Count Up to Christmas

Advent calendars start on December 1 and end on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. You open the door number one first. The point of the calendar is not to count down, but rather to count up towards the days before Christmas.

In 1839 Johann Hinrich Wichern, a pastor in Germany, built a wreath out of an old cartwheel. He wanted to help the children in his mission school count the days until Christmas. He added small candles to be lit every weekday and Saturday during Advent. On Sundays, a large white candle was lit. His Advent wreath was the forerunner to an Advent calendar.

In the mid-19th C, German Protestants made chalk marks on doors or lit candles to count the days leading up to Christmas. Today most Advent calendars include paper doors that open to reveal an image, a Bible verse, or a piece of chocolate.

In the early 1900s Gerhard Lang produced the first printed Advent calendar. Around the same time, a German newspaper inserted an Advent calendar in their paper as a gift to its readers. Lang’s mother made him a calendar with 24 coloured pictures that were attached to a piece of cardboard. Lang modified his calendars to include little doors to open each day. In Germany advent calendars became a commercial success. Due to a cardboard shortage, production stopped during World War II. It resumed soon after with Richard Sellmer becoming the leading producer of commercial Advent calendars.

During his presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower was photographed opening an Advent Calendar with his grandchildren. The photo ran in several national newspapers and as a result the tradition of Advent calendars flourished in the United States.

According to Guinness World Records, the world’s largest advent calendar was built in 2007. The massive calendar which was almost 233 feet tall and just over 75 feet wide, was in the St. Pancras train station in London. It was built to celebrate the reopening of the station following a renovation.

Have a great day everyone. Enjoy the count up to Christmas.

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