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Celebrate Advent traditions through Sacred Music

In a world eager for Christmas, especially big box stores, slow down with an Advent playlist. Discover the power of waiting through sacred music.

Erika Ahern
Erika Ahern
· 2 min read
Celebrate Advent traditions through Sacred Music

Your local stores are “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and dreaming of a “White Christmas” right after Halloween these days. But we can make our homes oases of contemplation and waiting. Instead of playing your favorite Christmas playlist when you’re home, build a music list centered around Advent. 

Advent songs in anticipation of Christmas are one of our treasured Christian traditions. And our ancestors in faith had a real insight into human psychology – denying ourselves of a pleasure for a short period makes the joy that much more exciting when it finally arrives!

So let’s enter into this time of waiting by waiting with a curated playlist.

Your list!

Here are some options to get your playlist started! Find them on Spotify or your favorite music streaming service.

  • O Come, O Come Emmanuel
  • Of the Father’s Love Begotten
  • Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming
  • On Jordan’s Bank
  • I Was Glad (Henry Purcell)
  • Wake, Awake, the Night is Dying
  • Maria Walks Amid the Thorn
  • People, Look East
  • O Come Divine Messiah
  • Vox Clara
  • Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme (J.S. Bach)
  • The Angel Gabriel
  • Rorate Caeli
  • Come Thou Redeemer
  • Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending
  • Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Of course, be sure to add the entire first part of Handel’s Messiah to any Advent playlist (save the second part for after Christmas!).

Off-line options

If you’re going app-free for Advent and would like a good, old-fashioned CD instead, here are a few Refine favorites!

While society rushes into Christmas earlier each year, we can turn off the noise. Great sacred music turns out the noise and helps us enter that counter-cultural time of preparation and hope in order to celebrate Christmas with greater solemnity. 

Think of the joy of finally singing a long-anticipated and much-loved Christmas carol – the more we yearn for it, the greater the excitement when it finally arrives. 

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