JYC 5

My Top 10 Advent Countdown of Traditions-

10. When I was little I thought it was the most exciting thing in the world, then when I was a teenager I think I had a bit of a Christmas lull, now I'm back to loving December!

9. I've always had an advent calendar, can't think of a year where I haven't had one.

8. When there were lots of us at home, we'd have 3 or 4 different calendars and get to open one on each day just to mix it up a bit. I seem to recall one really budget cutting year where we only had one to share between Me, Isaac and Lydia and only got to open a door once every 3 days!

7. Adam's advent calendar criteria involved chocolate. And only chocolate. As long as it was a chocolate advent calendar - he was happy.

6. This year, I found these great little advent calendar cards at phoenix card company and sent them to Morgan and Lydia. Morgan is so excited because she doesn't have to share it with anyone! I guess the Grants are having another economy drive and making the girls share!

5. I bought myself one too, it has a little character from the nativity behind each tiny door - not sure how they're going to string it out for 25 days but I'm intrigued to see how it unfolds!

4. Another advent tradition is the candle. Long candle with the numbers 1 - 25 printed all the way down. This would be on the family dining table every day and to 'stop arguments' someone would take a turn to light it and someone else would get to blow it out. Silly thing was that blowing it out caused many arguments in itself! "It's gone past the number!" "It's touching the next number!" "She just blew it out and it was my turn!" cried from the table every night. Then someone would put their finger in it and push the wax down to far, and so it always went on. Yet for some reason Mum always bought another one the following Christmas.

3. Adam's family had one too, but it turns out they were far less attentive to the candle's lifespan and often only lit 5 times over the advent period, forgetting about it's lit-ness and reaching Christmas Eve far too early!

2. More candles were also part of the Grant advent tradition, we'd make a wreath, either at Church or at home. In a foil tray with some oasis would stand 5 candles, proudly for a while and then limply as the oasis failed to support them for the duration, decorated with a liberal splattering of ever green leaves, spray painted fir-cones and berry like items. Then every Sunday we'd have a brief discussion about what the candle represented and count down the Sundays until we could light the white middle candle to celebrate Jesus' birth.

1. Counting down to Christmas is always fun, although gets earlier and earlier every year with shops getting their decorations in September!