POLL: Does your family have an advent calendar at Christmas?

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IzzyD

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Is it a religious advent calendar and does it have chocolate or pictures behind the doors? I’ve never really liked chocolate so my family always has at least two paper nativity scene calendars with pictures behind the doors. This year we were also given this wooden advent calendar which allows you to build the nativity scene over the course of advent: lakeland.co.uk/40910/Bethlehem-Advent-Stable I was shocked to find out how much it costs (we would never have brought it ourselves!) but it is beautiful and I’m really looking forward to advent so we can use it 👍

EDIT: Sorry about all the poll options, I was trying to make sure I covered everything!
 
I chose a “secular reusable”, since ours simply has numbered pockets for each day. However, I don’t really consider it a secular practice and we fill our pockets with sweets. In the past, I’ve bought a card set from the religious goods store, that has a different prayer for each day, and put the cards in the pockets as well. I really like your nativity set. It would be really neat to have that for children. Are the figurines wooden or ceramic? It’s sort of hard to tell from the picture. I always liked playing with our nativity when I was little, but I had to be sneaky because mama would bestow a yuletide whooping on anyone she caught touching it. When I got older she let me help set it up, but then I wasn’t allowed to touch it after that, since it was so breakable. I think it would be nice to have a set that kids could manipulate without worry about them breaking the Holy Family’s heads off.
 
Advent is like a ‘little Lent’. Christmas cookies and chocolates and treats are best avoided until after the Christmas liturgy. 😃 The Christmas season is when treats should be enjoyed, but most folks have already gained 5 lbs by Boxing Day, or should I say, on the feast of Stephan.
Wow. Really opposite what the world sells us, huh?

Are we really the only ones who don’t do Advent Calendars and their treats? I’m more interested in that question! 😛
 
My mother used to have one where the line of a song and a prayer was said/added onto every day 'til on Xmas eve, you’d have a neat little prayer and song. It was something from her Mexican village. When she came over (to the US), she stopped doing it…and now she can’t remember it.

There were loads of traditions that she had, she tells me about them, every other year or so. I always ask her if we could mimic them, but she always says, “That it’s, just, not the same.” 🤷
 
Since my daughter is so young I got a velcro and felt Advent calendar. The felt shows the manger scene and the velcro pieces add on a shepard, angel, camel, wise man, etc each day.

Here it is: Advent Fabric Calendar
 
Allegra said:
I chose a “secular reusable”, since ours simply has numbered pockets for each day. However, I don’t really consider it a secular practice and we fill our pockets with sweets. In the past, I’ve bought a card set from the religious goods store, that has a different prayer for each day, and put the cards in the pockets as well. I really like your nativity set. It would be really neat to have that for children. Are the figurines wooden or ceramic? It’s sort of hard to tell from the picture. I always liked playing with our nativity when I was little, but I had to be sneaky because mama would bestow a yuletide whooping on anyone she caught touching it. When I got older she let me help set it up, but then I wasn’t allowed to touch it after that, since it was so breakable. I think it would be nice to have a set that kids could manipulate without worry about them breaking the Holy Family’s heads off.
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I think the figures are made of resin. We also have a nativity scene which belonged to my grandma and I was never allowed touch that when I was little! Although I think a cat once broke off one of the shepherds’ heads and it had to be glued back on 😃
 
IzzyD said:
This year we were also given this wooden advent calendar which allows you to build the nativity scene over the course of advent: lakeland.co.uk/40910/Bethlehem-Advent-Stable I was shocked to find out how much it costs (we would never have brought it ourselves!) but it is beautiful and I’m really looking forward to advent so we can use it 👍
Click to expand...
Too cute! If I had the money I would buy my family one. 😃
 
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IzzyD:
Is it a religious advent calendar and does it have chocolate or pictures behind the doors? I’ve never really liked chocolate so my family always has at least two paper nativity scene calendars with pictures behind the doors. This year we were also given this wooden advent calendar which allows you to build the nativity scene over the course of advent: lakeland.co.uk/40910/Bethlehem-Advent-Stable I was shocked to find out how much it costs (we would never have brought it ourselves!) but it is beautiful and I’m really looking forward to advent so we can use it

EDIT: Sorry about all the poll options, I was trying to make sure I covered everything!
Click to expand...
We have a cloth one with nativity scene pieces (fridge magnets.) It’s 24 days instead of adjustable by year, but almost any bought one seems to be like that (even ones in Catholic catalogues!) I am toying with the idea of making my own, but I’m just starting out on crafting endeavors so it may take me a while!

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Each child has a secular chocolate one, and we have a family nativity scene magnetic one. The kids sometimes fight over who gets to place the magnet in the scene. 😃 Kids!
 
PennyinCanada said:
Advent is like a ‘little Lent’. Christmas cookies and chocolates and treats are best avoided until after the Christmas liturgy. 😃 The Christmas season is when treats should be enjoyed, but most folks have already gained 5 lbs by Boxing Day, or should I say, on the feast of Stephan.
Wow. Really opposite what the world sells us, huh?

Are we really the only ones who don’t do Advent Calendars and their treats? I’m more interested in that question! 😛
Click to expand...
You probably aren’t the only ones who don’t do Advent calendars, but I think you might be the only one who seems to think that Advent shouldn’t be festive. We’ve always enjoyed Advent as the “holiday season”. We get together as a family on Sundays especially and we have a nice dinner and my dad always lights the Advent wreath. We celebrate with both secular parties and religious events like Los Pasados, living nativities, and Christmas concerts. Other than the sense of anticipation, preperation, and a more intense focus on our faith in our everyday lives, I don’t think advent is much like Lent. When I think of Lent, I think of focusing on my personal prayer life and devotions. At Advent, we tend to be more focused on serving others. I don’t see any reason why one should be encouraged to refrain from celebrating during Advent, unless the way in which they are celebrating is seperating them from Christ. (And the OP’s Advent calander certainly wouldn’t fall into that category.)
 
The Eastern Churches observe St. Philip’s Fast…

“Ukrainian Catholics refer to the pre-Christmas fast period as Pylypiwka or St. Philip’s Fast, as it always begins on November 15 the day after the feast of St. Philip the Apostle, (November 14). It ends on December 24th. …To prepare to celebrate the joy of Christmas, we fast, we pray more and we increase our acts of love and compassion. Even though there may be nothing wrong with parties and celebrations in themselves, they do seem to be inconsistent with the spirit of fasting and preparation of this pre- Christmas season. It is much better to schedule these during the Nativity-Theophany season, during the time of the feast when it is truly a celebration.”
sspp.ca/Pylypiwka%20the%20_Pre-Christmas%20Fast.htm

Everyone is free to do what they wish in their own homes of course but I couldn’t omit to mention the preparation observed by the Eastern Churches. 😃
 
When I was a child my godmother gave me an Advent calendar every year; always a Nativity scene with pictures behind the “doors”. When I first saw the ones with chocolates I felt someone had mixed Easter Sunday up with Advent.

When my daughters were young (under 5, if I remember correctly) my mom found a lovely 3D Nativity card shaped Advent calendar, when the doors were opened, in addition to the picture revealed there was a part of the story of Jesus’ birth written in rhyme on the back of the door, gradually telling the story from December 1st. That Advent calendar is now being used in my daughter’s home, although we have not yet showed the children that there are doors that open yet, perhaps this is the year to do it.

Something I did for my girls when they were older was to use 25 matchboxes glued together into a rectangular shape. Split pins were inserted into the ‘front’ of each tray to make it look like a bureau (chest of drawers). Each tray was numbered from 1 to 25. Then came the fun, there was something in each tray. The contents ranged from outright ‘gifts’, such as a pretty eraser to challenges like “here’s a stamp, write a letter to someone who lives far away” (we lived far from family); another was a sweet that you could only eat once you had done something kind for your sister. The contents are only limited by the size of the tray and your inventiveness in terms of what you ask the children to do. I always put something ‘religious’ in the 25th tray (and it only went in at the same time as I put the presents under the tree to forestall any peeping beforehand).

Come to think of it, next Christmas I’ll be living really close to my grandchildren, maybe I need to make 4 of these now for use then?
 
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