Advent Overflow is a nine-week family rhythm. It starts on the first Thursday of November and spends the month giving thanks. Then December gives back, one theme at a time: Generosity, Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
Buy for everyone. Exchange gifts with a price limit. Shop from the list. Rush from Halloween to December 25. It's a manual that tells our hands what to do and skips the heart, and it tends to leave families tired instead of joyful.
You get to keep the music, the lights, the decorations, the gatherings, and yes, the gifts. The goal is to prune the poison out of the season so the good parts have room to grow.
Generosity is the overflow of gratitude.
When people notice how much they've been given, the desire to give shows up on its own. Nobody has to assign it. It's the arc of A Christmas Carol: a man is made to see what he has been given, and his heart turns from greedy to grateful to generous.
So Advent Overflow spends November filling the cup, and lets December spill it over.
Every full week runs the same seven days: three to receive, one to celebrate, three to give. Families learn it once in November and carry it straight into December.
Notice the good you've been given, looking in a different direction each day.
Stop and celebrate together: remember, rejoice, and get ready to give.
Turn what you noticed into something you give away.
Grace comes in, gratitude notices it, and graciousness gives it away.
Every note follows one rule. The name of who or what you're thankful for goes on the front. Why you're thankful goes on the back. Then it's taped to the wall with the writing facing in, so the tree can grow in the middle of the living room all month and nobody's note gets spoiled.
On Thanksgiving morning, everyone takes down the notes with their own names and reads what their family wrote. In December, that moment comes around every week.
No kit to buy. The whole season gets built on a wall in your home, out of paper, tape, and what your family writes.
A paper trunk on the wall fills up with leaves and printed photos, each one a thank-you. By Thanksgiving, the notes start going out the door to the people they're about.
The stump becomes the base of a Christmas tree. Generosity, Hope, Peace, and Joy each add a green layer and a handful of paper ornaments. On December 29, when Love begins, the Star of Agape goes on top.
Agape is one of several Greek words for love. It's the one the first followers of Jesus reached for most often: love that gives itself for someone else's good. The whole season aims at it, which is why Love comes last and shines from the top.
Every day has its own page, with something for the grown-ups and a story for the kids. Open the calendar, tap today's date, and you're there.
Mr. Moose, Mr. Monkey, and their friends live out each day's idea in a short story for kids around four to six. Each story sits on its day's page as a picture book you can flip through together, with a few questions to talk over at the end. The whole season's stories also come in two printed storybooks.
Keep an eye out: there's a ladybug hiding in the woods.
You can run the whole season from this site. If you'd rather hold it in your hands, there are books for it. The Guide is the one you need; the others are extras for families who want them.
A Family Guide to Giving Thanks, Then Giving Back, from Thanksgiving to New Year's
Every day's reading and practice in one book, from the first Thursday of November to January 4, plus how to set up the wall and the tree. It runs the whole season on its own.
Coming soon to Amazon
For the Grown-Up Guiding the Family from Gratitude to Generosity
A write-in companion to the Guide, one per adult: the day's question on most pages, room for what the kids said, and a snapshot to read again next November.
Coming soon to Amazon
25 read-aloud stories, one for each day from the first Thursday of November through Thanksgiving weekend.
Coming soon to Amazon
35 read-aloud stories, one for each day from December 1 to January 4.
Coming soon to Amazon
A Kids' Companion for The Thank-You Adventure in Wanderful Woods
Pages for every November story, made for kids ages 3 to 8: coloring, jokes, puzzles, little stories they can read themselves, and thank-yous to make for the people around them.
Coming soon to Amazon
A Kids' Companion for The Overflow Adventure in Wanderful Woods
Pages for every December story, through January 4: coloring, jokes, puzzles, easy stories to read on their own, and pages that help kids plan what they'll give.
Coming soon to AmazonThe less a tradition asks you to buy or build, the more likely you are to keep it going year after year. Here's the whole list.
Start with one name.
Think of one person who made your life better this year. Picture their face, and name what they did. That's where all of this starts.
Join us on Thursday, November 5.