The Hunt For Advent

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks looking for Advent. Not the season, the four Sundays, and the weeks before Christmas (This year actually from December 1 to 24) celebrated in the orthodox churches or the older but less celebrated Celtic Advent, the 40 days before Christmas (which I am celebrating this year). What I have been looking for was an Advent Calendar.

The first I remember seeing was when I was a young teen, in 1965. It was a large, flat, cardboard picture of the Bethlehem Christmas scene with 28 little “windows” that you would open, one each day up until Christmas Day. There would be a Scripture reference in the window, and I would have to look it up to read it. They would be prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures and verses from the Christian Scriptures leading up to the birth of Jesus. It was a way of telling the story slowly, so I remembered it better as time passed. Each day my mother would ask me (and sometimes my younger sister Paula) to tell the story so far, and we would, as best as we could remember. Then we would open the next window and learn the next part. By the time we got to Christmas, we knew the story and could tell it to anyone who wanted to hear us. As a bonus, it helped us to learn to read some harder words since many of the Biblical words were not usual ones for us.

The next one I remember had an additional treat. Each window opened to a section of a larger picture on the backing piece of cardboard. So we learned the verses and began to see the picture, one piece at a time.

It wasn’t too many years later that I began to see Advent calendars where the window was more of a door, opening to a little box that had something in it in addition to the Scripture. Most often it was a piece of candy. Occasionally it would have a tiny toy. It wasn’t long before kids were looking for the candy and toys and skipping the Scripture.

This year I decided to give the children in my churches Advent Calendars. I wanted the kind that would tell the story of the birth of Jesus. Maybe help them learn the story.

I could not find any! I did find all kinds of “Advent” calendars. I found some that had candy and verses from A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas). I found them with Sponge Bob and Patrick. There were some with various kinds of chocolate and instead of a verse, there was description of the chocolate (and where you could order more). There were at least four different Taylor Swift ones, with a trinket from her various world tours in each window. My favorite spice store in Minnesota had one with sample packs of various spices and recipes for each day. (I was tempted to get that one for me!) Another had chocolates filled with various kinds of liqueurs. Then there was one that skipped the chocolate and had 25 mini bottles of various liquors, with a goblet style glass safely ensconced in the middle. And there was the literary one where you unwrapped a book each day (another one I was tempted to buy for me).

But not one with the Christmas story.

I went online to Hobby Lobby, that bastion of conservative Christian capitalism, knowing that they would have one. Nope. At least, not online. Disney and others, sure. Jesus? Nope. But I took a chance and went to their store. Sure enough, they had some. Only one style, same picture on the outside, small chocolates in the windows. But the Scriptures are there. And the price was good. So, I bought enough for my kids and headed out.

I’ve been thinking about this. Christmas used to be about the birth of Jesus. Jesus is just sort of a side story, now. Same with Easter. Even secular holidays have gone the way of consumerism. Memorial Day used to be a day of remembering people who died in the various and never-ending wars we have. Now, it’s a great time to go shopping. By new mattresses and sofas. Veteran’s Day- great time to buy a new car, and veterans get an additional discount. Independence Day? Celebrate your freedom to buy new grills and deck furniture. Now, Advent seems to be gone for the most part. I guess we still have Lent. But watch out! As long as you’re practicing self-discipline, it would be a great time to join a gym and work on that beach body!

Meanwhile, I’ll look out my real window each morning during this Celtic Advent season, and hope to see signs of Jesus in this world today.