Did you get advent calendars as a kid?

[ShiroKuro]

It seems like advent calendars are everywhere now (online at least). As a kid, I don’t remember even knowing what an advent calendar was. In fact, I first remember really noticing them when I moved to Japan. I remember another English teacher talked about having her students make them for a cross-cultural activity, and I would see them in import shops where they were presented as an example of a western Christmas tradition. I remember just assuming that it was a British thing.

But evidently that’s not the case.

Were advent calendars part of your Christmas tradition growing up?

[jon-nyc]

Yeah I don’t remember even knowing what it was.

Not entirely sure I do now.

[Steve Miller]

We had one every year growing up and we kids took turns opening the little flaps.

[ShiroKuro]

@jon-nyc good point. I don’t know that I could explain it if pressed.

[Mark]

It's just a countdown to Christmas. Each flap reveals a treat of some variety. They have one for Fountain Pen Inks. lol

I was raised Catholic and I had to google it. lol

Advent is the Christian liturgical season of waiting, prayer, and preparation leading up to Christmas. Deriving from the Latin word adventus, meaning "arrival" or "coming," it marks the beginning of the new church year in Western Christianity.

IOW they start repeating the same cherry picked verses from their book.

[Daniel]

It's a Catholic. That would explain why I've never seen one IRL.

My Christmas decorations this year will be limited to one strand of outside Christmas lights.

Maybe I'll do more in '07.

[wtg]

My maternal great-aunt was a Catholic nun; she sent me an Advent calendar when I was a kid. It got re-used every year.

I went down to the basement and dug it out of my box of precious pimentos. It was printed in "Western Germany". It must be from the 1960s.

These days Advent calendars are way more interesting. 24 bottles of wine, 24 kinds of chocolate, and one I hadn't seen before...

...

[ShiroKuro]

@wtg your 1960s is charming!

Also, I like the jam one!

Re origins, as I poke around online, it seems maybe they were common in Germany, doesn't it. (My family is Italian-American, so Catholic, but I think maybe it wasn't a thing in the Italian-American community back then)

[AndyD]

We had one every year in my parents house in the 60's & 70's; they were simple cardboard christmas designs, a chocolate under every window-flap with a bigger one on the 25th.
I continued the tradition for our kids.