The Snowman

On the first day of Advent I really enjoy bringing down our ancient Advent calendar from the loft and hanging it in the hall, ready for the first toy to be fastened to one of the tiny red velcro dots.

It has been our custom for as long as I remember that The Traveller should put up the first toy. I made the calendar from a Vogue pattern in 1984 when I was pregnant with him so, when he was old enough, he was always given first go because he was the youngest child. Thus it was that my 39 year old youngest son was today given the honours and he ceremoniously placed the snowman in his correct position. As far as he’s concerned, the snowman is always first to go up, and always has to be in the same place!

The felt toys are stored in a pocket at the bottom of the Advent calendar, and we all take it in turns thereafter to pull the pocket open and rummage among all the toys to choose the next one to go up. The calendar is looking very tired and jaded now (a bit like how I feel at the moment!) but it holds so many precious memories and I hope it will last a bit longer.

A few years ago we had a flood in our cellar, where unfortunately I had all my paper patterns stored. They got soaked and were ruined but the one I was most upset to lose was this Advent calendar pattern. I decided to see if I could get hold of a replacement and, sure enough, I found a website in the US which specialised in vintage paper patterns and I was able to have a brand new one sent to me (at some cost, though!). At least I now know that I can make a replacement if ever I feel it becomes necessary. There's a shot of it in extras.