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On December 1st, the countdown to Christmas begins. While it used be that only children would receive a Adventskalender to help them pass the time until December 24th (that’s when Germans open their presents), it seems that adults have jumped on the wagon with their own advent calendars.
I myself had a Wine Advent Calendar last year that my husband bought for me at the local liquor store. It contained 24 cans of wine that I dutifully drank every day. Well, I had to skip some days because that was a lot of wine.
But let’s explore the history of the advent calendar and early versions before looking at new and trendy ones that we find at the store, at buildings, and as virtual ones online.
The first Advent Calendars
Advent, which is Latin for arrival, is celebrated in the weeks before Christmas and it is the beginning of the liturgical year. Some advent calendars used to start with the first Advent which is the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ran either until Christmas or in some cases until Epiphany on January 6th.
Today, most people open the first door or present of their advent calendar on December 1st.
Homemade Advent Calendars
We can’t say for sure how and when the first advent calendar was made but some early example date back to the middle of the 19th century. To celebrate Advent the catholic churches held daily masses while the people in more protestant areas had prayer meetings at home.
It’s logical then that the tradition of homemade advent calendars is in its beginnings a protestant tradition since devotionals and prayers took place in people’s homes. One of the earliest Adventskranz (advent wreath) and Adventskalender is probably the one made by Johann Hinrich Wichern in 1839 for the children in the children’s home “Rauhes Haus” in protestant Hamburg.
Wichern took a wagon wheel and fastened 24 candles on it with four bigger candles to indicate the advent Sundays. The wheel or wreath hung from the ceiling in the praying room. Every day one more candle than the day before was lit until by Christmas all candles were burning.
“Das Rauhe Haus” still exists today, and they still have an Adventskranz with four big white candles for Sundays, and smaller red candles for the weekdays.
Advent wreaths and advent calendars became popular and spread across Germany.
The first advent calendars were handmade and relatively simple. The children could count down the time either by taking something away, like erasing a chalk mark or burning down a candle, or by adding something, like a piece of straw or a picture.
Some parents would draw 24 lines on the door with chalk and every day the children would be allowed to erase one line.
Other families pinned a picture on the wall, so by the time Christmas arrived there were 24 pictures on the wall.
Common were Abreißkalender (Tear-Off or Sheet Calendars) where the child tore one page off the calendar. Often these pages showed a picture or bible verse.
A similar way was to add papers with bible verses and/or pictures to a Adventsbaum, an Advent Tree, which could be real or made of wood. Sometimes people would also add a candle to the tree.
A more catholic inspired way to mark the time is adding straw to the manger. The children take a piece of straw every day to build a nice bed for Baby Jesus.
The Adventskerze is another way to show how close you are getting to Christmas. The 24 days are marked on a large candle and every day you burn it down one day. This tradition is also prevalent in the Scandinavian countries.
Clocks are obviously also a good way to tell time just like candles were used in antiquity. A special Christmas clock could be made or bought, and the children were able to move the hand of the clock one day at a time. For every day there was a bible verse or a song text they could enjoy.
An Austrian tradition is the Himmelsleiter which is a ladder with 24 steps. Every day the Christkind (Christ Child) moved down one step until it reached earth on December 24th and could distribute presents to the children.
Himmelsleiter. The Christ Child makes its way down to earth and into its manger.
Buying Advent Calendars
The beginning of the 20th century marks the time when advent calendars became really popular and were published and sold. Before that most people made their own calendar though Carl Gottlob Schönherr began selling paper ornaments with sayings and pictures as early as 1846.
In 1902, a Weihnachtsuhr für Kinder (a Christmas clock for children) was printed in Hamburg. Much of the credit of commercial advent calendars and the many variations should go to Gerhard Lang.
In 1904, a Weihnachtskalender was an extra in a Stuttgart newspaper. It consisted of two pages, one with the calendar, and one with pictures. Every day the children could cut out a picture and then glue it on the calendar page.
By 1908, Lang was printing these calendars for everybody to buy. But he didn’t stop there. He thought of new ideas to sweeten and shorten the time before Christmas. He made a Christkindleinhaus (Christ Child House) the parents could fill with chocolates, calendars already prefilled with chocolates, an Adventsbaum (Advent Tree) that you would decorate with angels, and an Adventshäuschen (Little Advent House) made of cardboard.
This little house had windows and doors you would open one at a time. All windows had transparent colored paper behind them and when you put a candle into the house it made a nice colorful house. The method of cardboard with cutouts lined with tracing paper is still commonly used for lanterns.
Other publishers entered the market and by the 30s most households had an advent calendar. The themes were more varied and artists drew pictures for advent calendars too. Some aimed at boys with pictures of trains, planes, and cars.
Advent Calendars in the Third Reich
Advent calendars got a make-over during the reign of Hitler and the NSDAP, and not only because paper was rationed during World War II. They eliminated the Christian aspect of Christmas calling the Christkind Lichtkind (Christ Child and Light Child) and Adventskranz Sonnenwendkranz (Advent Wreath and Solistice Wreath). The advent calendar received a similar treatment and a book or calendar was published called Vorweihnachten (Pre-Christmas). It contained stories, songs, and craft ideas that were true to the party’s principles and drew on germanic culture.
However, for Christmas 1945 the old advent calendars, mostly with motifs from the 30s, resurfaced. In the 50s, so-called Abreißkalender (Tear-off Calendars) were popular, in West and East Germany. Often the page the child tore off had some crafting instruction or puzzles.
Advent Calendars Now
While the store bought calendar filled with chocolate is the most common advent calendar, many people make some for their children or their spouse.
You can find many ideas how to make an advent calendar and how to fill it. Many people buy a calendar with 24 drawers or little sacks they can reuse every year and fill it with new things depending on the recipient’s interests.
In the 21st century, advent calendar have become ever more popular and for everybody. You can calendars filled with cheese, specialty chocolate, wine, whiskey, beer, cosmetics, jewelry, or tea.
But the advent calendar trend doesn’t stop at there.
In many cities people have transformed the town halls into advent calendars where the windows are numbered and a new picture is revealed every day.
![Town Hall Advent Calendar in Hünfeld with giant pyramid in the front, Von Hesse1309 - Eigenes Werk via de.wikipedia [1] 19:49, 16. Dez 2005 . . Hesse1309 (Diskussion) . . 2048 x 1536 (309881 Byte), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=544037](https://i0.wp.com/morethanbeerandschnitzel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/1440px-Rathaus_Hünfeld_Adventskalender.jpg?ssl=1)
If you want to combine the thrill of opening a new door every day with the possibility of winning something, a virtual calendar might be for you. Cities, charities, and non-profit organizations offer you 24 chances to win a prize for buying a advent calendar ticket.
Every year my mother bought us a lottery number for the Stadtwerke Neumünster Advent Calendar. And every day in December we went to their website to see if our number had won that day. While we never actually had a winning number it was still fun to participate.
Here is a selection of advent calendars you can buy on amazon for your kids, your spouse, or yourself.
Ideas to DIY calendars and other calendars can also found on my pinterest board.
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