Slow down. Quiet. It’s Advent: A history
Ever wonder where the drawings on our Advent calendars come from? Or where the idea first began? Jay Sidebotham, Susan Elliott, and their team made their first calendar nearly thirty years ago, long before the calendars landed at Forward Movement – and they continue to collaborate on this project even today. Thanks to Susan for this lively history of these beloved calendars.
A lot has changed since the first Slow down. Quiet. It’s Advent. poster was published in 1996. Digital publishing and the Internet have pushed print aside, to say nothing of the vast and growing variety of Advent calendars. So many seem created just to ease the wait for Christmas, doling out little toys, legos and treats for the little ones, gourmet chocolates, specialty coffees and more for grownups.
But this large, print Advent poster endures. So where did it come from?
To tell that story, we have to go back to the early 1990s, when Jay Sidebotham began work as Associate Rector at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., hired by the Rector, Bill Tully. Firmly convinced of the critical role of communications in church growth, Bill had brought in an offset press, a part-time printer, desktop publishing equipment and software, and hired Susan Elliott, with her BA in English and zero experience in publications, in a staff position that soon became Director of Communications.
Jay’s arrival on staff, with his earlier experience as an animator on Schoolhouse Rock and Art Director in New York advertising, was an answer to Susan’s prayers. Like Bill, he believed in the role communications plays in helping people grow in faith and community. And he was generous in sharing his abundant design skills, brilliant cartoons and ever-fresh sense of humor, creating lively illustrations for newsletter articles and other publications, advising on layout and design, even nit-picking letter-spacing on titles. The three developed an easy style of collaboration: Talk briefly about an idea, a project or a question, then go back to and do it.
By 1996, both Bill and Jay were leading new congregations. Bill was Rector at St. Bartholomew’s in New York, and Jay was Rector at St. Luke’s in Durham, North Carolina. In their absence, Susan had assembled a small team to support and strengthen her work. At a planning meeting that summer, team members Tom Bethell and Kathleen Stanley suggested that Susan get in touch with Jay about doing an Advent calendar, one with a light touch and a variety of ways to mark the days of Advent.
When Susan followed up, Jay was, as always, full of ideas. Let’s make it big. A poster, 22 x 17 inches. We’ll start with St. Luke’s and St. Columba’s. Maybe do a few custom squares for each congregation’s events. The title was easy. Since the early 1980s, “Slow down. Quiet. It’s Advent.” had been printed on letter-sized cards and distributed at St. Columba’s on the first Sunday in Advent. The phrase was Bill’s, and parishioner Roland Hoover had designed the simple and elegant cards.
It was exciting that first year. When Bill Tully learned what they were up to, he came on board, ensuring that St. Bart’s impressive mailing list and Bill’s penchant for printing a whole lot of extra copies meant a healthy press run. Jay drew the calendar section by hand, using a template Susan provided with the correct number of days. They each came up with a list of ideas for days, and for her, the fun part, was seeing which ideas Jay chose and what he did with the year’s squares. She designed the type and created a subhead for the poster top, and provided the text at the bottom of the calendar.
That’s mostly the way they work still. And while the world continues to change, the Advent themes remain the same. So the challenge is to keep those daily squares fresh and even a little surprising.
After that first calendar, word got out, inquiries and orders came in, and by 2003, the project had seventy-five large and small churches, a monastery bookstore, and a bishop or two on its client list. Interested in the poster’s growth and potential, Morehouse Publishing took over as publisher in 2004 and ten years later, Slow down, Quiet. It’s Advent. moved to Forward Movement, where it supports their mission to inspire disciples and empower evangelists. It’s a good fit and a good partnership.
Over the years, the calendar has been posted around churches, of course, but it’s also shown up in offices, on doors and refrigerators in homes and been shared with friends and family. Children always love coloring Jay’s drawings, and recently churches are inviting folks to bring the colored in posters back at the end of Advent so they can put them on display.
In 2002, the November issue of St. Columba’s Newsletter included an article about the way Slow down, Quiet. It’s Advent had developed. The piece ended with this paragraph:
In the 17th century, people were fond of the memento mori, a sometimes morbid reminder that we don’t live forever. We think of this calendar as a memento adventus — a reminder that Christ is coming and we need to be ready. It’s also about letting friendships and connections be fruitful. And it’s about encouraging one another, at every opportunity, to live into the possibilities of this rich and holy time we call Advent.
Still true today.