1015th Friday Blog Roundup
I’m sure advent calendars have been around forever, but I didn’t see my first one until I was in my 20s — a hazard of being a non-Christmas celebrator. But a co-worker had one, and then Martha Stewart had instructions for how to make your own matchbox advent calendar, and I made one for the countdown to Josh’s birthday that year.
But in recent years — and correct me if I’m wrong — I’ve noticed that people are moving from having one advent calendar to having multiple advent calendars. What went from opening one window and getting one piece of chocolate or a tiny toy has become opening four windows on four different calendars and getting a jar of jam + an airplane bottle of booze + chocolate + makeup. Am I correct? Have advent calendars multiplied?
It’s a fun idea, and four calendars must feel four times as festive, but is my perception correct? Have calendars multiplied? And where is the Elf on a Shelf? As advent calendar posts go up, Elf on a Shelf posts have gone down.
Or maybe that’s just my feed.
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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.
Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.
As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- Nothing… sniff.
Okay, now my choices this week.
Bereaved and Blessed reflects on her first pregnancy loss, 20 years earlier. She writes, “Though I don’t believe everything happens for a reason or that we need to try to find silver linings when we are grieving, I do think we can find meaning as we navigate difficult, uncertain and painful times in our lives.” A great message.
Lastly, No Kidding in NZ gives a look back on 22 years ago (if I’m doing that math correctly with 16 years + 6 years) when she was trying to figure out what came next and overwhelmed with sadness. On our hardest days, it would be so helpful to know how things look down the road. The most important point: “I don’t feel this way anymore. In fact, it has been a long time since I felt like this.”
The roundup to the Roundup: Advent calendar multiplication. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between November 29 – December 6) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.
9 comments
I think there are definitely more advent calendars around. My family always had them growing up and my dad would mail me mine when I went to college so that I could start it on time and I was always the only one who had one. I think companies probably realized that they could make more money and started pushing them harder and now everyone has them.
Definitely more. Growing up we had one with chocolate pieces and all four of us kids shared it. 1 piece of chocolate every 4th day. Now my kids got one from our Elf, which is our tradition since the Elf started coming, and my parents also gave them one. And we got one for our cats with cat toys. So they open 3 each day. It does feel like a lot but it’s also fun. However in retrospect the cat one is problematic because they can smell the catnip in some of the boxes and, if I don’t hide it well, our girl spends time every day trying to break in to days we haven’t opened yet. Ah, cats.
Definitely, and advent calendars with more variety too. We had them growing up, but cheap ones with cheap chocolate.
I had been looking into getting a reusable one a few years ago, but they were so expensive and reviews said poorly made. Now there are so many that are highly rated and affordable, but I kind of feel like the kids aren’t the right age. And there are so many adult things that I just don’t need 24 versions of.
The ones with puzzle pieces look pretty cool, but December is so busy for academics and kids in school…
I too think there are more around, though despite being of (if not very devoted) a christian family background and (broadly speaking) observing christian holidays, we don’t participate. I grew up (1970s) with one paper calendar each for me and my brother (no treats, just a door you opened to see an image or saying behind it) and have insisted on using the same with my kid (now that he’s a teen he grumbles/teases me about this but I have stood firm. We. Have. So. Much. Stuff. He eats so may sweets! But I think next year I will send him one with chocolate to enjoy in his college dorm during end-of-semester/exam days before he can come home, seems like that might be a nice change (from his sparse childhood tradition)/thing to have in a college dorm.
I feel like there are a lot around too, but then I may be part of that problem. I’ve always given each of my kids one, so every night as a family we’re opening 3.
I try to make them projects that culminate in something though. I usually make my own. One year it was legos, carefully spaced, so they completed it on Christmas Eve. Another it was puzzles. This year, N is doing an electronics one (that I didn’t make) which is really cool.
Like Alexicographer, we never had the chocolate Advent calendars — it was a paper/cardboard nativity scene, and you opened one window/door every day to reveal a picture of a donkey, a cow, a shepherd, a wise man, an angel, etc. etc., with Baby Jesus in the manger at the very end. I’m pretty sure Little Great Nephew has multiple Advent calendars from his parents & grandparents — and an Elf on the Shelf too! (Not sure about Little Great-Niece — her parents don’t let her have a lot of candy. Yet!)
I bought a cloth Advent calendar years ago (post Katie but still hoping for other kids, I think), and I had it for years. It had a Christmas tree on it, with grommets, and each day, you would hang a little ornament from one of the 24 pockets of the calendar onto the tree — each one came with a little loop. The problem being they were constantly falling off, especially if you brushed past it on the wall or door, even when I tried putting scotch tape or masking tape on the backs. I still have that one, but a couple of years ago, I bought a new one. Similar idea, but the tree has velcro strips on it and so do the ornaments, on the back. Much better!
I do love the variety of Advent calendars for grownups that are available these days! For the past few years, I’ve been indulging in one assembled by a friend of a friend who has a small business making & selling beautiful sterling silver jewelry. She’s cut back from an actual Advent calendar idea — a box of 24 packages to be opened, one per day — to 12 (i.e., 12 days of Christmas), with about half of them pieces of her jewelry and the rest things that she loves from other makers and Canadian companies. They usually include some homemade cookies and a stained glass ornament made by her Mom, two tubes of fabulous lip balm, teabags, chocolate and hand cream, for example. I love treating myself like this!
P.S. I used this conversation as the basis for a new post! 🙂
https://theroadlesstravelledlb.blogspot.com/2024/12/advent-calendars.html
Echoing others about Advent calendars… Like so many things these days, they have become another way for companies/entrepreneurs to make money and they do add some daily excitement/levity during what can be a cold and dreary time of year. Though having just typed that, I recognize there are plenty of other things/ways to brighten our spirits around the holiday season. I am also thinking about them differently these days, since I identify as agnostic. Advent as a whole hits differently for me, when I am no longer practicing a/my faith as I used to — which for most of my life was Catholicism (albeit a fairly progressive version/interpretation).
Our kids have outgrown the Elf of the Shelf, which was both fun and annoying to remember to assist with the *magic* of. I actually just read something today (I don’t recall where) about how it is a dangerous message for kids to think they are always being surveilled and need to be aware/worried about elves and/or santa keeping an eye on them. It is another tradition I might have approached differently (if we did it at all) if I knew then what I know now. That said, I remind myself we do our situational best with the information/knowledge we have at the time.
Lastly, thank you so much for highlighting my post! I will never take for granted your affirmation and it always means so much to me when something I write resonates with you.
I am off trend as usual. I only purchased one Advent calendar this year. It was a tea one for my friend for her birthday. We used to get a cheese one and split the cheese between 2 or 3 of us. I got my daughter a gnome calendar one year. We’re off this year anyway – it’s the 9th, and no one had any will to put up the Chriatmas tree.
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