Last week I mentioned that I have a tea advent calendar this year. I love it. You see, I have a problem. A tea problem. I see tea in the store and it looks so yummy. I hem and haw because we have so much tea at home (because of my aforementioned tea problem), and then, sometimes (probably more like often), I buy it. I get it home, excited to try my new tea, and then… I drink the same old thing all the time.
My tea advent calendar has been fun. I expected that. What I didn’t expect – but should have – was that I would be able to try new teas without the commitment. And that has been great. There is just enough in each small tin for one or two cups of tea. After I’ve tried it, I write on the back what I thought of it. So far, the ratings have been everything from blech (you can’t like them all) to delicious.
Advent calendars have been around for a long time. In fact, after a very quick Google search I found that advent calendars have their roots in the 19th century in Germany. Of course, their advent calendars weren’t anything like the ones we have now.
The chocolate advent calendars that many of us grew up with “reportedly first appeared on the scene in the 1950s, and Cadbury began commercially producing them in 1971.” (Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/11/1141855237/advent-calendar-history-evolution)
I don’t remember having advent calendars growing up, but then again, we didn’t celebrate Advent. Advent is the Christian celebration of the four weeks of waiting for Christmas. It is typically marked by using an evergreen wreath with four candles. One candle is lit on the first Sunday of Advent, two candles on the second Sunday, and so on. In fact, the word advent means “the arrival of a notable thing, person, or event”.
For years, I saw advent calendars that had Santa on them. That made sense to me. The calendars count down the days to Christmas. Then I started to see advent calendars with things like Spiderman on them. Not exactly the reason for the season. Then, probably in the last 10 years or so, advent calendars took off. They started to be available for things like tea. They were new, and sold out quickly. (I know because I tried to buy one one year and was too late.) Soon, everyone got on the bandwagon. In recent years I have had advent calendars for tea, bath and beauty products, one of my favourite tv shows, tea, and of course, chocolate. (But good chocolate. If I’m going to have a piece of chocolate every day it had better be worth the sugar and the calories.)
Are tea and my favourite tv show the reason for the season? No. But they don’t claim to be. In fact, Advent starts on a different date each year. It begins four Sundays before Christmas and of course while the date of Christmas doesn’t change, the day of the week does, so it really isn’t practical for companies to start an advent calendar on the date that Advent starts. And, of course, advent calendars aren’t restricted to Christians. They are a fun way for anyone to count down the days to Christmas. The same article I read about the roots of Advent talked about how advent calendars give us the gift of slowing down a bit. Slowing down enough to make time to stop and open the door of our advent calendar for that day. This is a season of busy, and stopping to take the time to have a little fun – time that is for you when it might be hard to find time for yourself – is a gift in itself.
My husband and I read a short advent meditation before we each open our chocolate advent calendar. Some days we forget, but we always come back to it another day. (It isn’t the intended system, but it does have the advantage of getting more than one piece of chocolate when we come back to it.) This year with my tea advent calendar I have been taking time in the afternoon to take a break and enjoy my tea of the day.
I hope that during this very busy season you get to take some time for yourself. Even if it’s just a minute or two for a little treat.
Happy Advent!