When you picture an advent calendar, what do you see?
“I see a cardboard box with different punch out dates with chocolate in it,” said senior Isabella Puglisi.
And while that may be how they are used today, with the appeal of a treasure everyday till Christmas, that definitely wasn’t its original purpose.
The advent calendar, coming from the German word Adventskalender meaning advent scales, is believed to have been created by German Lutherans and dates back to the 1850s.
German families commonly counted the days to Christmas by placing chalk tally marks on doors or walls. As more families brought on the tradition, publishers and newspapers began printing simple advent calendars. Of course, at that point, they were solely used to count. No toys or trinkets were included.
It wasn’t until Grehard Lang came around that advent calendar designs started becoming more intricate. He was a German printer who, after recalling his mother’s way of marking advent calendars with cookies, began producing advent calendars with little pieces of chocolate inside. Thus began the rise of the “traditional” advent calendar everyone knows and loves.
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“When I was little, my mom had this mat with little pouches that she would hang up and put little figures in mark the day.”
— Senior Patricia Quimby Moro
While the calendars grew in popularity outside the U.S. almost immediately, it wasn’t until a photo surfaced in the 1950s of President Dwight D. Eisenhower holding an advent calendar with his grandchildren that Americans began using them.
While the calendars have been around since the 19th century, they’ve only recently begun trending. With their growing popularity and bountiful variety, the advent calendar strikes all. Regardless of your preferences, if your like makeup or toys, or even tools, there is a calendar for you.
“I didn’t realize there were so many kinds,” senior Mia Marques said, explaining that she had thought the chocolate calendars were the only ones.
But while some simple ones do include chocolate, some have toys or clothing, and some more intricate ones may even house expensive makeup, wine, or even jewelry.
The options are endless with advent calendars. And if there isn’t one for you right now, then there will be soon.
