The pleasures of Advent

...as a child were largely dependent on the Advent calendar. Nearly always with a religious scene, or sometimes a picture of snowy pine forests, with appealing animals lurking under low-lying branches.
Crimson Rambler was reminiscing about the role they played for her children and I was intrigued that she was able to persaude her offspring to close the windows and preserve the Advent calendars. My parents tried so so hard, but it was never part of the package for me (save for one year when I specially loved the scene, - and even that one only survived a couple of years as the windows kept popping open).Clearly somewhere in Germany there is a factory that produces pictures for Advent calendars, for they were generally the same familiar pictures inside each window: it was such fun to see where they might turn up each year..the candle..the Christmas cookie...the lamb...Would it be a star or a baby behind the window on Christmas Eve?..And would you have to open the stable doors (double doors, so clearly extra special) or might there be a secret hiding place for the Great Treasur?

For many years with my own offspring there were struggles. Why couldn't they have a chocolate calendar like all their friends? Well, because Barbie or the latest Disney delight simply had nothing to do with the season...though I did see their point that some of the more insitently Christian varieties overdid the Bible verses and seemed to have lousy pictures as well - and then, blessedly, Traidcraft started marketting one that both told the story AND dished out fair trade chocolate. We're still buying them...You don't grow out of that kind of thing!