If you’ve ever enjoyed the 1996 Schwarzenegger holiday classic “Jingle All the Way”, you know just how difficult, stress-inducing, and dare we say life-threatening getting the perfect Christmas gifts for your loved ones and neighbors can be.  To alleviate some of these more negative possibilities and to spread cheer, we have compiled a short list of stellar last-minute Christmas gift options for those on your list, especially those with an interest in the intersections of excellent art, beauty, and faith.  

Whether you like bibles, coffee table reading, beautiful music, or space-defining original paintings, we’ve got ‘em for you. The following six items are favorites of the Forefront team and are presented and linked for you by their respective recommender.  Happy shopping!

Word on Fire Bible

Word on Fire Ministries

If you’re like me, you are constantly tempted by new and beautiful Bibles to the point where you have a shelf with four or five different translations, two or three different ESVs, and at least one gargantuan NIV Study Bible even though you tend to use the app on your phone more than any of these beautiful, tangible, and sometimes expensive copies of Scripture.  Phew.  Well here’s another for your collection that we at Forefront are jealous we didn’t come up with ourselves:

The Word on Fire Bible is advertised as “a cathedral in print”, and in many ways it lives up to the description.  The first volume contains the four Gospels in well spaced contemporary layout, surrounded and supplemented by visual art, essays, prayers, and commentaries from the breadth of historic Christianity.  As you read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you will come across essays by the likes of Saint Augustin and John Chrysostom, paintings of biblical narrative and symbol by artists like Caravaggio, poems by gold leaf inlays at the start of each book, and word-studies and commentaries by theologians inlaid among the paragraphs.  Following the Bible’s tradition as the “way of Beauty”, this edition of the Gospels is both full of Truth and a course of support for the mind, eye, hands, and spirit -- “designed to introduce the seeker to Christ through the aesthetic splendor that He has inspired”.

Printed and bound in Vicenza, Italy on fine arctic paper milled in Grycksbo, Sweden, the Gospels volume is available in a beautiful leather bound edition (the one my wife gifted me for my birthday), or a less expensive hardcover, and less expensive still soft cover edition.

Useful note: Word on Fire Ministries is a Roman Catholic organization headed by Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles.  The Word on Fire Gospels are in the NRSV translation and the commentaries by Bishop Barron (clearly credited) reflect a Catholic perspective and theology.  This reveals itself in certain language used around the figure of Mary (Jesus’ mother) and the primacy of the apostle Peter.  In my opinion, with one’s own theology in mind, be it Catholic, Reformed, or otherwise, this perspective of the Ministry does not pervade or overwhelm the experience. The Scriptures, and the included visual art and the words of historical Church Fathers speak for themselves.  

Alabaster Co. Books of the Bible

Alabaster Co.

“The Bible beautiful.” Alabaster Co. creates individual coffee-table book/magazine sized books of the bible aesthetically laid out in a contemporary minimalistic style and accompanied by beautiful photography.  Like Forefront Festival, their books are meant to “explore the intersection of creativity, beauty, and faith” in addition to improving  readability, accessibility, and the shelf appeal of Scripture reading. We think they are doing an excellent job of it.  

You can buy books individually, in collections, or in a complete collection in soft or hard cover.

P.S. - They also have a great blog on Creativity and Faith.

The Gray Havens Complete Chord Book Collection

The Gray Havens 

The Gray Havens (husband and wife duo Dave & Licia Radford) are beyond a doubt one of the best bands out there right now in terms of lyricism, storytelling, and authentic faith representation in indie music.  Long-time fans of Forefront Festival will know The Gray Havens well as they headlined our Forefront Conference + Festival in 2017 with music from their stellar Ghost of a King album.  If you, like us, have only dreamed we could be a part of or reflect the artistic excellence they have going on -- your time has come.  

For the holiday season this year, The Gray Havens are offering a complete collection of 4 chord books complete with lyrics and 34 tutorial videos that will enable you to learn and play almost their entire catalog of music.  Perfect for guitarists, pianists, worship leaders, youth leaders, and general music lovers alike. 

While you’re at it, you could pick up some other great merch as well like mugs, vinyls, posters, and tees.    

A5 Notebook + Bandolier

Pulp

Pulp designs and produces creative products for your desktop. Their production processes are based on traditional manufacturing methods combined with advanced technologies and a culture of sustainability. Whenever possible, Pulp uses eco-friendly and recycled materials, carefully selected for their quality and beauty. They also work a lot with artists and illustrators to create unique limited edition products.

This notebook is one of their classic products. The bright cover color options like blue and yellow (not unlike Forefront colors!) contrast beautifully with white pages and classic writing instruments — and the simple but clever elasticized bandolier keeps your writing instruments tied to your notebook. It’s both practical and aesthetic, which we call “good design.” It’s a great gift idea for the writer or sketch artist in your family.

Patrol Children’s Books

Patrol

Patrol is a team of storytellers and artists producing books which tell fiction and non-fiction stories inspired by the Bible. Their books feature gorgeous illustrations, clever storytelling, and important themes. We love it when a good story is also a visual work of art, and these books fit that description perfectly. Their Christmas book “The Moonman Cometh” is currently sold out, but any of their stories are worth purchasing.

Prayer: Volume One

Strahan Coleman

This beautiful little book is a 74-page, 50-prayer artistic and poetic expression of the new closeness Strahan found with God during a recent season of his life. These poems/prayers are each paired with a description that includes Strahan’s inspiration behind the poem. The book also includes intentionally minimalist mountain imagery throughout that gives a visual structure to the content. Read by itself or alongside Strahan’s music album “Vulnerability,” this book is a great companion to a quiet time with God, and a thoughtful gift for a friend or family member.

"Boreas"/"Zephyrus" on Vinyl

The Oh Hellos

The Oh Hellos’ albums “Boreas” and “Zephyrus” were some of our favorite albums of the year, and they’re a balm to the soul in a time of darkness and waiting. With The Oh Hellos’ trademark folk/rock style — sometimes meditative, sometimes raucous — we learn that winter is not forever, that spring is coming, that growth and new life are just around the corner. This dual side vinyl is the perfect gift for any friend or family member who owns a turntable and loves rousing music.

Hubble: Imaging Space and Time

National Geographic

There has always been something of the artistic in scientific exploration. Often, a highly complex and technical effort to interrogate creation through science yields astoundingly beautiful revelations about the world we inhabit. Galileo’s moons were discovered through revolutionary scientific observation, after all, but there is something haunting and beautiful behind his sketches of them.

National Geographic has published a book of photographs and essays dedicated to the Hubble Telescope that capture something of this interplay between beauty and science. The book both reveals a remarkable level of technological mastery necessary for such a project and inspires awe at the images captured by the powerful telescope. It is beautifully arranged, with full-page prints of stunning nebulae and galaxies, and features in-depth writing on the history of the telescope and its many discoveries about the universe. The instrument has allowed us to peer further into space than ever before, and produced some of the most incredible images in history. National Geographic has placed 200 of them right at your fingertips. 

Because of how gorgeous this volume is, it’s a great fit for display on a coffee table or other communal area. And whether they’re perusing for cool pictures, fascinated by the science, or looking for artistic prompts, it’s a perfect gift for the scientifically curious artist open to inspiration from the wildest of places.

An Original Sasha Hallock Painting

Sasha Hallock

Sasha Hallock is a contemporary abstract painter living and working in Brooklyn and is a friend of Forefront.  His pieces are vibrant windows of color, form, texture, and white space that invite the viewer to a “bringing together of disparate pieces to create an object of beauty”.  Sasha himself has referred to his style as “sculptural landscapes”.

The value of having an artist’s original single-in-existence work hanging in one’s home is a topic that could and should be an article on this blog all it’s own, but for now suffice it to say that the gift (or purchase for oneself) of a painting, drawing, or sculpture brings a whole different life to the piece as well as definition and energy to your space.  Mark Rothko famously understood, “a painting lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer...”.  An investment in real, tangible, original art is something often undervalued in postmodern society.*

Sasha currently has pieces for sale through 1st Dibs and the gallery of Susan Eley. 
You can also inquire through his website, the email info@sashahallock.com, or through his instagram (@sashahallock) to begin a conversation on what is for sale, pricing, and other details.

Note: Sasha is a professional studio artist and isn’t currently in the business of selling prints or reproductions.  He creates original high quality work and pieces are therefore unique/one-of-a-kind and are valued as such. 

(*Obviously, we realize art can and should only be collected by those who can afford -- God bless those who can with gratitude and generosity and those who cannot with increase.)

We hope...

these ideas have been inspirational and helpful!  Of course, this list is far from exhaustive.  As always, we recommend looking into and supporting local artists and creators.  What goes around comes around as far as supporting a world of care, beauty, and creativity.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Forefront Festival, and a happy New Year!