All about advent
Glitter...gifts...and elves?
It is just me or has advent become almost the ‘main event’ in the run up to Christmas?
I was shopping in a glitzy department store the other day - I know - as my son would say ‘mistakes were made’.
Beauty halls with all of their mirrors and shiny, polished surfaces (and assistants) always have the ability to bring all of my hidden insecurities and fears to the surface. Even at the best of times I find them over-powering, over-perfumed and intimidating. But add in festive lights, cheery Christmas music and the ‘Black Friday’ frenzy and they become next-level scary places.
I was vaguely looking for some new makeup but rapidly gave up and tried to find the exit. In doing so though I couldn’t help but notice just how many ‘advent boxes’ there were. All of the major brands seemed to have some variation on the theme - and most were easily over £100.
It got me thinking many thoughts, but foremost in my mind was since when did advent become something that people spent more on than a main Christmas present? Or is it something that people buy for themselves, maybe as a pre-Christmas treat?
So many questions.
In previous years I have largely avoided buying yarn advent boxes, mainly because I still have some from other years lying untouched in my drawer, and partly because I’m not generally a fan of surprises. This year though I did succumb to a yarn advent for stitch markers - because as we all know you can never (ever) have too many.
I’m a huge fan of Fripperies & Bibelots for their super smooth stitch marker rings and so I couldn’t resist their Nightmare before Christmas themed set. They are sure to be making an appearance on my socials next week as I unpack them.
Have you bought any advent sets? Do let me know if you have - I’d be really keen to see what people have and how useful they find them.
What’s making me smile this week
🎄Continuing with the advent theme - I didn’t buy a traditional advent calendar but I did spot a beautiful Angela Harding 3D advent one in a gift shop and had to bring it home with me. I love her art, it is always beautiful and evocative and I know I’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of opening the tiny windows each day.
🎄Home made advents. Both my boys are away at Uni now and so our traditional wooden advent house is still packed away in the loft. Normally I put little chocs into the wooden drawers each day (well, I say me but really we know it’s the Christmas Elves). I was feeling sentimental though so I packed up a little box for each of the boys and sent it to them in the post. Just some wrapped chocolates numbered 1-14 to see them through until the end of term, after which they’ll be home and able to access the advent house in person. Sentimental? Probably, but I don’t care 🤣
🎄Speaking of Elves we have something of a take over going on at home. My husband bought 13 of these delightful Tomte from Sostrene Grene recently, intending to gift them to his staff. Currently they are hanging out in our living room and I have to say they are really making me smile. In case you haven’t heard of them, Tomte are a Swedish ‘Woodland Fairy’ - called the Nisse in Norway and Denmark. They are an important part of Scandinavian folklore and have come to be associated with gift giving and generosity. Households would leave offerings of rice porridge for them to encourage their visits - although they are known to like plenty of butter in their porridge and you risk their displeasure if you are stingy with it.
🎄If you do have advent yarn coming your way, this article has some great suggestions for what to make.
🎄And finally, the other advent event I’m looking forward to is being run by
. The All is Calm digital advent calendar is designed to be a welcome antidote to Christmas stress and bustle and I for one, can’t wait.The digital calendar is available as a stand-alone purchase or it comes free with membership of Sarah’s wonderful Substack Gather & Grow. I’m a huge fan of Sarah’s work and love the friendly, supportive community she has gathered here on Substack.
Competition: if you’d like to win a free month’s membership to Gather & Grow I have a gift subscription to give away. Simply leave a comment below and I’ll do the prize draw at 10am tomorrow - apologies for the short timescale - but as ever when it comes to Christmas I always seem to be running a day or two behind 🤣
And if you are thinking of gifts for the knitter who already has too much yarn - don’t forget that gift subscriptions are a great no-clutter present - just saying - wink.
You mentioning Tomtes. I have one sitting on my kitchen shelf looking down on us while we eat.
As children we had a book by Astrid Lindgren called Tomte Tummetot about a Tomte that lived on a farm and went around on winter nights making sure all the animals and people were safe and cozy.
If you want to see pictures look for it on Amazon. The German volumes on there come with more examples of the illustrations.
As a non-Christian (not secular, I am actively observant but in my tradition), I find the commercial flurry, particularly in fibre arts, around Advent, to be a lot to contend with. I am all for Christians observing their traditions, I think religious traditions are meaningful and important, but the new commercial expectation that everyone wants one of these, just to observe someone else’s holiday? It’s kind of othering and a bit much.