Adventures with Advent Calendars

Most German-speaking countries have an important holiday tradition of using Advent calendars. And seeing all the different Advents is one of the best parts about being in Switzerland during the holidays. An advent calendar is a calendar used to count down the days until Christmas. In my family, we've always had advent calendars and it's been a nice way to ring in the holiday spirit.

In Switzerland, we've seen beautiful advent candles. These are arrangments - usually with greenery, etc. that boast four candles - one for each Sunday prior to Christmas. Here are some beautiful examples - a picture I took of the florist display down the road from us...


When we were in Vienna a month and a half ago, the city was starting to decorate for the holidays. They turned the entire Rathaus (government building) into an Advent calendar! Each window was a day of the Advent calendar.



Even businesses get in on the Advent fun! One of the large grocery chains in Switzerland was giving out Advent calendar coupon savings at the beginning of the month of December. Each day you could save on a particular product...with the savings getting bigger and bigger the closer to Christmas you get.



Last year, I made an Advent Calendar for Brady. It has a little container that can be taken off the calendar every day. Brady is really into it this year. Each day contains a 2 CHF chocolate coin. This is a fun tradition that I couldn't wait to share with Brady. I love seeing how excited Brady is each day when he gets to open the little container and he eats his "choclat"!