1st December, so time to get out the Advent calendars. Personally I don't like the chocolate ones which seem to have abandoned all Christmas spirit apart from consumption. I make the kids hide those in their bedrooms - bah humbug! My mum made this one for Rachel when she was a baby and she takes charge of adding a new picture each day. It's not entirely obvious which order they should go in and there is some disagreement - quite often when she's at school I switch them around, especially if she weighed in too early with a king! There was a huge amount of work involved in making this and the arrival of another four grandchildren in quick succession made my mum hide the embroidery equipment before they all wanted one. There are advantages to being the eldest! I've done it no justice at all in this photo - sorry!
Oh I so agree with you...not only advent calendars but so many things have abondoned the spirit of Christmas........trying to find any decent cards with some kind of meaning is getting harder! I love the amount of work gone into this and the fact that you add to it rather than taking something out of it. This should become a family heirloom.
This is a family treasure & so much more meaningful than the store bought ones ! I too much preferred the beautiful pictures of nativity scenes when you opened the little doors. These days it's all chocolate & very boring !! I have posted at great expense 6 chocolate Advent Calenders to my kids in NZ.... I can't believe how much it cost for about 50p worth of chocolate but you do these things !!!! Such beautiful cross stitch from your mum & Rachel will be able to hand it down to her children !!
This is amazing, you are so lucky to have this in your family!! I do agree with you about Advent calendars. When we were little we always had a calendar from our local Trade Craft store, and behind each window was the next sentence in the nativity story. It was a family tradition - we took it in turns to open one window after tea every night and we sang a song every time too!! (My dad is a vicar, this sort of thing was fairly commonplace in my house :)) Good times!
@judithg yeeeah it stopped working once we got to about age 11... it's not a story I tell very often for fear of ridicule but it was all fairly idyllic :)
What a lovely treasurable thing. Although I am a sucker for chocolate advent calendars And there's me thinking I'd come up with a bright idea for a pic today ... and everyone's got there before me ...
that's beautiful and a real family heirloom. I agree that the take over of chocolate is a real shame, but my daughter is allergic to chocolate so it's not a pressure here. We had a magnificent card German one I kept for years, because the pictures were so much better
This mis the nicest advent I have ever seen, I so love traditions like this, the young people are missing out on so much stuff that is so importent when you get older, ( god, I sound old!!!!!)
Good shot too.
You can still get the Traidcraft ones btw - both card and chocolate, telling the Christmas story http://www.traidcraftshop.co.uk/c-163-fair-trade-advent-calendars.aspx @wrighty
Great photo.