material girl.9

It recently dawned on me that Addie's first Christmas is the opportunity to start holiday traditions of our own. I'm nutto for Christmas; it's by far my favorite holiday. I love the christmas lights in people's homes, the carols (except when blasted from every store speaker), the christmas tree (even if ours is silver), myriad ornaments collected over generations (including the real seal fur star that Uncle Brother gave us made by Eskimos in Alaska), the stockings hung by the fire with care (Addie will have 3 by the time Santa arrives), the Christmas cards, and the often overlooked Advent calendar counting down the 24 days before Christmas. This is a tradition that I loved as a child, and one that I will continue with Addie.

I bought our German Advent calendar from an antique store in Richmond, Illinois when Addie and I were visiting my Mom in October. I am definitely drawn to the traditional with ornate scenes of old-fashioned holiday cheer.
I picked the Christmas Train one out because I was entranced by the cheery (yet creepy) dolls ('creepy' and 'doll' are redundant) who are so excited to see Old Saint Nick driving not a sleigh but a train into their idyllic, snowy, German village. My favorite window from the 11th shows Santa changing the tire on a Model T that belongs to 2 young angels. How delightful and bizarre!

In Pottery Barn they now sell gigantic advent calendar wall hangings that you can stick presents in the pocket. I don't need my advent calendar to have gifts or even chocolates behind the 24 doors. To me, the humble advent calendar, made of paper and a gentle sprinkling of silver glitter, is a reminder that joy and the excitement of the new and unknown can come in the simpliest form.