BEN EOIN, N.S. — Some Christmas traditions date back a century but never get old.
“The Advent calendar has always been a special one for me," said Carol Beaton of Ben Eoin, Cape Breton while showing one she made that’s part of a family tradition.
“With my family, I’ve never missed a year, so I guess it has been close to 40 years now,” she said. “The kids especially loved it when they were younger but even the adults — the parents — when they got older.”
An Advent calendar is a special calendar used to celebrate the countdown to Christmas. Most of them start on the first day of December but sometimes include the last few days of November because of the Christian Advent.
Made of everything from paper to wood or fabric, many have little windows with anything from a poem to even chocolate, puzzles, or games behind each.
The tradition
For Beaton, the retired executive director of the Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design in Sydney, her family tradition started back in the late 1970s. Having young children, she decided to sew as a form of work she could do out of her home.
However, her first order was for five dozen bonnets.
“I couldn’t possibly do them all by myself,” she said laughing.
So Beaton rounded up two other friends, and together, they created a little craft company ‘Tinker Tailors.’
“We all had young children,” she said. “It was an avenue of work that allowed us to stay home. We made things for various craft shows and would take orders.”
The inspiration for the crafts came from getting creative out of necessity and convenience with their own children. Their customers were either young parents or grandparents.
The Tinker Tailor women created everything from hanging bookcases with pockets for their children’s books to mitt totes designed for people living in older homes with radiators.
That’s when the idea to make Advent calendars developed.
“Being young parents ourselves, we got the inspiration for things children would like from our own children,” she said.
Tinker Tailor partner Joan Reid, formerly of Sydney and now of Baddeck, came up with the design. The Advent calendars were well made from heavy, red canvas fabric. The women would sew six strips across the bottom, then sew down six rows, creating 24 little pockets.
They’d even customize the calendars for families, cutting letters for surnames out of vinyl.
Beaton always hung one for her two children. The oldest child would get the first pocket, then they'd rotate each day. Some days, there would be something in a pocket for each of them.
“It’s important they learn to share, especially at Christmas time,” she said
As Beaton's parents got older, she made one for them, and later, for her mother-in-law and some elderly aunts.
“The people who enjoyed it the most were the older adults,” she said. “As they got older and not as active, getting their treat out of their Advent calendar really gave them something to look forward to.”
Now Beaton’s 40-year-old Advent calendars are hitting another generation: her grandchildren in Ontario.
“I go out and purchase items that will fill these small pockets and I wrap them up and mail them and they fill their pockets themselves.”
Those little surprises are not much different than the treats she used 40 years ago for her own children. She will go to stores like Michaels and find tiny crafts, like a little bracelet, they can make.
“Craft things, a little necklace, a glitter pen, or Christmas pencil,” she said. “You can find lots of little things.”
The last pocket – the important Dec. 24th one — was always the same theme.
“It’s always a handmade Christmas decoration,” she said.
However, Beaton herself has never received an Advent calendar.
“I never thought of that,” she said laughing. “I find the joy in giving.”
Counting back to the beginning
The Advent calendar is believed to have originated in Germany. According to the website doinghistoryinpublic.org, in the early 19th century, German Protestants would mark the days of Advent either by burning a candle for the day or even marking walls or doors with a line of chalk daily.
The practice of hanging a devotional image daily later led to the creation of the first known handmade Advent calendar out of wood, in 1851. Sometime in the early 20th century, the first printed calendars appeared, followed by Gerhard Lang’s innovation of adding small doors in the 1920s.
The old-fashioned cardboard Advent calendars can still be found everywhere during the holiday season.
Getting creative
At one time, Lynne Hanson MacDonald of Sydney made an Advent calendar for her two sons out of a hanging shoe organizer.
“I decorated and numbered each pocket,” she said. “It was so easy and the pockets were big enough to put toys or candy in. I’d have two of the same thing in each pocket. There’d be little Lego boxes, Christmas candy, dinky cars, even mini cans of playdough.”
Now, Hanson MacDonald said, she usually buys them for her grandchildren out west, and in the past few years, has sent ones of every theme possible, from Lego to Harry Potter, to one featuring Kinder surprises.
“If they were closer, I’d make them again, as there’s something special about personally picking out the surprises,” she added.
Scanning the internet, one can count many unique ideas people have come up with to customize their Advent calendars, by stacking and converting anything from boxes to wooden drawers or coffee cans to create a countdown.
Companies have found a way to create unique gifts with their products and now, these holiday calendars can be found with hidden surprises in every theme from beauty products to socks, popcorn, perfumes, gourmet food, cheese, tea, tools and, for the bearded gentlemen, a ’24 days of beard treats.’
The Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation has a rum calendar featuring different German brands and even a two-foot-high ‘Brewer’s Advent Calendar’ with an exclusive German imported beer behind each of the 24 doors.
Taste of Nova Scotia offers a ‘24 Days of Taste’ culinary Advent calendar, featuring locally made jams, cookies, coffee, and more, describing it as ‘celebrating Nova Scotia’s culinary ambassadors, their hard work, and amazing achievements.’
Even our furry friends are included in the fun. Fancy Feast has come up with the 'Feastivities Advent Calendar,’ offering 24 delectable cans of wet food for a tasty surprise for any feline.
However, this year residents of the tiny village of Abington Pigotts, Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom, might have created the ultimate Advent calendar: a living one that includes 23-houses and a village pub. According to the website dailymail.co.uk, every night a new window is unveilled in the town to reveal a spectacular decoration.
