Advent starts this year on Sunday, December 1. Advent, the four Sundays and weeks before Christmas, marks the beginning of the Church year. It is a time of preparation for the birthday of Jesus and the entrance of God into the world in a new way.

Advent calendars often seem like a way to tick off the days until Christmas, a way to keep children’s excitement at bay–or in reality rev it up: “Oh, wow, only five more days until Christmas.” I like to think of an Advent calendar as the beginning of the journey into salvation history, a one-day-at-a time celebration with other pilgrims on the road to a lifetime walk with God.

Here are a couple of Advent Calendar templates for this year. Click on the image to download the 8″x11″ template. (If you can’t see the image itself, click on the Edit tab and scroll down to Download.) I like to go to a FedEx/Kinkos or other copy store/business center and blow up the image onto a 11″ x 17″ piece of card stock.

My entries on previous calendars have been prayers for other people and words of the Advent season. Click on these links for examples of my and other peoples’ calendars from past years: Advent 2012A, Advent 2012B, Advent 2012C