Advent calendar (Christmas calendar, waiting calendar) is a model with windows, the number of which corresponds to the number of days left before Christmas. The most common forms of such calendars are houses or postcards.
The Catholic tradition of creating Advent calendars for toddlers on the eve of Christmas has long spread throughout the world. And despite the fact that "Advent" means the period of time before Catholic Christmas that requires fasting, mothers in many countries around the world prepare such wonderful calendars for New Year's holidays, their children's birthdays and any other expected celebrations.
The history of the advent calendar
The first Advent calendar appeared in Germany in the 19th century. There is a legend that the child constantly asked his mother questions about when Christmas would finally come. And at that moment, when she got tired of answering them, she came up with and made a calendar out of cardboard, in which there were small windows. The basic rule was: you can only open one of them per day. There was a small cookie outside the window. Thus, the boy was able to calculate himself how many days until the holiday.
Subsequently, this child began to produce the first Advent calendars, but instead of brittle cookies, they began to hide small chocolates in them. They began to be sold first in Austria and Switzerland, and then spread throughout the world. At the moment, advent calendars have different shapes and lie with their volumetric side down, therefore, opening the window, children do not know what exactly they will get. There are bells, gifts, snowmen, Christmas trees and other attributes of winter and holidays.
Why do you need an Advent calendar
The Advent calendar helps even the smallest children to better understand how much time is left before the long-awaited holiday. Opening the window, they see how many chocolates have already been eaten and how many are left behind the closed shutters. Some children are so carried away by this that they gradually begin to learn to count. For adults, such an invention is an opportunity to present a good mood and magic to a child and plunge into childhood themselves.
Also, such calendars provide an opportunity to develop creativity, since you can make them yourself. Over time, the canonical appearance in the form of a cardboard box with windows faded into the background, and numbered boots and decorations on homemade Christmas trees became widespread. Gifts can also be inedible, as long as they are small. Such activity helps the child expand his imagination, improve hand motor skills, and develop the skill of perseverance. At the same time, he can do all the preparatory work, and adults directly hide surprises - one a day or all at once.
