Advent sermon series graphics: four Sundays of screens

Advent gives you four Sundays in a row, each with its own theme, and then Christmas lands right on top of them. The simplest way to handle the screens is one design that shifts a little each week: one more candle lit, one word changed, the same colours throughout. Plan it in October or early November and you’ll have it done before the busiest stretch of the year starts.

This year the first Sunday of Advent is 29 November, and Christmas Day falls on a Friday, so the fourth Sunday (20 December) is only a few days before Christmas Eve. That’s tight. It’s another reason to have the Advent set finished early.

The four candle weeks

Churches that light an Advent wreath often give each Sunday a theme. A common set is:

1. Hope
2. Peace
3. Joy
4. Love

Traditions vary, though, so check before you design anything. Some churches put love second and peace fourth. Some use a different set altogether, like the prophets, Bethlehem, the shepherds and the angels. Some light a white Christ candle in the middle on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day as a fifth. And your pastor’s series might not follow the candle themes at all, with the wreath lit as a separate moment in the service.

Ask one question early: what are the four words, in what order? Get the answer in writing. It’s a very easy thing to get wrong, and a slide that says “Peace” while the reader is lighting the joy candle is the kind of mistake people remember.

Traditional Advent colours

The traditional colour of Advent is purple, the same royal, penitential purple some churches use in Lent. Some churches use a deep blue instead, often described as a colour of hope and expectation, and it sets Advent apart from Lent. Either is right. Use what your church already uses on the paraments and the wreath, so the screen matches what people see at the front.

The third Sunday is the exception. Its candle is traditionally rose or pink, for joy, and it’s lovely to carry that onto the screen that week. A rose glow on the third candle, or a warmer wash over the whole background, is enough. You don’t need to redesign the slide in pink.

A word on contrast. Deep purple and navy are dark colours, and that’s helpful: white or cream text reads well over them. But projectors tend to wash out dark, rich colours, so a purple that looks velvety on your laptop can turn into a muddy grey on the wall. Test it on the actual screen. If you’re not sure why that happens, why your slide washed out on the projector explains it and what to do.

Avoid leaning on red and green for Advent. It’s not wrong, exactly, but it tells everyone it’s already Christmas, and the whole point of Advent is the waiting.

One set that changes a little each week

The design approach that works best for Advent is a single image with a small, deliberate change each Sunday. People notice the change, and it marks time the way the wreath does.

The obvious version is the candles themselves. Week one, one candle lit. Week two, two. Week three, three, with the rose one glowing. Week four, all four. Everything else stays still: the background, the series title, the type, where everything sits. The only other thing that changes is the week’s word.

Another version is light. The same scene starts dim in week one and gets a little brighter each Sunday, so by week four the room on screen is warm. That works well if the series is about light coming into darkness, and it’s easier than it sounds, as long as all four are made at the same time from the same picture.

Whatever you choose, make all four weeks at once. If week one is made in November and week three is made in a hurry on 10 December, they won’t match, and it’ll show.

Each week needs roughly the same pieces as any series: the title slide at 1920 × 1080, a quieter background for scripture and sermon points at the same size, and a 1080 × 1080 square for the week’s social post. If you post stories, add a 1080 × 1920 version. The sermon point background should be the calmest of these. It’s on screen longest, behind the most words. There’s more on building a series set like this in plan your sermon series graphic before week one.

Leave the date off the graphics. The week’s word is enough, and an undated set can come back next Advent with a new series title or none at all.

What to plan in October and early November

Advent isn’t only four sermons. It’s usually a lot of extra events on top: a children’s programme, a carol service, a giving appeal, a meal, extra services on Christmas Eve. All of those want slides and flyers in the same weeks. If the Advent series is already finished, you’re only making the extras.

A rough timeline that leaves room to breathe:

• Early October. Ask the pastor for the series title (if there is one), the four weekly themes in order, and any scripture each week will focus on.
• Mid to late October. Make the full set: four title slides, four point backgrounds, four squares. Show it to the pastor and whoever lights the wreath.
• Early November. Fix whatever came back. Run all four weeks on the real screen. Post the first square a week or so before Advent starts.
• Last week of November. Load week one into your presentation software. Load the other three too, so nobody has to go looking for them later.

If the wreath lighting has a reading or a short liturgy, and the words are shown on screen, put those on the plainest background you have. Those slides usually carry more text than a lyric slide, and they’re read aloud together, so they have to be readable at a glance.

Christmas follows straight after

The fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve are close together this year, with only four days between them. Plan Christmas as the next step from Advent, not a separate project.

The simplest move is to finish Advent where Christmas begins. If your Advent set uses candles, the Christmas Eve slide can show all four lit, plus the Christ candle in the centre. If it uses light growing week by week, Christmas is the brightest version. The colours can shift too: purple or blue for Advent, then white and gold for Christmas (white is the traditional colour of the Christmas season). Same picture, same type, a clear change of season.

Christmas Eve itself has its own long list of slides (carols, readings, the candlelight moment, the welcome for guests), and there’s a separate checklist for Christmas Eve service slides. Check your church’s song licence for the carols you put on screen.

If you’d like a head start, Congregate’s Discover has finished seasonal designs other churches have published, and anything you keep stays in your Library for good, so next Advent you’ll know exactly where this year’s set is.

Before the first Sunday, put all four title slides on the screen one after another and step back. You should see the same design four times with one thing changing. If you see four different designs, fix it now, while you still have November.