Advent Spiral: A Daily Light-Filled Ritual for December

Here’s an easy Waldorf-inspired DIY advent spiral countdown calendar that only takes minutes to put together on a table, shelf, or mantle.

Make an Advent spiral calendar with stones (or other natural objects) to count down to the winter solstice, Christmas, or another winter holiday. An advent spiral provides a nature-based way to celebrate the rebirth of the light. Count down to the winter solstice or Christmas with this light-filled Waldorf-inspired tradition. Suppose you are looking for a simple countdown calendar filled with symbolism and meaning (without the need for small gifts or sugary treats). In that case, this homemade spiral advent calendar, made of stones, offers the perfect solution.

It involves using stones, crystals, or shells to create a path that leads inwards, symbolizing a journey toward inner light. Each day, a candle is lit, and a stone is removed until the light of the sun returns on the final day of the countdown. A countdown calendar like this provides a nature-based way to celebrate the season and welcome back the light.

Unlike most Christmas countdown calendars, the rewards of this winter solstice Advent calendar are intrinsic. It’s lovely to taste the sweetness of life found in chocolate, but this advent calendar allows children and adults to experience the sweetness that resides within the light of their hearts. However, you can include chocolate and other sweets with it if you’d like. First published December 1, 2020; this post is regularly updated to improve the content. Alternatively, you can make a stone advent calendar with a homemade popsicle stick Nativity Stable to count down to Christmas.

What is an Advent Spiral?

Advent spirals are an integral part of winter festivals during the Advent season. The word advent means “arrival” or “coming.” As we enter the deepest of the long, dark days of winter, an Advent spiral can help us prepare for the return of sunlight. It creates a space to “spiral within” to honor the light within each of us — a reflection of the universe itself.

It is a ritual that honors the light’s return and symbolizes the light that burns brightly within us, even during the year’s darkest days. As such, the advent spiral defines our path as we spiral inward and back out to find our spirit’s inner light.

The simple Waldorf-inspired stone Advent spiral countdown calendar examples shown in the photographs and described in this informative guide offer a festive yet straightforward daily ritual for children and adults of all ages to celebrate the “return of the light.” It is similar to a traditional Waldorf Advent spiral, but with a slightly different design and ceremony ritual. Read on to learn more about both types of advent spirals! You might also enjoy making Waldorf Window Stars in the wintertime.

What is A Winter Advent Spiral Walk?

An Advent Spiral Walk, also called a Winter Spiral, Advent Garden, or Spiral of Light, is a contemplative ritual primarily practiced in Waldorf or Steiner Schools and anthroposophical communities during the Advent season from late November to December.

This traditional ritual illuminates the soul, honors nature’s seasonal rhythms, and the light within. An Advent spiral walk is often included in Waldorf winter festivals and celebrations during Advent, often on or near the winter solstice (December 21st).

Related: Fingerprint Lights Christmas Tree Cards

Traditional Advent Spiral:

Traditionally, an Advent spiral is a spiral-shaped labyrinth that participants walk slowly into its center and back out of again during Advent. It is a meditative ceremony in which participants (most often young children, but adults as well) walk the spiral-shaped path toward a central candle or another source of light.

Advent spirals are usually made indoors in a room that can be easily darkened at any time of day, but they can also be constructed outdoors. They are most often built with natural materials to symbolize the abundance of life on this planet, and the setup is intentionally simple.

Arrange evergreen boughs (fir, pine, cedar), moss, stones, pinecones, crystals, and other simple natural decorations on the floor or ground in the shape of a spiral to create a path wide enough for one person to walk into that winds inward to a center point.

At the heart of the spiral, place one large candle or globe of beeswax. This candle can sit on a small altar, a stump, a golden star cut from colored paper, or another designated spot. The candle or central light serves as a symbol of the source of divine or cosmic light.

Setting the Mood for the Ceremony:

Before the ceremony begins, the room is darkened, and the mood is set. If the spiral is outdoors, it is best to hold the ceremony after sundown. The center candle is lit, and adult leaders speak a little to prepare the participants. The atmosphere is solemn and contemplative. Soft music may play, but is optional.

Walking the Spiral of Light

At a typical Waldorf Advent spiral walk, each child takes a turn walking into the spiral with an unlit candle in an inwardly peaceful and contemplative state. Each participant carries an unlit candle set in an apple or a small candleholder. (Most often, a small candle is put into a red apple to symbolize the heart.)

When the spiral center is reached, the child lights their candle from the central flame and moves slowly back out of the spiral, placing the lit candle along the path as they go. The result is a slowly brightening spiral of many small lights in the darkened room.

As more participants walk the spiral, the number of candles increases, the spiral grows brighter, and the room fills with warmth and light coming from within and without. This simple but powerful ceremony represents the journey inward, the awakening of the inner light, and the collective brightening of the dark winter season.

The journey each child takes through the spiral also represents an inner journey to find his or her own “light” within.  In the very center of ourselves, we discover our own beauty, strength, insight, and gifts that we offer the world. We then turn from this discovery within and carry our gifts of radiance back out into the world.

Syringa Mountain School

DIY Stone Advent Spiral Countdown Calendar:

Because some cannot attend a winter festival with an Advent spiral to walk, I wanted to offer another meaningful way to spiral inward to celebrate the return of the light throughout the season of Advent. So, I created this simple DIY Advent spiral with stones to honor this sacred tradition in a slightly different way.

Of course, another option is to create an Advent spiral walk in your backyard or living room using the traditional Advent spiral instructions above. Or, scroll down to learn how to make an advent spiral out of stones or other natural materials to use as a winter solstice or Christmas countdown calendar, as shown in the photograph below.

DIY Advent Spiral Craft Supplies:

• Stones, rocks, pebbles, acorns, shells, flat-backed marbles, nuts, pinecones, or other objects are laid out in a spiral around another central object.
  • If you start your countdown later than the first of December, count the remaining days and arrange the correct number of stones or other objects to match the number of days remaining.
• A large pillar candle lit every night as the central source of light, a new candle each night, a special stone, a crystal quartz geode, a star-painted rock, a star centerpiece, or another unique item or ornament of choice.
  • This homemade angel ornament, or walnut with Baby Jesus, would also be perfect at the center of the spiral.
  • These Christmas figurines also make excellent decorations to place around the spiral.
• Choose at least one of the following candle options to light daily:
  • A large beeswax pillar candle for the center of the spiral to represent the central source of divine light.
  • Beeswax tealights with a reindeer candle holder.
  • Small tapered beeswax candles in a small candle holder or inserted into a red apple, which stabilizes the flame, represents the heart and serves as a candleholder.
  • Beeswax tea light candles with reusable steel candle holders.
  • An optional larger candle (or a special candle) to light on Christmas Day.
• Fresh evergreen boughs (optional).
• Winter animal figurines (optional).
• Angel ornaments and winter fairy figurines (optional)
• Seasonal festive decor (optional).

How to Make an Advent Spiral Countdown Calendar:

These simple step-by-step instructions will show you how to make an Advent spiral with stones or other items. A stone Advent calendar makes a great winter solstice or Christmas countdown calendar. Best of all, you get to choose from several design options and ways to use the countdown.

For example, you can use a giant special candle in the middle or choose a beautiful crystal cluster as the central source of light. You can also use beeswax tealight candles with or without a reindeer or another type of candleholder. Alternatively, insert a small beeswax taper candle into an apple to act as a candleholder. Each of these items has a slightly different spiritual meaning and symbolism:

• A beeswax candle symbolizes that light and love are eternally present.
• An apple symbolizes the heart.
• A reindeer candle holder symbolizes the Deer Mother.

First, determine the supplies you will use to construct your Advent spiral from the material options above, or choose your own supplies. Next, assemble it with the DIY tutorial below. Then use it to count down to Christmas or any other winter holiday or special event with the step-by-step instructions in the next section.

How to use a Stone Advent Spiral as a Countdown Calendar:

Making an Advent spiral with stones is so simple, I can’t think of a single excuse not to create one. The best news is that this Christmas Advent calendar is easy to make any number of days before Christmas. Once your advent spiral is complete, follow these step-by-step instructions to count down to Christmas, another holiday, or any specific date. Please remember that these are merely suggestions; feel free to do it your way.

How you use an Advent spiral to count down to the winter solstice or Christmas depends on personal preference and the design choices you make as you put it together. The primary idea is to light a candle and take away a stone as a daily ritual in December.

Either remove a stone and light a single candle in the center. Or replace the stone that is removed each night with a single candle, or do both. Doing both will make the light look as if it is moving inward towards the cosmic center of light a bit more each night.

Alternatively, you can light the same number of candles as rocks removed to create a spiral of light that grows a little bigger and brighter each night until the final day of the countdown is reached, when the entire spiral is full of light. As mentioned in Step 2 in the assembly instructions above, many other items also work great.

Finally, light a special candle or an entire spiral of light on the winter solstice or on Christmas, depending on which holiday you are counting down to. Determine your design, set it up, then use the guidelines below according to your chosen design:

Stone Advent Spiral Countdown Calendar Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Light the candle at the center just before or after sunset.
   • This step is optional, depending on your Advent spiral’s design.
2. Take away one stone just before or after sunset on December 1st, or any day before or after that, as a daily ritual in December.
3. Use the central candle (if present ) to light another candle in place of the stone that was removed, or light the candle if not using a central source of light.
   • This is optional; you can choose to light only the central candle, or only the candle that replaces the stone, if you prefer.
   • Alternatively, you can take the stone away without lighting a candle; instead, light one special candle on the night of the winter solstice, or Christmas Day, or another holiday, depending on which day you are counting down to.
4. Remove another rock or stone, and light a candle (or two each night if desired) until the final stone or piece remains on the winter solstice, Christmas Day (or another winter holiday).
5. Light a final special candle, or an entire spiral of light, on the day that you are counting down to, whether it is the winter solstice, Christmas Day, or another holiday or special event.

Spiritual Significance And Meaning of an Advent Spiral”

A spiral is a symbol that represents nature, the cycles of the seasons, life, rebirth, and the spirit’s inward and outward breath. It is one of the many natural patterns in nature, and you can find it reflected everywhere. In shells, flowers, pinecones, galaxies, and even human fingertips!

Whether you design a giant spiral you can walk into, or a small stone spiral that sits on a tabletop, the spiral can symbolize many things. Here are just a few things an Advent spiral can represent:

The Spiral Symbolizes:

• The inward journey of self-reflection that occurs during winter.
• The soul’s inner journey toward spiritual awakening.
• Finding one’s inner light.
• The light we all share as “one.”
• Bringing the light back to the community during the darkest season.
• Seasonal rhythms and our connection to the cycles of nature.
• The natural patterns found in nature.

Waldorf Advent Spiral Meaning

An advent spiral is right in metaphor and personal significance. Although Steiner did not prescribe the exact practice of an “Advent Spiral Walk” or the “Stone Advent Spiral” shared here. He emphasized personal responsibility for nurturing one’s inner flame, and each ritual described in this informative guide is designed to do just that.

The Waldorf Advent Spiral Festival can help children and families celebrate the light from within as the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer until the longest night of the year is reached on the Winter Solstice.

Just like the Advent Spiral walk, this countdown calendar can inspire children to carry their light into the darkness. As the nights grow longer, this Waldorf-inspired advent spiral made of stones can help families bring light into the darkest days of the year as they count down to Christmas or the winter solstice.

Countdown to Christmas, or Another Holiday or Event, with a Stone Advent Spiral

Celebrate the sun’s rebirth with this simple DIY stone advent spiral calendar. Countdown to Christmas, or use it to count down to the winter solstice or another holiday. You can even make one to make it easy to count down to a birthday or another special event, such as a wedding, a baby’s or toddler’s weaning date.

Alternatively, you can make a stone Advent calendar with popsicle sticks and a Nativity Stable. As we move through Advent, the stone spiral pathway will change in appearance as it shrinks stone by stone and rock by rock in the days leading up to Christmas. This type of Christmas countdown calendar looks gorgeous, bathed in candlelight as it grows smaller and the nights grow darker.

You can see one of our many versions of a stone spiral Advent Christmas countdown calendars growing smaller as it gets closer to Christmas in the photograph above. For more Christmas ideas, look at this list of Christmas Traditions and Fun Things to do on Christmas Day.

Learn more about Nell Regan Kartychok, author, photographer, and creator of this original stone Advent spiral activity HERE, and Rhythms of Play HERE!

More Christmas Ideas:

• Ultimate Family Gift Guide
• Homemade Gifts Kids Can Make
• Christmas Handprint, Fingerprint, and Footprint Card Ideas
• Gorgeous Christmas Ornaments Kids Can Make