Advent Calendars
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Christmas | 25 comments
Advent calendar
When I was a small child someone sent us three Advent Calendars from Germany. One for each child. I can still remember the anticipation as we opened the windows each day and looked at the pictures behind the doors on all three.
These Advent Calendars were deluxe, with a really good image behind each door and loads of detail in the scenes. One has stuck in my mind forever. The door was a window shutter and when I opened it there was a lady smiling down at someone below. I followed her gaze to the man and the little dog standing on the snowy street below. Magical.
No wonder my mother kept them safe. They were packed away after Christmas with the rest of decorations and appeared twelve months later.
I was so young that I couldn’t remember the images behind the doors year to year. So I was thrilled when she opened the large oblong Christmas box, shook off the tinsel and stood the calendars on the mantelpiece.
Eventually I did remember the images but still enjoyed the anticipation of having my annual peek inside each window.
One day I’d love to design an Advent Calendar where the images behind the doors interact with the overall scene.
Crossing the days off to Christmas is fun. I’ve always enjoyed Advent Calendars. An independent journey has always appealed far more than any arrival.
This morning a small, chunky envelope dropped through our letterbox. I opened it carefully. My mum had sent us a card advent calendar. Something about the design had my antenna twitching, it seemed familiar. I turned it over to discover that it was designed and made in Germany by Richard Sellmer Verlag.
I ventured onto the internet. They have been trading since 1946!
We must have received our advent calendars in the late fifties. I’m 98% sure that this style is the same. I studied the calendars each Christmas for about four or five years in a way that only a child could – with few distractions, every square inch was examined carefully and enjoyed.
Fifty years later things may have come full circle.
Update: Yes I have now confirmed that these were the calenders that we had as children. You can buy them direct from the manufacturer in Germany too.
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Thank you – I’ve been hoping to find something like this for my kids – they are lovely. I’m sure the 10 year old will be gutted to miss out on the chocolate but hopefully the start of a new tradition for the 2 year old!
I do like Advent Calendars. I’m afraid, in my house, we have the chocolate version!
This really brought back memories, Fiona! My dad was a professor of German and had many German friends (we spent summer holidays in Germany for several years). I vividly remember these same calendars, with each window completing the scene with an extra detail when it was opened. I’m sure they must have been sent from Germany. The four of us opened the windows every day in strict rotation 🙂
Unfortunately,a well meaning relative gives my two daughters a chocolate advent calendar every year. When they were younger, we had the usual tantrums when we said they couldn’t eat the chocolates at breakfast (one year the calendars were hidden for a few days by us!) until we gave in and let them eat them, even if they hadn’t finished their breakfast. The calendars have been delivered again this year, but I have also bought a nativity themed calendar with just pictures, and my husband very kindly bought us a wooden nativity scene so we can try to instil the true meaning of Christmas. Partly due to the credit crunch and partly because we are fed up with all things excessive, we are hoping for a quiet family Christmas this year with Carols, charades, good old fashioned paper chains, mince pies and Elderberry liqueur (if it’s turned out alright!!)
I will be thinking of us all opening our advent calendars on 1st December and marvelling at a little 1 inch square picture.
I used to love opening the Advent calendar windows – the style looks very familiar, maybe we had that sort too.
Celia 🙂
I never understood, why we were taught that advent was a time to fast, be lean with our food like Lent. But literally over night (*read one year to the next) we went from picture windows to the new chocolate filled calendars?
Very confusing for a child… ‘no, no, I have told you no dessert, its advent’. Then the next morning getting up opening the calendar and there being a chocolate in the shape of an angel? Mixed messages!!
Loved this post, by the way. 42 days till Christmas. LOL I have been counting down for ohhh, a good 50 days already. Mostly to wind my colleagues up at work. Plus I have decided that I really love Christmas. It is going to be my new favourite time of year.
Such a shame that these days (like so much else in our ‘throwaway’ society) Advent calendars are yet another of the things to end up in landfill at the conclusion of the Festive Season.
And these days, it’s not the pictures behind the little doors that children cherish; it’s more to do with the chocolates, sweets or toys the doors reveal each day.
It’s such a shame that the message – & the magic – of Christmas has largely been stifled by such overt consumerism these days….but so heartening, that people like your good selves keep the true spirit alive.
Incidentally it’ll be interesting to see how the credit crunch affects the sales of things like X-Boxes, & Wiis, & enormous televisions, this Christmas – seemingly now ‘must haves’ that even families on a budget cannot do without.
It makes me a little sad to think of the number of families that will either disperse after Christmas Dinner to immerse themselves in solitary computer games or “txt msgs” etc; or plonk themselves in front of that gargantuan TV to waggle their arms around whilst holding a little box & believe they’re getting some meaningful exercise….. rather than going out for a brisk walk in the ‘fresh air’, as we used to do. How times change….it won’t be long before we hardly need to venture outside at all, at this rate!!
Keep opening those little doors….
Just when I was beginning to think they don’t make anything like they used to… And here they are. I hope they are in business for at least another 50 years.
Fiona, Your Mum sent us an advent calendar many, many years ago, when H and R were very young. It wasn’t new then, so was obviously one of the three you speak of.
We have put it up each year and although some of the flaps have fallen off, and the children are no longer home, it is still a very cherished piece in our Christmas decorations.
And yes, the style is the same!
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Hi Danny/Fiona, I was able to trace back to your site following through a comment on my blog! You folks have a nice site and very neatly maintained.
Yes, Anything that dates back to past is always memorable. Cherishing such memories make life more beautiful. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.