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Make an Advent Calendar

Last Minute Advent Calendar
A Collection of Beautiful Things
Advent House
Tea Lights for the Dinner Table

The Advent calendar, a countdown to Christmas, was first introduced by a German publisher in 1908. Since then generations of children are looking forward to receive their Advent calendar on December 1st.

There are many different versions of calendars on the market. The most well known probably is the Advent house seen in the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. Another, more common version, is the chocolate filled flat box which is used in Bad Santa with Billy Bob Thornton. Behind each window is a small piece of chocolate.

As children we had cylinder shaped calendars which could be used as a luminaries. The calendars were wrapped around Ovaltine containers in late fall. We each received a calendar on December 1st. And every year we were reminded by our mom not to open the little windows in advance. But we were never able to wait and always had to have a peek. The most precious window was the one for December 24th. It always contained the most beautiful picture.

See here for a few easy to make Advent calendars.

To keep the tradition alive we of course offer an online Advent calendar. It is filled each day with new ideas on decorating, entertaining, and gift giving to shorten the wait for Christmas.

Celebrating Advent - a little history

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