By: Alexa Smith and Anna Rentschler 12/12/23
🎵On the 25th day of Christmas🎵… Just kidding! We’re not there yet! Right now, everyone is anxiously waiting for Christmas to arrive. A main tradition that most families share is doing an Advent calendar for the holidays. There are different themes like chocolate, legos, cheese, and even slime! What this article is going to be about is the different ways families celebrate Christmas with Advent calendars and all the different themes and ways to spend time together while celebrating!
Kids love to spend time with their families and/or friends, that’s for sure! There are many different themes for kids, like, slime, legos, drawers with little presents inside, LOL themed, and more. Even parents can celebrate with Advent calendars, it’s not just for kids! Some adult themed ones are cheese, chocolate (usually for both), non-themed Advent calendars with just pictures inside, adult puzzle themed, makeup themed, and more.
There’s even a thing called a reverse Advent calendar, which is where instead of receiving gifts from a calendar, you give gifts! It’s about donating an item of food, clothing, candy, and/or toys each day. You can donate to various charities for the holidays, it’s a way of showing merry cheer for everyone and showing that you care. “Although I don’t usually do them, I want a makeup Advent calendar!“ says Carmen Frye.
A picture of a reverse Advent Calendar.
Every morning people with Advent calendars wake up and usually pull or push the tab open, (unless you're doing a reverse Advent calendar) and get some type of treat or item when you open it up! You go until the 25th day of December when Christmas arrives. Some kids also do a countdown, and actually start on 25 and end on 1. Some movie or show Advent calendar themes include, Harry Potter, Elf, Disney, and Super Mario. There are many more movie/show themes but those are some of the popular ones.
A picture of a classic Advent calendar.
Jojo Geboy says, “I think the advent calendar is fun and I like to do it with my family, my whole family does it together." We asked another student, Taylor Vaughn, and she said, “They’re fun and I don’t lose track of the days until Christmas.“ Now we can agree now about how people love doing the Advent calendar tradition. The Advent calendar was created by German Lutherans in the 19th and 20th centuries.
There are many traditions to celebrate for the Holidays like snowball fighting, building snowmen, drinking hot cocoa, sledding, and on and on and on. Lots of people all over the world love Advent calendars. “I usually like to do food or Sephora Advent calendars.“ says Kimmy Strickland, when asking about her favorite Advent calendar to do for the holidays. This is why the Advent calendar is a special tradition that if you don’t do it now, we hope you’ll try it some year!
Authors Bio:
Anna is a sixth grader who enjoys drawing, art, and hanging out with friends.
Alexa is a sixth grader who enjoys swimming, piano, volleyball, and goofing around with friends.