Christmas is a time when the glory of the incarnation should ignite joy within our hearts. Unfortunately, as each year passes by, our familiarity with the Christmas story can dull our spiritual senses. Like a professional baker who may not fully appreciate the smell of freshly baked bread, Christians may lose their childlike wonder over the significance of Christmas year by year.
For this reason, I believe it’s wise for Christians to make a habit of reading a new Advent devotional each year. While the Christmas decorations, traditions, and music will often be familiar sights and sounds, a new Advent devotional can help bring a fresh yet biblical perspective to help stir our hearts anew.
I’m thankful for the abundance of quality Christmas devotionals published over the last decade or so. In hopes of helping you either maintain or recapture your awe of the meaning and significance of Christmas, I want to recommend twelve Christmas devotionals (two of them are short books, not devotionals). Chances are, you haven’t read all these yet!
This list is not exhaustive by any means. I simply chose twelve that I am most familiar with. Full disclosure: I haven’t read all these devotionals cover to cover. Some I have, some I’ve read in part, and others I haven’t read at all, but I’m familiar enough with the author that I feel confident recommending them to you.
My criteria for selecting these books was simply choosing ones that have been published within the last ten years (give or take), are easy to read, biblically sound, and theologically rich. Also, they are all fairly affordable, with most costing no more than $15. I ordered the list from newest to oldest by publication date.
For a direct link to each book’s Amazon listing, click the title below.
Description: Witness the worship of Mary, Zechariah, the angels, and Simeon as you dwell daily on their songs of wonder at the Savior’s birth this Advent. Designed to bring joy during the Christmas season, this 24-day Advent devotional will help you pause and ponder the marvel of Jesus’ birth.
Description: Follow the story of God’s Messiah from Genesis to Revelation. See how God prepared the world for Christ’s first coming and how that wondrous gift was given; and look forward to Christ’s future coming and how all things will be made new. Alongside Alistair Begg’s insightful Bible devotion, each day features a question to aid personal reflection and a carol or hymn to enjoy meditating upon.
Description: Christmas should spark worship and adoration, and R. Albert Mohler offers a book that mines the depths of the advent season, and all the theological riches God has gifted to His people. Recapturing the Glory of Christmas is a call to worship and praise.
Description: Reflecting on a few short verses each day, this devotional examines the wonderful gifts of grace that we receive through the coming of Christ and belief in his gospel. Author Jared C. Wilson says in his introduction: My prayer for you is that examining the diamond of the gospel facet by facet for the next 24 days will find you on Day 25 more awestruck and joy-filled about the glory of Christ our Lord.
Description: Join Sinclair Ferguson as he opens up the first two chapters of Matthew’s Gospel in these daily devotions for Advent. Each day’s reflection is full of insight and application, and will help you to arrive at Christmas Day awed by God’s redeeming grace and refreshed by the hope of God’s promised king.
Description: Be amazed once more by the unexpected details of Jesus’ unique birth and saving work with these short daily devotions and prayers, and renew your worship of our humble, generous, and loving Savior.
Description: This anthology edited by Nancy Guthrie draws from the works and sermons of classic theologians such as George Whitefield, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, and Saint Augustine, and from leading contemporary teachers such as John Piper, Randy Alcorn, Tim Keller, and Joni Eareckson Tada to help readers enter into the wonder of Jesus’s incarnation and birth.
Description: We hate to admit it, but after years, sometimes even decades, of reading the same Luke 2 story of Christmas, we get a little bored—we lose some of the awe we ought to have when discussing the greatest miracle in history. That’s why The Characters of Christmas was written, to help you take a fresh look at the Christmas story by getting to know the minor characters that played a part in Jesus’ birth, such as Zechariah and Elizabeth, the Shepherds, and Herod. And with discussion questions and a Christmas song suggestion at the end of each chapter, it’s perfect for engaging your whole family.
Note: This book is not a daily devotional.
Description: This Advent devotional contains 24 daily readings from 1 Corinthians 13. Sinclair Ferguson brings the rich theology of the incarnation to life with his trademark warmth and clarity. We’ll see what “love” looked like in the life of Christ and be challenged to love like him. Each day’s reading finishes with a question for reflection and a prayer.
Description: The wonder and awe of the Christmas season can easily get overshadowed by lights, tinsel, bows, and paper―not to mention last-minute trips to the mall and visits to the in-laws. In all the hustle and bustle, we often lose sight of what’s most important. This book of daily readings for the month of December by best-selling author Paul David Tripp will help you slow down, prepare your heart, and focus on what matters most: adoring our Savior, Jesus.
Description: Timothy Keller takes readers on an illuminating journey into the surprising background of the nativity. By understanding the message of hope and salvation within the Bible’s account of Jesus’ birth, readers will experience the redeeming power of God’s grace in a deeper and more meaningful way.
Note: This book is not a daily devotional.
Description: These 25 brief devotional readings from John Piper begin on December 1 and carry us to Christmas Day. Our hope is that God would use these meditations to deepen and sweeten your adoration of Jesus and help you keep him at the center of your Christmas season.