'Tis the Season for Calendar Lovers!

As mentioned in an earlier post, Pamela loves calendars, but that is fodder for another day. Her favorite kind of calendar is an advent calendar, a custom her Oma (German for grandmother) brought to the United States.

When I was a girl, these calendars were rarities in America, so my Oma mailed an advent calendar from Germany to us. It had little windows, randomly placed in a Christmas scene, numbered 1 through 24. Starting on December 1, one of us seven children opened a window and discovered a treat, usually a candy, ornament, or trinket. Each calendar had 24 windows because Germans opened their presents on Christmas Eve! My mother always timed it so that I opened the window on my birthday, December 17.

My mother is a quilter, the president of the Heart-in-Hand Quilting Club, which donates handmade quilts raffled by various charities. At last year’s meeting, they drew lots in a gift exchange, and my mother was thrilled to receive a handmade quilted advent calendar. She gave it to Pamela for Christmas!

I filled most pockets with candy and a few with trinkets. Since some calendars we kept in the past had quotes from the Nativity story, I created a file in Word with the entire childhood of Jesus, illustrated and quoted from the NIV version of the Gospel (except the genealogy).

I highly recommend an advent calendar for any child who adores calendars and routines! If you have not bought one yet, try making your own: Crafty Folks and Quick and Easy. If you are craft-impaired like me, here are some fun online, interactive calendars: A to Z’s Home’s Cool, Christian Devotional, Christian Musical, Secular/Educational, and Boola and Kwala.