Ah Advent

Here we are, already well into Advent, the season of anticipation. Yes, Christmas lies ahead, but these weeks leading up to the Holy Days and Nights have their own special magic. I first started to wake up to this years ago when I visited a friend in Germany towards the end of November. So I learned about Advent calendars, and transforming the house by bringing out such things as special Christmassy cloths for the children's bedside tables, lighting candles in the evening and so on.

One of the best traditions we ever had as a family was to play a version of Chris Kringle. This meant that we wrote the six names -- Mom and Dad and four children -- on pieces of paper, and each chose one out of Grandpa's bowler hat. If you got your own name, you had to try again. Then you kept the secret, and did some small, thoughtful deed for that person each day till Christmas, when you'd all guess who'd been your 'Chris Kringle'.

One year I got my dear husband, and wow, wasn't that an amazing exercise, finding deeds to surprise him with, and a different one every day. Sometimes, this was as small as baiting his toothbrush with paste. As in most exercises of this nature, the giver is usually the one who gains the most, and that's what I found.

The first memory I have of an Advent experience was when I'd just started high school. Along with my older cousin, I attended an Anglican church school run by 'sisters', although the apartheid government soon stopped allowing the nuns into the country. The high school was rather reminiscent of a cloister, being built around a quadrangle. For the celebration, the choir assembled on the upper storey and processed down to the chapel singing 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel'. It's a sight and sound I carry with me to this day.