Advent Readings for 2026: A Daily Scripture Plan

Advent Scripture readings are the Bible passages a church and its families read through the four weeks before Christmas, from the promises of a coming King to the birth of Jesus. Advent 2026 begins on Sunday, November 29, and runs to Christmas Eve, Thursday, December 24. This page has a reading for every one of those 26 days, the Year B lectionary readings for each Sunday, and public domain hymns to sing with them.

Choose songs alongside these readings from the Advent hymns and Christmas hymns and carols collections. Check the tune and selected verses with the musician before printing the service order.

The dates

The dates change every year, and the church year calendar tool finds them for any year. Pick a year to see Advent and Christmas.

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See the church year dates

Pick a year and see the first Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day. The real tool prints the whole church year and gives you a file for your calendar.

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Year 2026 2027 2028

Church name

Riverside Community Church · 2027

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Advent means “coming.” On these four Sundays the church reads the promises God made about the Messiah, the King he promised to send, whom Christians know as Jesus Christ. Christians also wait now for Christ to come again, so the readings look both back and ahead. A church with no wreath can keep the same four Sundays by preaching these promises.

A daily Advent Bible reading plan

These readings run every day from the first Sunday of Advent to Christmas Eve, 26 days in all. The first week reads God’s first promises of a Savior, the second reads the prophets who said a messenger would prepare his way, the third follows Mary, Elizabeth and Zechariah, and the fourth reads why God sent his Son. Each passage takes two or three minutes to read aloud, so a family can read it at dinner and a small group can read the week together.

For readings to use with a wreath at home or at church, use the Advent candle readings.

Candle readings for each Sunday

The Advent candle readings page has the full words for lighting the wreath on each Sunday and on Christmas Eve: the passage, a response for the leader and the congregation, a prayer everyone says together, and a question and answer for children. It comes as a large-type PDF for the readers and as slides for the screen.

The Scripture on this site is from the Berean Standard Bible. Its translators dedicated the text to the public domain on April 30, 2023, so you can print it in a bulletin or put it on a screen without asking permission.

Lectionary readings for Year B

The Revised Common Lectionary is a three-year schedule of Bible readings that many churches use for Sunday worship. The church year that starts November 29, 2026 is Year B, the second year of the cycle. A church that follows it reads some or all of the four readings each week: one from the Old Testament, a psalm, one from the letters of the New Testament, and one from the Gospels. These are the Year B readings as the Vanderbilt Divinity Library lists them. The lectionary gives three sets for Christmas, and the December 24 row is the first.

The first Gospel reading is Mark 13, where Jesus tells his disciples to stay awake for his return, and the readings reach his birth on Christmas Eve. A sermon on Mark 13 on the first Sunday can explain why Advent is about waiting, because Christians wait for Christ’s return as Israel waited for his birth.

Hymns you can print and project

As of January 1, 2026, works published in the United States in 1930 or earlier are in the public domain, according to Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain. The words of every hymn below are far older than that, so their original words may go in a bulletin or on a screen with no license, and each title below links to the full text.

The years come from Hymnary.org’s records. Copy from an old source or from those pages, because a modern hymnal may print an edited text, a new translation or a new arrangement, and each of those can carry its own copyright. The U.S. Copyright Office says the copyright in a new version covers what the editor, translator or arranger added. Read the lines printed under the words and the music before you copy from a hymnal. A song published in 1931 or later is usually still under copyright, so print it under your church’s music license or with the publisher’s permission.

The hymn library already holds the words of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, Joy to the World and O Little Town of Bethlehem, each copied from a hymnal published in 1930 or earlier. Pick one below and see it as a slide.

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Put a hymn on the screen

Pick a public domain hymn and see the words as a slide. The real tool opens with that hymn first in your set.

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Hymn Amazing GraceHoly, Holy, HolyIt Is Well with My SoulBlessed AssuranceThe Old Rugged CrossCome, Thou Fount of Every BlessingO Come, All Ye FaithfulO Come, O Come, EmmanuelHark! the Herald Angels SingJoy to the World

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,That saved a wretch like me!

Amazing Grace, verse 1. Public domain.

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The tool is free, and the hymn library has no license to buy because every text is public domain.

Notes for the people reading

Have each reader practice once in the room, with the microphone, before Sunday. Most people read too fast when they are nervous, so ask them to read slower than feels natural.

Print the reading in large type for children and older readers, and put an adult beside any child lighting a candle. A long-reach lighter keeps sleeves away from the flame.

Assign the five readings to five families in early November, send each family its script, and text each one a reminder the week before.

For the rest of the service, see the order of worship guide, and print the Sunday sheet with the bulletin maker.