24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being Digital Advent Calendar: 2024 Edition

Starts December 1st! A digital Advent calendar that's all about slowing down and making space for presence, creativity, and gratitude.

Hello friends,

I don’t know about you, but I need an infusion of some light and joy right now.

Which means that this announcement couldn’t come at a better time.

The 8th annual edition of my digital Advent calendar 24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being starts on December 1st.

Yes, yes, something to look forward to!

The idea behind the calendar is simple: a daily newsletter between December 1st through 24th, all created with the intent of bringing a little light, joy, and grounding to your inbox.

If you had told me eight years ago that I would still be doing writing this annual, 24 day calendar, and that people would be looking forward to getting it, I would have been very surprised. But here we are.

Around this time every single year when I go to announce the upcoming edition, I think to myself something along the lines of: “we need it this year more than ever.”

The good thing about doing something year after year? You have a trail of reminders to look back at. I’ve kept a spreadsheet since I started writing this Advent calendar back in 2017. In my notes section for the first day of that first edition, I wrote, “Intro to slowing down. Taking an active role in making time for something. News cycle is overwhelming, making sure to be aware, but also making time to step back and focus on local community.”

It’s like my past self wrote a reminder for my present self, a reminder that I need year after year. In good years, in bad years, and all the years in between.

This is to say: for me, writing this calendar is part of my way of bringing some joy, light, magic, and creativity into the world. It’s part of my own personal creative response when things feel dark and difficult.

If you too are craving a little bit of that this year, then I hope you will sign up. For anyone who is new to the calendar, I’ve included some additional details below.

-Anna

The Advent calendar goes out to paid subscribers. Sign up now and get 20% off a one-year subscription.

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WHAT IS 24 DAYS OF MAKING, DOING, AND BEING?

When I first started this calendar, it was to offer an antidote to the frenetic energy that so often defines the holiday season. As it has evolved, I like to think of it as a daily encouragement to slow down, create a little beauty and magic, embrace the dark days, and find the light when we can.

It’s a season where we see capitalism on overdrive. It’s also a season that can be incredibly difficult for a lot of people. Any kind of stress, loss, sadness is compounded, and the darkness of the winter can exacerbate how we’re feeling about things in our personal sphere, and our global one.

In the midst of all this, we need reminders of joy, reminders of light, reminders of gratitude, reminders to be in whatever moment we’re in. 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 every 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 festive traditions, 24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being is a secular calendar, largely centered around the general winter season, taking cues from the natural world and its rhythms.

This time of year has a tendency to make us feel like we should do more. This isn’t a calendar solely of projects, it is largely about taking the time and intention to be—both with our creative selves but with each other.

HOW IT WORKS

Every day from December 1st-24th, I send out a newsletter. Last year, I included an audio recording for each day, so that anyone who was craving a little less screen time could listen instead of reading it. I’m bringing the audio back again this year!

Every day includes some kind of prompt, rumination, or story. There are a few tried and true classics that repeat every year, so for those of you who have received the calendar before, those ones are kind of like seeing an old friend again after a long time away.  

WHY AN ADVENT CALENDAR?

Growing up, I had a very special Advent calendar, handwoven by my mother. Every day had a pocket, 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.

This is basically the energy I channel when writing the calendar today:

The joke in our family is how many nights my parents would be on their way to bed and say “shit, we still have to write a note.”

I still kind of feel this way. It’s a wild time of year to take on a daily writing and production schedule. HOWEVER … over the years, it has become an important annual writing ritual for me, something that I look forward to creating and sharing.

OK, SIGN ME UP! CAN I SIGN A FRIEND UP TOO?

The Advent calendar goes out to paid subscribers. Yes you can gift someone a subscription!

Last year was my first year of running the calendar on Substack, and I enjoyed seeing the community interacting in the comments. It really felt like a cozy and collaborative time. I’d love to have you join us!

You can sign up later this month, and I’ll send a reminder out a little closer to December 1st. But if you want to support this newsletter right this very second, you can sign up now. As a little special, I’m offering 20% off a one-year subscription through this weekend.

If you are experiencing any kind of economic hardship and want to receive the calendar, send an email to hello@creativefuelcollective.com and I’ll sign you up no questions asked. If you want to help support this offering, you can also donate a subscription.

Oh and one more thing…

THE ADVENT CALENDAR CARD DECK

I also sell an Advent calendar deck. I made this back in 2020 and it is now in its third printing. The digital and print edition are different, but you can consider the print one as kind of a companion piece to the digital. Plus it’s evergreen, so you can use it year after year.

If you want to be sure you have yours before December 1st, I recommend getting your orders in soon. They make great gifts too!