Advent Journey Coloring Posters

Since 2015, thousands of churches, schools, hospitals, retirement communities, nursing homes, campus ministries, and other communities from all around the world, have found creative and engaging ways to use our large coloring posters.

Our six Advent Journey Coloring Posters will guide you through Advent by utilizing art, coloring and interactive reflection. On the left, you can see images of each of the six posters, and further below you can find a brief description of the posters and their themes.

You may also be interested in our Advent Journey Devotional Guide, which you can use to supplement these posters. You can learn more, and get a free sample, here.

Important Poster Details & Ordering Information

• Physical Posters: We ship our physical posters to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Our posters are printed on a thick, 32 lb paper that works beautifully well with many different mediums, from crayons to colored pencils to markers. Because we have a large international audience, we make our posters available as digital downloads, but when you take the digital files to a store like Staples, the quality you get will not be the same as the quality of the posters we’ll be shipping to you. You will receive six posters in our Advent Journey Coloring Poster set. Four of the posters are 36”x24” and two of the posters are 72”x24.
• Digital Files: We have a large international community, especially from Canada, New Zealand, England, Ireland, and Australia, and we have found that our international customers have had success ordering the digital files from us and having them printed locally. Depending on where you live, you may not have the exact 36"x24" size, but you can resize the files to work for you and your context.

Purchasing Digital Files

When you purchase the digital files, you will immediately receive a download link to get your zip file. Detailed instructions will come with the download as to how we suggest getting the posters printed. If you have the files printed somewhere like Staples, we recommend having them printed as engineering prints (and specifically asking for "engineering prints" and not "posters"), as that is the most inexpensive option available. You can learn more about engineering prints here.

Other Advent Journey Products

• Advent Journey Devotional Guide: Grab the accompanying devotional guide to go along with your coloring posters.
• Advent Journey Coloring Pages: These coloring pages include the same illustrations as the posters, with an additional simplified coloring design for those who prefer less detail.
• Christmas Story Banner: If you don't want to do a full set of coloring posters, this 6' x 2' Christmas Story Banner is a great choice.

More Info

POSTER 1: KEEP AWAKE We begin our Advent Journey with the reminder (and exhortation) to “Keep awake – Keep alert!” Our God is a God who constantly looks for ways to surprise us and catch us off guard. The Holy finds its way through cracks, and if we are awake and alert, we have a better chance of seeing God show up in all of the large, and small, ways that God makes Godself known to us.

Here in this poster, we have a group of people looking to the heavens and keeping watch and staying alert (inspired by Isaiah 64:1, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down…”).

Scripture found in poster: Mark 13:24-37
Poster size: 3'x2’

POSTER 2: PREPARE

When we think of John the Baptist, we may imagine that no one could miss him because he was so eccentric. But he was also out in the wilderness, and while people came to him to be baptized, there were probably many others who weren’t paying enough attention to know about him.

John’s message to the people of his day, and to us, is to “Prepare!” And that is what we do during Advent – we are preparing ourselves, our families, our communities, for the birth of love into this world.

Here in this poster, we have John the Baptist, out in the wilderness by the River Jordan, ready to baptize those who would make the journey to be baptized.

Scripture found in poster: Psalm 85:1-11, Mark 1:1-8 and 2 Peter 3:9
Poster size: 3'x2'

POSTER 3: DO NOT BE AFRAID

“Do not be afraid” is a common refrain used throughout biblical stories and one that we need to hear over and over again. In our world today, and in a world that we fear and imagine is possible in the future, we need to be reminded not to be afraid.

Here in this poster, we have the angel Gabriel coming to bring this important message to Mary, as Mary’s life changes forever with the news of the child that will be born, Jesus.

Scripture found in poster: Luke 1:26-38 and Psalm 89:1
Poster size: 3'x2'

POSTER 4: MY SOUL MAGNIFIES THE LORD

If we accept the angel’s invitation to “Not be afraid” – this can often put us in a posture to be more receptive to what God might have for us. We see this in Mary’s response both to the angel’s exhortation to not fear and the news that she would bear a son and name him Jesus.

Mary’s response is “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” This is not the response from someone who is living in fear.

Here in this poster, we have Mary responding to the angel Gabriel’s news for her. We can see a look of contentment on her face as she ponders all of these amazing words.

Scripture found in poster: Isaiah 61:10 and Luke 1:46b-55
Poster size: 3'x2’

POSTER 5: THE CHRISTMAS STORY

From the decree of Emperor Augustus to Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem, to the birth of Jesus, shepherds, angels and more, our fifth poster walks people through the Christmas story. Surrounding the illustrated story, we find scripture references that tell different portions of the biblical prophecies and promises of the Christmas story.

Scripture found in poster: Isaiah 9:2,6, Luke 2, Titus 2:11, and John 1:14
Poster size: 6'x2' (digital version includes both a 6'x2' file and the illustration split up into two 3'x2' files)

POSTER 6: REFLECTING ON YOUR JOURNEY

As we move from Advent and Christmas into Epiphany and a new year, this final poster will give your community the chance to do some reflecting on the themes of Advent in their own lives and what it means for them moving forward into 2018.

As you can see below, this poster’s primary purpose is to serve as a tool to prompt ideas, prayers, conversations, and hopes for the upcoming new year.

Participants will be encouraged to write or draw their responses to the following four questions:

• Keep Awake: What are you watching for?
• Prepare: What are you preparing for?
• Do Not Be Afraid: What do you need to stop fearing?
• My Soul Magnifies the Lord: What are you praising God for?

Poster size: 6'x2' (digital version includes both a 6'x2' file and the illustration split up into two 3'x2' files)

Ideas for Using Our Advent Journey Coloring Posters

This is our third year using coloring posters for Advent, and we continue to be excited to see how churches, schools, and other communities decide to use our coloring posters. We’ve learned that most churches find the posters to be perfect for developing intergenerational ministry. If you’re looking for ways to use these posters intergenerationally, here are a few ideas:

• All Ages Education: Gather both young and old together for an intergenerational education hour. Use our devotional guide (purchased separately) and enjoy coloring and conversation.
• Advent Fairs: Many churches have Advent Fairs and other all-church ways of celebrating the beginning of Advent. Lay out the Advent Journey Coloring Posters and invite all to color.
• Nursing Homes: Have your children’s/youth ministry take a poster to a nursing home to color with the residents. Or leave some with the residents and pick them up to share with your church.
• Soup/Salad Event: Your church could host a simple soup/salad/sandwiches dinner on Wednesday nights during Advent and have conversation and coloring before or after eating together.
• Coffee Hour: Leave the coloring posters out on tables during Coffee Hour/Fellowship Hour after church for people of all ages to sit, color, and talk with one another.
• Coloring in Worship: Dedicate a portion of your worship space to allow young people (and the young at heart) to color during worship. A great way for children to engage with worship in a new way.

What about other ways to use the posters? Check out some of these ideas:

• Children’s Ministry: Find ways to incorporate the posters into your Sunday morning programs for children (whether that’s during Sunday School or during another time).
• Youth Ministry: Children aren’t the only ones who like to color. We’ve had hundreds of youth programs around the world use our coloring posters. Give your kids a ‘study break’ some week when it’s close to finals and allow them to color one of the posters.
• College/campus ministries: We’ve also had many campus ministries use our coloring posters. And we’ve seen photos of our posters in some faculty lounges at colleges where professors have worked on a poster together!
• Private/Parochial Schools: Some private Christian schools have purchased our posters and found ways to engage multiple classrooms in creating a collaborative art project.

Shipping

We prefer to ship to your church/business address. If we will be shipping to a church/business address, please list the church/business name in the second line of your shipping address where it says "Church/Company." 

If UPS doesn't deliver to your church, or you'd prefer your home address used, just don't enter anything into the Church/Company text field. Please note: UPS cannot ship to PO Boxes. Listing a PO Box as your shipping address will cause delays to your delivery because we will have to contact you to determine a different shipping address. Shipping prices are below:

• We ship our physical posters to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
• Shipping Costs: Shipping rates are calculated for your order based on live rates provided by USPS and UPS. You can select your preferred shipping service during the checkout process.