Journey with us through Advent and Christmas

Advent is more than a countdown to Christmas. For Christians, it is a season of preparation: making space to notice what we are longing for, watching for signs of hope, and getting ready to celebrate the extraordinary claim at the heart of Christmas — that in Jesus, God comes to share our human life.

This year, we’re inviting Northstowe to journey through Advent with us as we prepare to celebrate the Gift at Christmas. Along the way there will be carols, creativity and community celebrations, as well as quieter opportunities to pause, pray, wonder and encounter the Christmas story afresh. Some gatherings are part of the wider Christmas celebrations across Northstowe; others are more explicitly rooted in Christian worship and prayer. They happen in all sorts of places — around the town Christmas tree, in schools, pubs and community spaces, and around a campfire as Christmas Eve becomes Christmas Day.

Come for one thing or several. Come because Christmas is already important to you, or simply because you are curious. There is room on the journey.

All our upcoming Advent and Christmas gatherings are below. This is the best place to find the latest dates, times, locations and any booking information.

There is usually no need to book for our regular gatherings, but if an event asks for a sign-up, or if food is involved, it really helps us to know you are coming.

Around these are Christingles, Nativity stories, school celebrations, shared meals, music, prayer and plenty of opportunities simply to be together.

You might know the Christmas story by heart. You might be encountering it for the first time. You might arrive with a lively family, come on your own, sing everything enthusiastically or prefer to listen. You are welcome to come and walk a while with us.

Why Christmas?

At the centre of all this celebration is a surprisingly vulnerable story. 

Christians believe that in Jesus, God does not remain distant from the world, but enters it: born as a baby, into an ordinary family, amid uncertainty, travel and borrowed space.

Christmas tells us that God is encountered not only in places that are impressive, polished or complete, but in the middle of human life as it really is.

Perhaps that is one reason the story has resonated so strongly as we have learned to be church in Northstowe. We have celebrated Christmas in temporary buildings, school halls, homes, outdoors and around fires. The town around us is still being made, and our church is still growing and changing within it.

Yet the heart of Christmas remains wonderfully simple: God is with us.

Every Advent and Christmas adds a few more stories to the life of this still-young town.

Over the years there have been glowing windows, brass bands and carols beneath the Christmas tree; Marys, Josephs, shepherds and sheep appearing without rehearsal; Christingle candles shining in darkened rooms; and small groups waiting beside a fire as midnight arrives.

Explore some of those celebrations, quieter moments and emerging traditions below.