The Great Advent Calendar Debate

My mom made this advent calendar for me when I was in college. I hung it up on my white cinder block BYU-approved apartment walls, put in the Hershey Kisses, and began my Christmas countdown.

And thus began the great advent calendar debate.

You see, in my thinking an advent calendar is to help you count down the number of days left until Christmas. Thus, you should start with 25 and take a piece of candy in reverse order (25, 24, 23...) That way you can just glance and see how many days are left until Christmas. Makes sense, right?

My roommates Stacey and Heather thought I was crazy and committing some unholy sin. They claimed that with advent calendars you had to start with the number 1 and work your way up. If you wanted to know how many days left until Christmas you had to count.

Now, I concede that on some advent calendars this might make more sense. Those paper ones with the chocolate? Those numbers are all over the place. The only way you're gonna do it right is start with 1.


But on mine, or this stinkin' cute one from Target, backwards is the way to go.


So what became of the great advent calendar debate? Nothing, really. I told them it was my calendar and my chocolate, so back off. Maybe in a nicer way, but that was the gist of it. And they continued to mock me and give me grief each year.

But now it's my house and my wall and my advent calendar and my chocolate. And I still say, we're starting at 25 and working our way down. So back off. Oh, and Merry Christmas.

(How do you do advent calendars?)