Advent Calendars

I just love these things. And so do the boys. We have all sorts around the house to pass the time from December 1 to Christmas Eve. They are so much fun and kind of spread out the excitement and make the time until Christmas go a bit faster. Our favourite are the 'toy' ones - Lego and Playmobil. Every day you get a selection of Lego pieces behind a flap door (or Playmobil toys in a tiny cardboard box) which follow a theme and can be put together to form a specific scene. A lot of fun and a lot of play value!

I am especially fond of Playmobil calendars because they can be reused year after year. All you do is fold up the little boxes, collect the toys after Christmas and hide them in the basement for another 11 months.

I have always had advent calendars, although they were usually thin cardboard boxes, with numbered flaps and a small chocolate for each day of December. We still get some chocolate ones, mostly for the grown-ups. ;-) I just discovered the toy ones after Benny was born. I didn't realize until this week that perhaps not everyone has heard of advent calendars or seen one before! My brother in law was astounded by the whole concept. Perhaps it helps to be born in Germany ........... I think it might be a European tradition.