By now your family is a third of the way through your Advent calendar. Little card-stock doors or windows are opened to reveal various tokens: chocolates, Christmas images, or maybe biblical verses that tell the story of the birth of Jesus.
All are a part of a custom that began in earnest by a little boy in Germany in the 19th century. The non-paper version of Advent began much longer ago, as Christians were urged to set aside time for adventus, the Latin word for “coming.” Baby Jesus was coming as was the Christian view of the Second Coming.
The Advent designation comes during the four Sundays before Christmas. In 2021, November 28 begian Advent, though most calendars produced in the United States will display December 1–December 25 as such.
Can we “advent” other things that are coming? My creative juices think so, though I have no marketing initiative to take the steps to cash in on this novel idea. Maybe you do. I grant you permission to take my idea and enjoy a marketing windfall should my proposal take off. All I ask is for you to buy back my El Camino, outfitted and restored so that I can travel the U.S. on my 70th birthday year (2026). I am giving you plenty of notice. Below are possible suggestions for a year-round Advent-ure.
January: Advent Calendar of Resolutions. Open a door and do only the resolution for that one day. I can go a day without ice cream. I will not go a month without it. This is a perfect, guilt-free thirty-one-day solution to resolutions, with high success rates predicted.
February: Advent Calendar of U.S. Presidents’ Valentines. This calendar combines the month’s two significant days. Those who buy this advent calendar will find pictures/facts behind various White House doors and windows. These will ask questions about a President’s wife. For example, what U.S. President’s first wife and his mother died on the same day? Answer: Teddy Roosevelt (coincidentally, they both passed on Valentine’s Day 1884, before his presidency).
March: Advent for March Madness. This calendar comes out before the brackets are created, so it cannot be interactive. Instead, NCAA basketball playoff trivia questions will be included on a replicated basketball court. Open up the spot at the free throw line for questions such as, “What is the record for free throws made in a men’s Final Four game?” Answer: 23, by Texas’ Travis Mays and Bradley’s Bob Carney. If questions such as that bore you, create some fun ones such as, “What color sweater did Bob Knight always wear when coaching?” Answer: red. If a person doesn’t know the answer to that, throw a chair at him or her.
You get the idea. Just come up with the other nine months’ Advent themes, and life could get really exciting. A lucrative deal with Walmart or Target could be yours. The Hallmark Channel may make a movie about your story (I would insist on a cameo appearance as an old bird lady with a short solo while sitting near a fountain).
The path is yours for the taking to financial security, early retirement, and a pool in the backyard.
You’re welcome.
Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose thought-provoking commentary appears occasionally in several West texas newspapers, including The Texas Spur and The Caprock Courier.
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