that. These last few years were largely defined by the global pandemic, and I think that as we have come onto the other side of that, many of us still feel the ongoing impact of that experience and its lingering effects. Not to mention so many others.
We’re in a time that is heavy—the darkness that comes with global politics, with suffering, with climate change, with inhumanity, with injustice. Even without all the “big” stuff that’s constantly happening, our interior lives are also complicated. Sometimes our daily lives feel sort of fine, but also: hard. We can feel flat, tired, stretched too thin. Many of us are burned out. There’s no spark.
In the midst of all this, we need reminders of joy, reminders of light, reminders of gratitude. We need a little extra magic.
Consider this digital Advent calendar a kind of seasonal creative retreat.
A little breath of fresh air in your inbox little day.
A call-to-action to create a little joy.
A small pocket of space in a time that so easily gets filled up.
A SEASONAL OFFERING
While it’s based off of Northern European/Western holiday traditions, 24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being is a secular calendar. In the northern hemisphere we are moving towards winter, and this calendar pulls a lot of inspiration from seasonal rhythms. It’s the time of winter solstice, a time of finding light in the darkness, a time of moving at a different pace.
If you participated in my digital Midsummer Creative Retreat it’s a little bit like that, we’re just not on an imaginary island (although, maybe we should be).
Just so we’re clear: I do not think that this is a time of year to do more.
We all know that there’s a lot going on this time of year—personal and family obligations, the general end-of-year rush, and feeling pulled in all kinds of directions. We feel pressured by all the shoulds. Meanwhile, our bodies are craving a moment to slow down, shouting at us “hey, why this frantic pace?”
I work really hard at not making this whole endeavor feel like just another thing you don’t have time for, or have to feel guilty for not keeping up on. Instead it’s about helping you carve out a little more space to just be, to appreciate what’s around you, to settle in to your own traditions and rituals that feel nourishing.
WHY AN ADVENT CALENDAR?
Growing up, I had a very special Advent calendar. It was a beautiful handwoven one made by my mother. There was a pocket for each day, so that you could slip in a small piece of paper. My parents would write a new note every day—written with a special silver metallic paint marker and accompanied by a small drawing—and slip it in the night before.
When I woke up in the morning, I would go straight to the calendar and see what was written on the day’s note. It was the source of a lot of magic.
The joke in our family is how many nights my parents would be about to go to bed and say “shit, we still have to write a note.” A reminder that creating magic does take work.
I’ve had a few instances of said feeling while writing this digital version—trust me, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend to anyone else to commit to writing a daily newsletter in one of the busiest seasons.
While I have often wondered about my own creative choices and this commitment, I learned after a couple years of writing it that I couldn’t not write it. This has become an important annual writing ritual for me that feels important to keep going.
I believe that living a creative life is about summoning beauty wherever one can. It is about creating magic out of what you have available. It is in the morning coffee cup you choose, the way you converse, the card you write to a friend, the book you read before bed. It is about cultivating a moment to be present, to not just pass through the day, but to pay attention. As a favorite Helena Bonham Carter quote goes, “life is art.”
This calendar is my way of attempting to do that, and to share it.
WILL THERE BE ART?
Yes, of course there will be art! I make a bunch of new papercuts for the calendar, so consider it a little daily art dose in your inbox as well as some words to sit with.
WHAT ELSE WILL THERE BE?
In the past there have been recipes, quotes, ideas for projects, general ruminations. But I do try to keep things open to see how it evolves. Creative process and all. There are some tried and true favorite topics and themes that always make appearances, like Lucia and jólabókaflóð.
When I originally started I was very focused on the making component, and there were lots of recipes, projects, etc. There’s still a little bit of that, but like I mentioned earlier, I’m also very much aware of how many of us just need a little space and permission to slow down this time of year.
All to say: I can’t wait to see how this year’s edition evolves.
HOW DO I SIGN UP?
The Advent calendar will be going out to paid subscribers. Yes you can gift someone a subscription!
You can sign up later this month, and I’ll send a reminder out a little closer to December 1st (since for the time being, we probably all want to forget about the fact that it’s December soon).
But if you want to support this newsletter you can sign up now.
If you are experiencing any kind of economic hardship and want to receive the calendar, send an email to info@annabrones.com and I’ll sign you up no questions asked. If you want to help support this offering, you can also donate a subscription.
I’m looking forward to kicking things off on December 1st and hope to see you there.
Now, get back to all your November activities.
-Anna
I love this! Upgraded to paid. Thank you!!
Thank you for inspiring us😊