Saturday 16 November 2013

The Advent Calendars

I bought the advent calendars today, and I realised that this is the last time I'll buy them for my children as part of this home.  Next year they'll be in their new homes, new family units starting out.

Advent calendars are such an important part of the run up to Christmas.  I remember when I was a child I had a little parchment house, with a night light inside, and the light shone through each window that was opened, a little square like coloured glass.  Later we had advent calendars with simple pictures - a trumpet, a hat, a robin, until on 24 December there would be a big picture of Father Christmas.

Of course, by the time G and S came along, advent calendars incorporated chocolates.  As they became aware of Fair Trade, we had to make sure their calendars contained chocolate that hadn't exploited anyone.  Often these also featured the Christian story, rather than Father Christmas, or fairies, or pop stars, and Jesus in his manger was the focal point of the picture.

But alongside this we also discovered Playmobil advent calendars - elaborate card scenes, with a tiny box for each day containing characters and animals to populate the scenes.  S still has several packed away ready for when she has children.  My favourite is Santa with his sleigh, in a snowy woodland.

Today I bought three Fairtrade calendars with chocolates, one for G and his fiancee and one for S's fiance. I also bought one beautiful, rather over the top German advent calendar, featuring Victorian children on a merry go round.  This is for S, who said she would like pictures rather than chocolates.

I do feel a bit sad, as it dawns on me that this Christmas will be the last one where this house can be described as G and S's home.  Even when they were at university, and G was in his first job living away, they still saw this as home.

Advent stays the same as a time to remember the mystery of God's incarnation, and it will always be special for that reason.  But this advent reminds me that the nature of our home is about to change, and I'm having to say another small goodbye to a sweet tradition, now that the children will finally be flying then nest.

No comments:

Post a Comment