Now is the time of anticipation for Christians—the joyful yet serious Advent season, the spiritual lead-up to the time of celebrating the birth of Jesus. Christian publishers have a wide range of devotionals, all out now, tailored to Advent, which begins November 30. While all are intended to be inspiring, educational, and interactive, among this year's offerings authors are adding personal touches, illustrators may take a lead role, and some even include playlists, meeting the moment with heavenly music.
In the classic devotional format, an author expands each day on a passage from Scripture with their own commentary, observations, and experiences. There are suggestions for readers' reflections. And often there's a prompt to pray or meditate and see where God leads you. Every devotional has its distinct twist.
Waiting for Jesus by pastor Rich Villodas (PRH Christian/WaterBrook) is a 25-day devotional designed for families to share Bible stories, discuss spiritual questions, even sing and make ornaments together, while When You Don’t Feel Like Celebrating: A 31-Day Advent Devotional by Carol B. Ghattas (Emerald House) zeros in on a different audience: people facing deep grief and feeling numb to a holiday celebration. Ghattass's book guides readers through Isaiah’s prophecies, "to remind you that the God of promise will provide hope and encouragement even in your darkest days," according to the publisher.
Artist Anne Neilson adds to years of books illustrating angels with Anne Neilson's Christmas Angels: Devotions and Art of Hope and Joy for the Advent Season (Thomas Nelson). It features 28 text devotions and images for Advent to show "the angels' special role in the Christmas story," according to the publisher. Another Thomas Nelson book takes a creative approach to the Christmas story with The Compassionate Christ: Draw Near to the Risen Savior by Sherri Hughes-Gragg, who has written a 31-day "fictional narrative that mixes biblical history with Scripture" in which the reader "will walk alongside the Savior, witness miraculous healings and events, and experience His compassion and mercy," according to the publisher.
Not every devotional-like title follows the usual pattern or even the usual Advent time frame of four Sundays before Christmas, and story format devotionals are not always fictional. Pacific Press, the publishing arm of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, offers the second volume of its Christmas Gifts, a true-story collection edited by Helen Heavirland featuring tales of "how ordinary people rose above their trials to experience the joy of God’s love." Meanwhile, author Cynthia Ruchti reaches far back into the Bible to highlight the signs of the Holy Spirit at work from the beginning of time in her 26-day devotional, The Spirit of Christmas: Discovering His Presence Throughout the Advent Season (Chosen).
Lifeway Christian Resources takes a Bible-study approach to the season with titles by their teams of authors. There's Behold the Savior: Treasuring the Story of Christmas, a four-week verse-by-verse look at Luke, written two ways. One volume is by women for women and a parallel volume is by men for men. The Lifeway Girls team has also launched Love Came Down, for teen girls to "explore the gospel message through the lens of Advent," according to the publisher. Lifeway's publishing imprint for children, B&H Kids, also offers Taylor Combs's illustrated family devotional, The One We're Waiting For, featuring 25 days of stories and activities for Advent.
The Lifeway books' common aim is to "invite each of us to slow down, understand, and reflect on the significance of Christ’s birth, with the hope that this holiday season will gain a greater meaning and purpose,” said Becky Loyd, VP at Lifeway Christian Resources.
Some devotionals even come with a playlist. The Upper Room offers pastor and scholar James C. Howell's And His Name Shall Be Called: An Advent Devotional, which combines reflections on Isaiah's promise of God's presence, theological commentary, and curated playlists with portions of Handel's Messiah for worship and contemplation. For British publisher SPCK, the Archbishop of York Guli Francis-Dehqani has written her Advent book titled Listening to the Music of the Soul, which includes her personal stories and reflections with each chapter linked by a QR code to musical selections "from Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Bach’s Partita for Solo Violin to Sinead O'Connor's Take Me to Church and Into My Arms by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds," according to the publisher. A full playlist from the book is available on Spotify.
Several publishers address Advent as the start of the Christian year. St. Martin's Essentials' A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance, by historian and prolific author Diana Butler Bass, traces "a cycle of sacred stories that compose a larger narrative of love, hospitality, mercy, justice, and gratitude," according to the publisher. Westminster John Knox's The Advent Tree: Meeting Jesus in God’s Big Story, an illustrated Advent study guide by United Methodist pastor Kara Eidson, takes readers through 40 scripture passages from ancient prophecies up to the birth of Jesus and beyond to show how he, his family, and followers were shaped by all that preceded them. And WaterBrook, an imprint of PRH Christian, offers "an immersive journey through the life of Jesus" in Rhythms of Faith: A Devotional Pilgrimage Through the Church Year. Author Claude Atcho, a priest in the Anglican Church of North America, offers commentary and reflections from Advent to Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and more," according to the publisher.
Two magazine publishers with regular subscribers also have popular Advent devotionals. Indeed, Christianity Today's devotional, Darkness, Then Light, sold out by early November, and CT is already advertising Ever Approaching Dawn: A Lenten Devotional for the Season of Easter. Guideposts promotes its annual devotional for this time of the liturgical year, Walking with Jesus: Devotions for Advent & Christmas 2025, by Guideposts’ Mornings with Jesus team of devotional writers. The same team's devotees can get a jump on Lent in February with Mornings with Jesus: 365 day Devotional for 2026 in plenty of time for Ash Wednesday.
