The first day of the Advent calendar has started. But it’s not too late to shop or make an Advent calendar with toys, cosmetics, chocolates or tea …
The first day of Advent has started, this Sunday, November 28, 2021. In fact, Advent always begins on 4th Sunday before Christmas and ends, like every year, on December 24, on Christmas Eve. For Catholics, it is the beginning of the liturgical year. Also, to keep children, young and old, there is nothing like an Advent calendar according to everyone’s tastes. If this object is now part of the tradition and the “spirit” of Christmas, there is a plethora of them in the trade! Chocolate calendars are always popular, but they also leave room for advent calendars for beauty, decoration, or with small toys or figurines for children. The 25 boxes of Advent calendar each contain a surprise to discover while waiting for Christmas. It’s not yet too late to shop or make one!
Major cosmetics brands, such as beauty stores, almost all release their Advent calendar every year. What do these surprise boxes contain? From make-up to moisturizing creams, including soaps, hand care or scrubs, all your favorite beauty products or best of cosmetic brands can be found in a version full size or miniature in beauty advent calendars. Sephora, Yves Rocher, MAC, Dior, L’Occitane, Clarins or even Birchbox: discover the new products.
While waiting for Christmas feast, gourmets can wait with the Advent calendars that can be tasted. Chocolate, tea, beer, jam, sweets … Young and old alike will enjoy new products on sale this year. The hardest part will certainly be not to open all the boxes at once!
Harry Potter, Lego cubes, Hatchimals plush toys, Playmobil or Disney characters, many are the favorite playful universes of our toddlers to find themselves hidden in the boxes of children’s advent calendars. Every day, it is a toy or a figurine that the little ones discover before Christmas, to compose, in the end, a very beautiful gift.
If we do not start to open them until the 1ster December, Advent calendars offered by brands are often on sale in stores or on the Internet much earlier in the fall. So you will find them from October in some stores!
You are rather manual. DIY and do wonders with salvaged materials? We suggest you opt for homemade advent calendars, from wood, fabric, paper … Some models are very simple to manufacture for example :
- An Advent calendar in matchboxes : collect twenty-four empty cardboard matchboxes that you can then decorate with pictures, paint, stickers, colored paper … Then cut out a small door from each matchbox. Assemble them by gluing them together, for example by arranging them in six rows of four boxes, numbered 1er to December 24.
- An Advent calendar in mini envelopes : You will need twenty-four small envelopes in the color of your choice and one large cardboard box to use as the backing. Glue the envelopes to this support, opening facing up, for example by arranging them in six rows of four. Then number them from 1 to 24, in order or out of order, then decorate your advent calendar to your liking: with sequins, ribbons, small Christmas decorations, paint…
- Advent calendar on a toilet roll : after collecting 24 cardboard rolls, paint them in the color of your choice. Glue the rolls between them or on a large cardboard to create the shape of your choice, a Christmas tree for example. Place surprises in each compartment. Finally, cut small doors to the diameter of the rolls in cardboard and secure them to the ends of the latter using a pretty masking tape or string.
But then what to put in a Advent calendar that you make yourself ? With what to fill its boxes, boxes or small bags? Miniature toys for children, homemade chocolates or cookies, sweet words: anything is allowed, it’s up to you to personalize!
Initiated by Pope Gregory 1er, in the 6th century, the Advent period Originally started on the fourth Sunday before the Nativity and ended on December 24 with Christmas Eve. During this period, we were preparing for celebrate the coming into the world of Jesus Christ. It was not until much later that the famous Advent calendar appeared. This tradition was born in Germany. In the nineteenth century, we distributed to children during the 24 days before Christmas an image, pious, often accompanied by a sentence from the Gospel or a maxim inciting them to do a good deed. The idea was then to make the wait less long for them until the festivities, but also to make them wiser. Over the years, these icons have been adorned with colors, or even with gold or silver threads. For practical reasons, they were then gathered on the same cardboard support, and to keep intact the effect of surprise, care was taken to conceal the design.
Very popular in Germany, this tradition gradually spread in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903, Gerhard Lang, a Bavarian publisher of illustrated medical books, had the idea to market these Advent calendars for the first time. A success which was not denied thereafter, and which was exported all over the world. During World War II, American soldiers stationed in Europe sent them to their families on the other side of the Atlantic where, from 1946, they were mass produced.
Religion, chocolates and other toys
The content of the Advent calendar has also evolved over the years. The original religious image ended up giving way to small figurines, mostly small animals, but also small soldiers during the heyday of the German army. Have the treats made their appearance? in 1958, with a small square of chocolate, and to facilitate its export, little Jesus has been replaced by Santa Claus.
Today the Advent calendar no longer has anything religious. And when you don’t make it yourself at home, marketing professionals have seized on the phenomenon to offer thematic calendars intended to appeal to an increasingly large audience. If chocolate remains a timeless classic, children also appreciate toys, all that remains is to choose between Lego, Frozen or Star Wars. The older ones are also spoiled for choice: selections of tea, make-up, beauty products, beers or “naughty” items (only for adults) … Even our four-person companions. paws can now wait until December 25 in joy and good humor since advent calendars are entirely dedicated to them. The Christmas spirit has no limits.