And behind the first door is…

“You can start opening your advent calendars tomorrow” I told the boy.
“Does that mean it’s Christmas?” he asked excitedly.
“No, not quite.” 

This is going to be a long month.

When we were kids we each got an advent calendar, the thin card type, in the days when you could still buy them without chocolate inside.  Nan would buy them.  One for each of us and one for each of our cousins.  As we got older we got chocolate in them.  We had to keep quiet though – Nan still wouldn’t post chocolate advent calendars up to our cousins.  She gave in in the end though.

This year the mother asked if we’d be in one day.  The father was working in our area and he had an advent calendar to deliver for the boy.  The husband would be at home; there are advantages to home working after all.  Now she wanted to check with me first that the calendar would be ok.  You see, it was a nativity scene, a classic Christmas picture.  We wouldn’t have a problem with that, would we?  I had to laugh.  You can tell Christmas is becoming too commercialised when your own mother, who probably hasn’t set foot in a church since your brother’s last primary school carol concert almost ten years back, is worried about sending out the biblical message. 

So the father delivered the goods and when I got home, I went to see just what was so special about this advent calendar.  Sorry.  Make that two calendars.  One from the mother and one from Nan.  Talk about spoiling the child.  I put them up on the mantlepiece but left them wrapped in plastic; there’s no point tempting little fingers.  But the boy was good.  He didn’t complain.

Last night we unwrapped the calendars so they’d be ready for the morning.  The boy decided he’d open the door on one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.  I was quite surprised really.  “You know what mum” he said.  “If you ate all the chocolate in those calendars at once, you’d die.”  Delightful child.  I explained to him that that probably wasn’t the case but it would make you feel very ill.  No point encouraging him.

This morning when he woke up the boy didn’t seem to remember that he could start attacking that chocolate.  I reminded him and he decided straight away that he wanted to pick the Ben 10 calendar.  No contest really.  He munched on the chocolate and then decided straight away that he was going to open the door on the other.  “But you said you were going to do that one this afternoon” I protested.  No such luck.  The morning was clearly the time for advent calendar chocolate eating. 

At least it only happens once a year.