Adventskalender – Advent calendar
Having an Advent calendar to celebrate and count the 24 days leading up to Christmas Eve is a German tradition established in the middle of the 19th century and usually done for children – and deserving adults, too. In its simplest form it is a colourful paper calendar with 24 little doors to open and behind which one finds pictures of Christmas scenes and sometimes to discover a little chocolate for each day. Many families though craft their own with elaborate results. Just google.
I still have one from my Kindergarten times of a felt St. Nikolaus (former Bishop of Smyrna which is honoured on the 6th of December, the original Father Christmas, who leaves presents in well polished boots placed outside the door during the night of the 6th for the well-behaved children in Germany) prepared by my Mum and sometimes even send all the way to California or for years we used little cardboard boxes I had bought years ago at Michael’s (big US craft store and my favourite stop on El Camino in Sunnyvale, CA).
Last year’s version was a little reference to Marcel Duchamp’s Readymade Bottle rack from 1914 (a good time to visit for example the Moderna Muset in Stockholm, the Philadelphia Museum of Art or Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA if you want to have a look at one) by using a great flea-market find of an antique green painted bottle rack with allusions of a wire Christmas tree. This year we are going minimal: a red and cream coloured string studded with these beautiful chocolates of a slightly and very welcome old-fashioned charm from this great place of pilgrimage in Frankfurt am Main.
Have a lovely Adventszeit!
thejameskitchen 