Now that Christmas has come and gone it’s time for A Very Sufjan Christmas to go into hibernation until next holiday season. Before we do that, we would like to send out a collective thanks to all of you.

Whether you read an article, contributed your words as a writer, or commented on someone else’s piece, we are unbelievably thankful. This project would not have been possible without a communal Christmas spirit fueling it, and I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we feel it.

This year has been the first holiday season that I (Taylor) have spent away from my family… and not just away, but 3,000 miles away. I’ll be home for Christmas by the time your reading this, but it was a shift in my life to not participate in all of the usual traditions in the lead-up to the holidays. Running this project signaled a new tradition, and I’ve felt a beautiful sense of Christmas comradery both with the other writers on the team and you, the reader.

As we talked about in the Welcome Post, the holidays are all about tradition, and you all helped me create a new one. The meaning of Christmas isn’t that it has meaning, it’s that we give it meaning, and you have given me that, so I must say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If you’re interested in joining us for the second edition of the advent calendar next year, please reach out to us via any one of our social channels (@SufjanChristmas on Twitter or @SufjanChristmas on Instagram) or our email sufjanchristmas@gmail.com.

If you’d like to revisit any of our posts, you can find them all through the Calendar Page… though you may have to click back a month or two in order to find December. Additionally, the lovely Emily Csuy created this Spotify Playlist of each song the site covered this year. Finally, if you just need more Sufjan in your life, we’ve also compiled a group of articles we recommend as supplementary reading.

With that, I’d like to close with a message of thanks. Thank you for reading, thank you for sharing your holiday spirit with us, and thank you for adding a beautiful new tradition to my holiday season. No matter where you are, who you are, or what you’re feeling, I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Until next time.

Love, Taylor, Kyle, and the entire Sufjan Christmas staff.