Calendars from the Past

My last post about Advent Calendars got me remembering other advents when the children were small. So, with the help of my daughter (who has scans of all our old photos), I thought I'd show you a few of those memories.

To start with, here's Jack at a year old in 1988, studying his first picture advent calendar.

He looks like he's taking it very seriously, doesn't he? And blimey, how young I look there. Look at this one - obviously taken just after getting that pesky little door open.

By the next year, when he was two, I'd made him his own special calendar, thanks to a pattern in 'Prima' magazine (does anyone else have fond memories of the Prima patterns?)

Over thirty years later, we still hang this calendar up every year but it no longer has little parcels wrapped in gold paper in the pockets.

Then there was the gold coin calendar which both children remember very fondly. I got the idea from a Christmas craft book; here's Jack painting it when we made it the Christmas he was four.

It's basically a stick from the garden 'planted' in plaster of paris in a flower pot and then painted white and sprinkled with glitter. You hang numbered chocolate coins from the branches, one for each day in advent. Here's Jack with the tree in 1992.

Rose had been born earlier that year but was too young for chocolate coins but, don't worry, I soon had to start hanging two sets of coins from the branches. 

Rose's special advent calendar is a cross stitch one from a pattern by Jo Verso. Here she is, waiting for her little parcel in 1993.

I'm not sure a not quite two year old should have been standing on a chair.

There was a different cross stitched picture under each parcel. As you can see, the chocolate coin tree was still very much in use. I notice my collection of 'Creative Hands' magazines on the shelf too. I still have those craft magazines. 

It's nice to remember those times. Meanwhile ... my yarn advent calendar is coming along nicely. The mini skeins are obviously following a colour order as there's been an awful lot of pink. Today's colour is a blueish grey though so maybe blue will be next. The latest shade is called 'Good Fairy' and came complete with a fairy charm.

I'm crocheting five little two inch squares from each skein and then using up the rest to make a 'round thing'. This is particularly liberating as I'm just making it up as I go along. It's nice not to always be in 'designer mode'.