Advent Calendar

There are only a few weeks until Christmas arrives and we have no doubt that the youngest children are already anxious for the dates to arrive and to be able to enjoy the holidays and especially the gifts.
There is a nice way to let them pass this period of time, the Advent calendars. We go back to the end of the 19th century in Germany, where 24 doors were painted on the doors or walls of the houses so that children could use them. Other families chose to put a crown with four candles and lit one each Sunday to indicate that Christmas was getting closer. But it was in 1902 when the first Christmas calendar was printed. After seeing the success of the calendar it was decided to make it more striking. With the purchase were attached twenty-four photos that were cut and pasted in the holes. The final image used to be that of a puzzle. This was a great success but I do not stay like that, I evolved a little bit more. The calendars began to have a thickness of about 2 or 3 centimeters. Inside the box that corresponded to each day of the month was a sweet or sponge cake.

Starting in the 50s, Advent calendars were proclaimed the number one product in sales when Christmas arrived. Today, we can come across different types of calendars, not only with sweets, but also with toys, motivation phrases, plans to be made on these dates, etc.

It is still a deeply rooted tradition in Germany, but it has been adopted by a large number of other countries. Usually all follow the same model:

– They are made with a malleable cardboard. This means that your transport is simple, fast and not at all heavy.

– Its size varies between 50 or 60 centimeters long, 30 or 40 centimeters wide and 2 or 5 centimeters high depending on the gift that it has inside. With these measures we refer to the most typical ones that usually have a rectangular shape. But other designs have also been proposed with other forms such as star or Christmas tree. There are even some larger sizes that have little boxes in which to put larger gifts.

– They are usually decorated with Christmas themes. But in recent years the big companies have decided to use the great children’s references as series of drawings or superheroes. They disguise and decorate their performance spaces with Christmas elements, so that more sales are achieved.

– They have some openings in each of the days corresponding to the month of December with their corresponding surprises inside.

If you consider yourself a handyman and do not find the perfect Advent calendar do not hesitate to create it yourself and surprise your children. The advantage of doing it this way is that every day you can introduce the gift that you have decided and they will not take the surprise all the same day when they are very excited.