Advent 2026 Videos for Church, Small Group and Family
The short answer: the easiest free way to run Advent 2026 with video is to pair one short BibleProject word-study video per week with the themes many churches use: hope, peace, joy and love. Advent begins on Sunday, November 29, 2026, and Christmas Eve falls on a Thursday, so you get four full Sundays: November 29, December 6, December 13 and December 20. Each video runs under five minutes, which leaves room for a candle, a reading, a question and a song.
The video titles, lengths and church-use rules below come from BibleProject’s own Advent collection, its help centre and the video pages on YouTube, checked on November 3, 2026. If you are planning the livestream side of Christmas, our Christmas Eve livestream checklist covers the technical weeks; this guide is about what to watch before then.
The four-week plan at a glance
- Week 1, November 29 (Hope): “Hope”, 4 min 33 s. Hope as trusting God’s character, not optimism.
- Week 2, December 6 (Peace): “Shalom – Peace”, 3 min 48 s. Peace as wholeness, not only the absence of conflict.
- Week 3, December 13 (Joy): “Joy”, 4 min 32 s. Joy as trust that God will keep his promises.
- Week 4, December 20 (Love): “Agape – Love”, 4 min 48 s. Love as seeking another person’s good whatever their response.
BibleProject’s Advent page notes that Advent “often encompasses the four Sundays before Christmas, and many traditions assign each Sunday a theme” of hope, peace, joy and love. Traditions differ on the order and on the colour of the candles, so treat this as a sensible default rather than the only way to do it. If your church follows a lectionary or a different order, simply move the videos to match.
Week 1: Hope
BibleProject describes this video as exploring how “biblical hope looks to God’s character alone as a basis for trusting that the future will be better than the present.” It draws on the Hebrew words yakhal and qavah, both about waiting. That makes it a natural opener for a season built on waiting.
Discussion question: what are you waiting for right now, and what does it change to wait with hope rather than anxiety?
Week 2: Peace
The description says the video explores “the core meaning of biblical peace, or Shalom, and how it all leads to Jesus,” including that peace refers “not only to the absence of conflict but also to the presence of something else.” At almost four minutes it is the shortest of the four, which suits a service where the children’s talk or a carol sits right after it.
Discussion question: where in your home, workplace or church would “wholeness” mean more than “quiet”?
Week 3: Joy
This one separates joy from a good mood, describing it as “a choice to trust that God will fulfill his promises.” That framing helps in a season when many people in the room are grieving, lonely or tired. It lets you honour joy without pretending everyone feels cheerful.
Discussion question: can you name a time you had joy and a hard circumstance together?
Week 4: Love
The final video explains agape as a way of treating people defined by Jesus: “seeking the well-being of others regardless of their response.” It leads straight into Christmas week, when a practical response (a meal, a visit, a gift) is easier to plan than an abstract one.
Discussion question: who is one person you could seek the good of this week without expecting anything back?
Go deeper: free reading plans, a calendar and podcasts
BibleProject’s Advent collection lists more than the videos. For households and small groups it offers:
- The Road to Christmas, a 24-day reading plan on the Bible App by YouVersion, also available as a printable PDF.
- Anticipating Christmas: An Advent Overview, a shorter 5-day plan.
- A printable daily Advent calendar with Scripture readings and reflection questions.
- A written Advent guide with Scripture studies on the four themes.
- Four podcast episodes of roughly 32 to 41 minutes, one per theme, for a small group that wants a longer discussion.
- Sessions 5 to 10 of the Rise of the Messiah class, which study the birth of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel.
BibleProject also sells a candleholder and printed Advent cards. They are optional; every item above is free, and a plain set of four candles does the same job.
Using the videos in a service or livestream
This is the part churches most often get wrong, so read it before Sunday. BibleProject’s help centre says you may use its videos in your in-person and online service, including livestreams and uploaded recordings, as long as you follow these guidelines from its Terms of Use:
- Keep videos to less than one-third of the service length.
- Do not edit the videos by adding or removing content.
- Do not remove the audio or use the footage as background visuals.
- Do not upload a standalone BibleProject video to your own YouTube, Facebook or Vimeo channel.
- Do not put “BibleProject” in the title of your online recording.
- Add this line to the description of your recording: “BibleProject is the author and owner of this video. To find more BibleProject resources, visit bibleproject.com.”
Those permissions cover BibleProject video only. Songs sung during the same service are a separate matter, handled through your church’s music licence; see our explainer on the CCLI streaming licence, and our guide to worship videos for church for backgrounds and countdowns. Anything from another creator needs that creator’s own permission.
Family and small-group formats that work
- Home, 10 minutes: light the candle, watch the video once, read the day’s passage from The Road to Christmas and ask the week’s question. Younger children may prefer our list of Christian kids’ shows and videos parents trust for the days between Sundays.
- Small group, 45 minutes: welcome and candle (5), video (5), silent reflection (5), discussion (20), prayer (10). Use the podcast episode as optional homework. Our guide to leading a small-group Bible study has facilitation tips.
- Sunday service, 5 minutes: play the video right before the sermon or the candle lighting, and keep the total well under the one-third limit. If you stream, test the audio path in advance so the video’s sound goes out with the stream.
- Online-only group: send the YouTube link on Saturday, meet on Zoom or Meet on Sunday, and use the discussion question as the opener.
Other good Advent and Christmas viewing
If your group wants more after these four, our roundup of the best Christmas Christian videos and songs adds music and longer films, and our comparison of faith-based streaming services helps if you are deciding whether a subscription is worth it for December.
