Many years ago, my wife bought a painted wooden Advent calendar, a bit of folk art. The colors are warm and inviting; the calendar itself is square, about the size of a Monopoly board. Each of the twenty-five miniature doors is decorated with a painting of a familiar, mostly nonreligious Christmas scene: there are Christmas trees and wreaths, Teddy Bears, Santa, Noah’s Ark, rocking horses, and many culinary items. It gets hung on the wall in the living room when the time comes, and we delight in lifting up our grandchildren as they retrieve a Hersey’s Kiss or other sweet for each day of the season. It’s their anticipation and delight that make the practice such a treat.
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