There is a new trend in Advent Calendars. Instead of waxy chocolates lurking behind perforated cardboard flaps, adults are now enjoying “calendars” of craft beers, wine and even Legos. It’s 2 days until Christmas, so I’ve missed out for this year, but I’m a big fan of Advent Calendars and I even have an Advent candle kicking around here somewhere so I have to admit I’m pretty excited that this is no longer just for kids.
Having said that I’m not that interested in receiving a gift of food or drink each day of December. In the interest of reducing clutter and getting off my bum I think I would prefer a calendar that includes festive activities and activities to give back to the community, like donating food to the food bank or donating a new toy to charity. One year friends of my brother put together a series of envelopes for their kids and the activities included making donations, helping out neighbours and putting out magic reindeer food (it was birdseed with glitter tossed in and they spread it around in the snow). The other issue is that one can’t make their own advent calendar, so perhaps next year I will do it for you and post something each day. . .ah the wheels are already turning. . .Of course there are also the twelve days of Christmas which start on the 25th so perhaps I will post some activities and if you’re game you can follow along.
The nice thing about doing the Twelve Days is that Christmas isn’t over so quickly. All too often my mother laments that months of anticipation are extinguished in one day so this year for Christmas I am giving her the twelve days of Christmas and I have to admit I had fun pulling it all together. I opted to avoid the traditional gifts as she isn’t much on birds and I doubt I could find a partridge let alone milk maids, lords or pipers, but I tried to match gifts either to the day number or the song and while some are a bit of a reach I think she will have fun opening a new gift each day for nearly two weeks. Many of the gifts are small or inexpensive, for example day five she will be unwrapping a box of Banana Cheerios. They are golden rings after all and since “Lords a Leaping” made me think of “Men in Tights” I got her stockings for that day. Since I’m a crafty sort I also made her a scrapbook with a different layout for each of the twelve days plus a few extras if we take a lot of pictures and so as the days progress we can build her a keepsake for Christmas 2013. As I have an abundance of craft supplies this was actually a good thing because it helped to use up some of the stuff I have squirreled away in my basement.
For those who celebrate Christmas I hope you are able to spend the holiday enjoying the company of friends and family, for those who do not, well I wish you the same.
– the Goddess
The Goddess Weighs In 
I’m with your mom. I lived in Europe for a while and Christmas lasts a lot longer. First you have Santa Claus day on Dec 8, then you don’t put up your tree until the night before Christmas–and you put real, burning candles on the tree. Imagine doing that here in the States! Then you leave your tree up until the end of January because you have Advent and eat bread with a little king hidden somewhere inside the dough. It’s all good fun and makes for a wonderfully long Christmas season.
I think I’ll pass on the candles on the tree, though given many are without power in this part of the world due to the ice storm I guess it’s a thought. I like to leave my tree up as long as possible because I love the glow of the lights and looking at all the ornaments. Now when people question this I can now say I’m celebrating European style 🙂 Thanks!
I love your Twelve Days of Christmas gifts! And now you’ve got me thinking about a blog Advent calendar…Hmmm….
When my kids were young we discovered Playmobil advent calendars– they were just reminiscing about them yesterday– about how much more fun it was to get a tiny toy than a predicable piece of cheap chocolate. They played with those toys year-round– in fact they still live in a huge plastic bin of Playmobil in my 16-year-old’s room.
Playmobil? Oh man my childhood was deprived! Fingers crossed my mom will like the gift or at least get a giggle out of some of the presents 🙂
What fun for your mom this year. Very creative!
BB
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You know, my favourite advent calendars were the ones I had as a child in Germany. They’re hard to get, but I still buy one for my daughter occasionally. No chocolates, just a lovely picture with glitter on the snow and little pictures behind each window. I loved that glitter when I was little – Christmas really is the time to get the secret love of kitsch out of my system for the year! We would guess what was behind the window and sometimes even get it right.
The BLR Fitness Ridge trainers did a 12-Days of workouts. I posted each day to my facebook page (My Year of Sweat) and also included details in my weekly workout summary posts. I thought that was an awesome use of the ’12 Days’ theme. 🙂
We did an advent activity where you put say a quarter in a jar or stocking for each tv you have in your house and a dollar for each car your family has, a nickel for each pair of socks, that kind of thing. You do one a day and then by Christmas you have a little pile of money that the kids could decide what to do with. I think we had about $40 by the end of the month last year. It gives them a chance to realize all that they have and they get to pick the charity to give the money to which they got a kick out of.
Great idea!