Picture Advent Calendars in the 1980s

I’ve been trying to find my childhood calendar on eBay to no avail. The pictures year on year would be so evocative now. I’m convinced mine was the shape of a German cuckoo clock. Was so exciting getting it out every year.

First response had it! We had the same one for years, and the 3 of us used to argue about whose turn it was.
Dh was the youngest of 4 with a big age gap. He reckoned theirs was from the 1950s.
Simpler times.

I'm going back to the 60s and 70s.

We had a new one each year, but it was one between us all, so we took turns to open the door.

Same

We reused the same one. I think it’s long gone, but I was very excited to see a photo of it on a Facebook nostalgia group a few weeks ago. The barrel at the right was for the 15th and said only ten days to go….

I don't think I have ever known anyone re-use an advent calendar.

I saw it and thought he must be younger than me!

We used to make our own out of last year's Christmas Cards.

I thought it was new each year, but it may have been reused, I remember how excited I was to see the pictures! At some point I got a chocolate one, and it didn’t have pictures, while the chocolate was exciting i remember being a bit disappointed with no pictures. Times have changed so much since the 80s.

I had a new one each year. Last couple of years they maybe had chocolate, before that religious and I opened it after church (from about 7 I went to midnight mass so would have been about 1.30 Christmas Day.)

Did you just watch Josh Widdicombe on Live at the Apollo OP? 😂

I'm not sure if my parents re-used ours. But I do remember the pure excitement and joy of opening up the little doors. There were three of us kids and we'd take turns. I'm 40.

DS is 4 and has a home made calendar with chocolates. I wonder if he experiences the same excitement...I doubt it. He knows there will be a chocolate. It's no robin on a gatepost. And yet I'd feel he was missing out if there was no chocolate.

New one every year until one year I made my little sister one from a big Christmas card. The next year she made me one from a cereal box. The front picture was a pregnant Mary, Joseph and the donkey playing frisbee (she was 6). My dad had helped her cut all the little doors and she’d drawn a Christmassy picture under each one. I’ve put it up every year since.

I reused one through my teenage years because I was apparently too old to need an advent calendar

My first Christmas at uni, I took great delight in buying myself an advent calendar because I could. And it was a chocolate one. Bonus, as it was 1999, it went up to Millennium Eve

I had a new calendar every year.
I always wanted to see the Nativity scene behind the double doors of number 24.

One year it was a big Father Christmas and I was disappointed.(I loved him behind any other window though.)

My favourite picture was a moon with a face in a dark glittery, starry sky. It was magical and I often think of the fleeting moment of pure joy when I opened that window.

I'm not quite sure why that picture made me so happy. I was about 4 at the time.

Frequently reused.

My mum was a teacher so had a plentiful supply of little gold and silver stars which she would use to stick the doors back down!

That has just unlocked a memory!! We had that one too, I loved it!
our were mainly nativity scenes bought from church, I do remember mum ironing it under a tea towel one year when putting away all the decs so I assume we had it the next year too!

We reused them. We had one between us. The best picture was a kitten with a Christmas bauble.

i was telling my children today that the first year we had a chocolate calendar we had to share it, it was such a luxury. I must have been 8 or 9, so very early 1990’s.

We had a new one every year. Always a picture, no chocolates. Was always really excited to see the picture!

Reused them. 30th November was spent sticking the doors with blutac to hold them shut.
My favourite was either the 3d house which you could put a candle inside and the Windows glowed or the one which was different people looking out of windows.

It was like having an old friend opening them again.

I'm sure we had a new one every year. About 30p from Woolies. All covered in glitter, usually a Nativity scene I think, or just a snowy Victorian street scene. It really was exciting opening each window, even though it was just a picture!

We had a new one every year.

We got a new one every year, my ultimate favourite picture one was in the shape of Santa and there was a string at the bottom which you pulled to make his legs move. I’m 55 and it must be 45 years ago when I got that one and I can still remember how much joy it brought every day.

I so vividly remember my Aunty had a beautiful paper advent calender. The scene was a skyline of Bethlehem and you opened one paper set of shutters in the windows of a house on each day of advent. Behind each shutter was just coloured to look lit up so by the time Christmas arrived all of Bethlehem looked illuminated. Final window was the nativity scene. They used it every year and I loved it.

Always a new one so I don’t remember being excited for any one particular picture. But loved guessing what each one would be with my siblings. And the sheer excitement of opening the big one on 24th. Those were the days!