Ah, December. I honestly think that I prefer the Advent period to Christmas Day itself. The decorations, the carols, the food, the anticipation.
Christmas Day is wonderful but it comes and goes in the blink of an eye. Advent is here for 24 glorious days of Christmassy goodness and I like to wring out every drop of festive spirit that I can.
Advent calendars are a huge part of this. You literally count down the days until the big event, and you even get a little treat every morning! Perfect! Up until recently I always went for the traditional chocolate-filled calendar. But for the past couple of years I’ve decided to be a bit more adventurous.
Now, I’m not saying anything against chocolate advent calenders. They’re a classic. Last year, as I was being introduced to the world of blogging, I also noticed lots of people writing about their alternative calendars.
If you look hard enough, you can find calendars filled with beauty products, nail varnishes, lego, jewellery – I even saw one with a different mini bottle of whiskey behind each door (Although it was rather pricey!).
Last year I chose the Yankee Candle advent calendar where you get a scented, tealight candle behin each door. I loved it so much that I’ve decided to have it again this year. They do a number of designs and I’ve picked the Carousel one – it’s so darn pretty! It has 6 different fragrances in it, and keep my house smelling Christmassy through the holidays.
I also decided to be a little extravagant with the calendars for the girls this year and let Moogle pick a special calendar for herself and her little sister. She chose these Playmobile ones which have 24 Playmobile pieces which build up to make a small, themed playset. Moogle’s features fairies and unicorns and Bug’s has Santa and lots of woodland animals – she loves animals!
They were pretty expensive – probably a Christmas present in their own right – so I very much doubt they’ll be getting one every year, but I just thought they might appreciate something a bit special this year. With all the other changes this year, it’s nice to make Christmas different in a good way!
So far, we’re all loving our new calendars. The girls love to see what little toy they will get each morning and they’re slowly building up into a lovely collection which they’ll get joy out of for years to come. And I love to sit back in the evening, light my candle of the day and enjoy the Christmassy aromas! Bliss!
Plus, we have the best of all worlds, as my Mum bought us Thorntons chocolate calendars and my M-I-L bought the girls a lovely traditional picture one. Aren’t we spoiled!!
Have you gone for a traditional calendar this year? Or something a little different?