The Art of Living in Advent: 28 Days of Joyful Waiting

by Sylvie Vanhoozer

Nurture a Heart that Waits with Joyful, Expectant Faith

Step into the Advent season with The Art of Living in Advent, a beautifully crafted daily devotional by Sylvie Vanhoozer, who blends Scripture, history, art, and reflection to enrich your spiritual preparation for Christmas. Centered around the traditional French santons, or "little saints," this book invites you to imagine Christ's presence in your daily life—right where you are. Through thoughtful devotions, original artwork, and prompts for prayer and reflection, this devotional offers a creative and meaningful way to deepen your faith this Advent.

Vanhoozer invites you to join her in Provence, France, a land where generations have embraced Christ's presence in their own time and place. With her exquisite illustrations and daily devotions, she encourages readers to recognize themselves as part of the nativity, welcoming Christ into the everyday.

This Advent, discover how to nurture a heart that watches and waits with joyful, expectant faith. This devotional offers a pathway to quiet reflection, spiritual growth, and attentiveness to Christ.

Key

Creative Scripture, prayers, reflection prompts, and daily activities designed to inspire. Aesthetic Original botanical artwork by the author and illustrations of Provençal santons. Rich Explore the story behind French santons and their connection to faith in the everyday. Daily Each day includes a passage, devotional content, and practical applications focused on Christ's presence.Begin Your Advent Journey

Discover a new way to welcome Christ this season by ordering your copy of The Art of Living in Advent today. Each day of Advent, take a step toward becoming a person who knows how to watch and wait joyfully with expectant faith in Christ's presence and activity in your own person and place.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Christmas

104 pages, Paperback

Published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[Amy Living Well Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely daily devotional with short, substantive readings for Advent. This small book enriched my Advent this season this year, and I highly recommend it.

I received this gifted copy from Intervarsity Press in exchange for my honest thoughts.

[Sarah Durrance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This French history of the advent approach and nativity scene so was pure, simple, and so profound. I’ll be thinking about this every Christmas and will never look at a nativity scene the same way! A reminder of Christ in the ordinary and every day saints around us.

[Sarah Abbey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The daily mediations here are profound in their simplicity. By sharing her own culture's practice of Advent in Provence, France, Sylvie Vanhoozer invited me to see how Jesus comes to where we are, even Kenosha, WI. She helped me to see Christ's once and future advent in the people and natural world in my own little corner of the world.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this approach to advent!

[Melissa Widener · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9

[Jillian Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was sweet and encouraging but I like Advent devotionals to be a bit more theologically rich.

[Gina P · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the concept of this advent devotional more than its execution. I went to Provence last year and in one of the towns there was a museum dedicated to the crèche and santons. This concept was completely foreign to me (pun intended) so when I saw this devotional I thought it would be interesting to learn more.

I think this devotional lacked direction. I haven’t read the author’s yearlong devotional, which also brings in the santons, but I felt that I needed more teaching about the tradition. It was written in such a way that it assumed I already knew about the crèche and santons and it was just applying that knowledge to my life. But I actually had to do some research of my own to even understand what she was referring to, even after attending that tiny museum in Provence. I felt confused quite a few times.

I would have preferred that there was a prologue explaining the tradition, with pictures rather than illustrations, and each daily devotion then focused on one santon (or one group of santons), with pictures, and applied that santon to living in the season of advent. Many of the devotions veered off onto other topics, like nature and botanicals, which I didn’t really need illustrations of. I would have preferred consistency with the Provençal tradition, since the concept of the santons is what drew me in.

All in all I hope to learn more about the crèche tradition from another source. I like the idea, and I like how the author explained its significance, I was just left wanting.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Art of Living in Advent, Sylvie Vanhoozer takes you on a journey through 28 days of joyful waiting for Christ. This beautiful devotional blends Scripture, history, art, and reflection to help you discover what it means to live in the presence of Christ this Christmas.

Being Seen and Being Present

Centered around the traditional French santons, or "little saints," Vanhoozer invites you to slow down and examine your own home and place of belonging—where God has placed you, and with whom. She encourages you to engage with nature and to see the beauty in ordinary graces. It's a wonderful way to make the Christmas holiday holy and felt in your life by being seen by God and being present in the space around you.

Heart and Home

While I’ve typically viewed Advent as a time of looking back to Christ’s coming, Vanhoozer gently prompts us to make room for Christ in the here and now—in our hearts and in our homes. In a world that urges constant productivity and the elimination of excess, The Art of Living in Advent offers a way to slow down and soak it all in. It’s okay to watch and wait joyfully, with expectant faith in Christ’s presence and activity in your life—right here, right now.

I received a media copy of The Art of Living in Advent and this is my honest review. @diveindigdeep

[Michele Morin · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Jesus’s arrival ended the four-hundred-year silence from God, he came to a very specific location as prophesied in Micah 5:2. His landing in a little town like Bethlehem—in a stable no less—is unlikely enough to foster hope in my heart that Jesus could take up residence in the unlikely place of my heart. This is the reassuring message of The Art of Living in Advent. In 28 days of waiting and rejoicing, Sylvie Vanhoozer takes her readers into the beloved Advent traditions of her Provençal childhood, with its focus on native vegetation and delightfully local color that grafted her own small story into the story of Word made flesh.

I especially appreciated Vanhoozer’s description of the traditional Advent walk in which families climbed the hills and walked the country paths to collect beautiful natural elements (sprigs of thyme, branches of almond trees) to incorporate into the manger scenes in their homes. This became a visual sign and a tangible reassurance that the Christ will indeed make his home with us. Advent, then, becomes a delightful scavenger hunt, an invitation to watch and wait with expectation for signs of God’s with-ness, his presence and activity in every corner of our lives. This small book invites longing hearts into the joy of Advent and a true celebration of Immanuel.

[Kevin Vanhoozer · Rating 5 out of 5]

To enter into Advent is to enter a time and space charged with expectation, joy, and hope. Who knew one could enter it through a French nativity scene? Those who accept the invitation to "come and read" will embark on the adventure of Advent, which turns out to be all about learning how to become an "adventish" person, one who watches and waits for Christ to come not simply to a first century manger, but to all the times and places we inhabit. Reading this book suggests that not only Easter but Advent itself may be what the poet George Herbert describes as "heaven in ordinarie."

[Ken K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preparing For Christmas. This was a very helpful devotional book explaining how Provence, in southern France, celebrates Advent using an elaborate manger scene (creche). Each day’s reading is quite short and makes you think in a practical way. The illustrations are beautiful and add to the meditative feel. The book has 28 days of readings ending on Christmas Eve, so one should begin Day One on November 27.
(Since the book had recently been released in 2025, we didn't get the book until December 5. We needed to double up readings on some days, which detracted from the contemplative ideal.)

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful Advent read

I loved every minute of this journey to Provence and the unique look at how the nativity speaks to that culture and to the world. The author speaks with childlike joy and inspires you with her simple yet lovely illustrations. As a longtime Francophile, this book delighted me in every way. I highly recommend it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

[Rainer Erani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this Advent book. Unlike any I’ve read before. This led to so many conversations throughout the month. For sure, a book I’d recommend next Advent. I’m likely to grab a copy of Sylvie’s other book, the next chance I get!

Grateful for this project. I know many people already who’ve been deeply shaped by this book.

[Jarm Boccio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking at Advent Through the Eyes of the French

I love the idea of bringing the crèche into our everyday lives. Ordinary people bringing their gifts as laymen to the Christ Child. What does that look like? You'll need to read this devotional next Christmas!

[Maribeth Van loon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A charming Advent devotional built around the Provancial custom of creating nativity scenes from Santon (little saints) figures. Warm and accessible with just the right amount of introspective questions and challenge.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique perspective

Author offers unique perspective and some wise insight. I would have liked some practical ways to incorporate this in to daily living.