Advent calendars: It’s the little things that count

I was walking down the road when I saw a chocolate advent calendar tossed on the ground, its every window torn open, its every chocolate scoffed.

It was 5 December. I admired the restraint. When I was a kid the most exciting thing about the runup to Christmas was the advent calendar – and ours wasn’t even chocolate. If it had been, it would have needed locked doors.

We shared an advent calendar in the Ridyard household, and every day my older sister and I took turns opening a cardboard door to reveal the tiny, exquisite picture hidden behind it: a robin, a bobble hat, a star, an angel, a snowflake, and I loved them all.

ALSO READ: Do what you can to avoid COP28 fatigue

How did they make the pictures so tiny, I wondered, imagining elflike fingers and single-hair brushes, and wondering what delight would appear the next morning.

Christmas Day had double doors, so we got to open one each, and inside was a magical micro nativity scene.

A posh advent calendar

I was given my first advent calendar in forever three years ago, a gift from Himself who’d sourced it at great expense and effort from that ridiculously fabulous department store, Liberty of London.

In each daily drawer was an upmarket skin product or cosmetic or perfume. A friend came around specially to admire it.

It was lovely, of course it was…

Except it turns out there are only so many serums, acids, and dry shampoos a girl can use at once. I was still finishing them off when the next year’s calendar arrived, with an extra “homme” calendar for Himself.

This December we said no more, not till we’ve used up all this beard oil. And yet it seems advent calendars are everywhere again, containing every given thing.

You can get a daily whisky, gin, or coffee; a candle a day; a perfume a day; your daily jewellery; a daily crystal or herbal tea or Lego piece or hairclip; even daily cheese – although I suppose that one gets stored in the fridge.

You could blow your entire Christmas budget on advent calendars before you’ve even bought a present (and yes, you do still need to get a present).

But you know what I haven’t seen? An advent calendar containing perfect miniature pictures, simply offering blissful anticipation. Maybe next year.

NOW READ: The new class of apartheid beneficiaries