Hello! How are you?
We are a good way through December as I type. I am yet to finish Christmas decorating, and I forgot to buy an advent calendar this year.
Which got me thinking – why do we buy advent calendars anyway? Where did the idea come from?
And where do you go with questions like that… Google of course. (Other search engines are available…). It turns out the idea of the advent countdown goes back a very long way, the 1800’s in fact. And, like a lot of our Christmas traditions it started in Germany.
The original countdown was not at all like the calendars we know today. Originally they would be chalk marks on a wall, some people would burn a candle a day (I imagine that is where the idea for an advent candle came form – the more modern ones where you burn to the next number).
At some point, people started to display a different (religious) item each day.
And that it where the original advent calendar – most like those we see today was created.
The first known calendar was actually made of wood in the 1850’s (I love little wooden ones now too!).
The first printed calendars were seem in the 1900s – which were just cardboard with printed pictures on. They were beautiful – the illustrations much more ornate that the ones we see now.
A German company added the little doors in the 1920’s – and that was the beginning of printed, mass produced calendars we know and love today.
There were lots of patterns and designs – some had bible verses behind each door, others had pictures. A few even had chocolates in.
They counted down from December the 1st to the 24th. They always stopped on Christmas Eve.
Advent calendars did disappear for a while – as paper and cardboard were in very short supply during World War 2.
When they reappeared in 1946 there was no chocolate, it was a few more years before those supplies would allow those little goodies behind each door. It was in the 1950’s when advent calendars as we really know them today started to spread across the world – with some adding an extra, larger door, for Christmas Day itself.
Of course, now we have all sorts of things in the calendars – tea, beauty products, gin…. but I still love the chocolate ones the most.
But – as I said, I forgot to buy an advent calendar this year – and I am sure many people did. So instead, I am creating an advent sketch a day, a little virtual calendar for people to enjoy.
You can find all of them on my Facebook and Instagram channels – and I have added a few examples to my Gallery. (The gallery ones will be removed in the new year, catch them while you can!).
And there we have it – a pocket history of the advent calendar. I hope you found it interesting – and that you enjoy my advent sketches.
Let me know your favourite – the most popular ones may be Christmas cards in future years.