This is one of the first symbols that Christmas is approaching. The advent calendar starts on 1st December.

My childhood advent calendar usually consisted of a shop bought milk chocolate calendar, with favourite cartoon characters on the front, and in my teenage years a favourite boy band (yes, I admit, I was a take that fan).

My brother and I did the old trick of opening all the windows and eating the chocolate and then carefully closing the window so that mum wouldn’t find out. She didn’t find out - well not that I know of, perhaps she did and didn’t let on :)

I haven’t bought Erin an advent calendar yet, although this year will most likely be a white chocolate one similar to the ones I used to get. In the future I would like to get one of the wooden ones with drawers that you can fill with sweets and small treats.

What do you do to count down to Christmas?