PJN Advent Series: Advent Calendar for Palestine
By, Rev. Addie Domske
One thing I want to be when I grow up is a cool, radical auntie.
I have been trying to be good at this role for about 15 years now, starting when the first of my four niblings was born. I will find out from them in their collective adulthood if I succeeded.
I have lived far, far away from all four of them for their entire lives, so most of my interactions come from mailing them things, (I had the cutest pen pal relationship with my oldest nibling when he was a wee lad.) A few years ago, I started the tradition of sending them all advent calendars each year based on their interests at the time. This year I’m proclaiming that they are all interested in Palestine, because my spouse and I decided to spend all of our Christmas gift funds for our external families on products from Palestinian artisans. (Interested in doing the same? Here are a couple of places to start: https://shoppalestine.org, https://starbazaar.bethbc.edu/, https://handmadepalestine.com/, https://canaanpalestine.com/)
And wouldn’t ya know, Amazon doesn’t have a Palestinian advocacy advent calendar (thank God)…so I decided to make one!
Click here for a printable version.
Advent for Palestine Instructions/Best Practices
Adults Welcome: I didn’t write this resource thinking that it would be read by my niblings alone because I know the involvement of my siblings in their kids’ lives, so it is written with the intention that it’s done in collaboration with an adult, especially because the earlier prompts are more conversational rather than action-oriented, and because a safe adult will know the exposure the kid in question already has to Palestine, today’s Gaza, and general political engagement and can fill in gaps as needed.
Do the Work Yourself: This advent calendar could 100% be targeted to adults in the U.S.—I’m not supposing you have a complete understanding of the nakba or that you consider daily how Jesus would respond to colonialism, so view this as an opportunity to learn with the kid in your life. (Or, just download for yourself. There are no rules!)
Pair with a Treat: The way I’m enticing my niblings into reading such tiny fonts all month long is that I’m sending along a candy jar for each of them with 24 pieces of candy (and one hot chocolate packet for Christmas Day) for them to enjoy each time they finish that day’s blurb. This isn’t supposed to be a bribe, but to encourage the idea that liberation work is actually sweet and rewarding—it’s generative and can be really fun, why not enjoy some candy while we’re at it? (Leaning into “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution” vibes.)
Make it your Own: If you were adapting this for a kid in your life, you might add in the candy jar like I did, you might get them a little prayer journal to answer prompts, or you might opt to share a screenshot of each day via text instead of printing out the whole month. You’re welcome to adapt as needed for your personal use.
This post is a part of an Advent and Christmas series of PJN member submissions.
Rev. Addie Domske(she/her) is a PJN Steering Committee member and Presbyterian minister living in Washington state. She wants to be a radical auntie when she grows up and she made this calendar for her niblings. She blogs over on Substack at the rev stands for revolution.