Advent Calendar Creep

                                                                  Traditional Advent Calendar

The season of Advent in the Christian calendar anticipates the "coming of Christ" from three different perspectives:

 the physical nativity in Bethlehem, 

the reception of Christ in the heart of the believer, 

and the eschatological Second Coming.

Folks, now they're coming for Advent...

 The generation of those who could remember simple gifts at Christmas, often homemade, with perhaps an orange in the stocking, is almost gone.Baby Boomers decided that nothing succeeds like excess when it comes to Xmas spending. We are also the generation that concluded that while we have holidays as a celebration of Christ's birth in the first place it is verboten to acknowledge this reality in most public settings. 

For a long time Easter, the other Christian biggie, was safe, albeit with minor commercialization, but the spending creep has taken over in this season as well. Celebrate the miracle of the Resurrection? God, or no god forbid, as we've seen the alarming secularization of this season as well.

What could possibly happen to Advent, other than becoming the runway for Christmas? 

Well, make way for the "Advent Calendar." Advent Calendars were traditionally a way to build anticipation for Christmas with little doors or pockets containing maybe a verse of scripture and a treat for each day during the four weeks of this contemplative time in the Christian calendar. The one we used with our children was laughable simple but they still had a sense of excitement each day.

                                           from the Globe and Mail article, November 14, 2025

 In the past decade retailers have cottoned to the possibilites for selling secular versions of these calendars. And with this has come the obscenely expensive versions, some with swag costing thousands of dollars. A couple of weeks ago the Globe and Mail offered The best Canadian advent calendars this holiday season elbows up baby Jesus! The cheapest was $70 and the most expensive was about 300 dollars more. You can hit a gift-giving home run with a Blue Jays calendar. 

I hear about the growing number of people in our country crushed by food insecurity and debt. Last years statistics tell us that at least 60,000 Canadians are homeless on any given night. There are probably hundreds of thousands who will are anxious about the pressures of the season. The gap between rich and poor gets wider. How did we get here?

I may be a curmudgeon but I actually get emotional about all this. It seems soullous to me. There is nothing in the definition above about the arrival of retail excess. 

Tomorrow Advent 2025 commences and I will do my best to observe as a Christian with a sense of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. God being my helper. Join the resistance!

Come, Lord Jesus, Come