Slightly related - back in grade school, did you have in the classroom those cardboard thingys with a tiny door to be opened on each day of Advent - or did I make that up?

I loved Advent Calendars as a Kid, of course! I like the really old-fashioned ones best (modernity can have some odd effects on Advent Calendars.

Here's some for kids at heart, like you:

• Advent Calendar at the Knights of Columbus Advent Page. (Beautiful ... click on the Star of David each day for readings and artwork.)

• Artcyclopedia's Advent Calendar

• Richard Sellmer's Advent Calendars. They've got a little online museum of old advent calendars within their "History of Advent Calendars" page and their page of links ought to ring the chimes of anyone with ready credit. =)

• Yahoo's List of Online Advent Calendars

• The Fairchilds' collection of Online Advent Calendars (lots from previous years and some no longer working)

• St. Margaret Mary Church (Naperville, IL) has a little online calendar with doors that open =).

• Ann's Advent Calendar has lots of nice images and Catholic-oriented links each day.

• Court 817 of the Catholic Daughters (Hamburg, NY) has the Sherwood Forest Advent Calendar amd the Jesse Tree from Salve Regina Catholic Books along with other Advent traditions ... history, the Christmas Novena, etc.

And, egghaid that you are, I know you'll want to check out the Catholic Scholars Online page ... some neat links there as well.

Some more links of interest (I may send to the St. Pat webmaster ... =):

• A Calendar of Resources (December 2001) for Catholic Homeschoolers

• A History of the Advent Wreath by Fr. William Saunders (Catholic Educator's Resource Center)

• Resources for Religious Educators (Advent)

Can there be great art without God?

Well, judging by "Art for Art's Sake" ... No.
(Just a bunch of Exquisite Debris)

Thanx for the linx - wish they had this hi-tech stuff when we were kids.

What, NO PIX!?!

They still have them. Ours has doors that open each day and the kids get a piece of chocolate! I kept the plastic tray the candy was in last year and the kids and I will re-fill it tonight with the 'candy melts' we'll prepare. I know we're a day late from the beginning of Advent, but our Parish had a Holly Fair this weekend and I was busy with the 'youts' selling candy pops we'd made the previous two weekends.

In addition to the 'secular' advent calendar, we have "Jesse Tree" ornaments we read from each night, and an Advent Wreath. We're ready to 'get ready' for Christmas!

One of the reasons the Church celebrates the Nativity when she does is to root these words of John the Baptist organically with what was formerly the universal appreciation of men for the natural balance of the seasons as the fruit of a marriage between earth and sky.

Born six months before Jesus at the summer solstice, the Forerunner's feast marks the sun's high point in the zodiac, and the longest day, subsequent to which the light declines. Conversely, the Savior's birth marks the beginning of the sun's increasing azimuth, and light's return to the world.

THE WISE MEN

STEP softly, under snow or rain,
To find the place where men can pray;
The way is all so very plain,
That we may lose the way.

Oh, we have learnt to peer and pore
On tortured puzzles from our youth.
We know all labyrinthine lore,
We are the three Wise Men of yore,
And we know all things but the truth.

Go humbly . . . it has hailed and snowed . . .
With voices low and lanterns lit,
So very simple is the road,
That we may stray from it.

The world grows terrible and white,
And blinding white the breaking day,
We walk bewildered in the light,
For something is too large for sight,
And something much too plain to say.

The Child that was ere worlds begun
( . . . We need but walk a little way . . .
We need but see a latch undone . . . )
The Child that played with moon and sun
Is playing with a little hay.

The house from which the heavens are fed,
The old strange house that is our own,
Where tricks of words are never said,
And Mercy is as plain as bread,
And Honour is as hard as stone,

Go humbly; humble are the skies,
And low and large and fierce the Star,
So very near the Manger lies,
That we may travel far.

Hark ! Laughter like a lion wakes
To roar to the resounding plain,
And the whole heaven shouts and shakes,
For God Himself is born again
And we are little children walking
Through the snow and rain.

-GK Chesterton

This would be the church, by the way, where we could attend Latin Mass on St. Patrick's morning ... =)

Ha, ha. Seriously, I'm thinking of going if he offers it again. My ignorance is beginning to shame me. I can't hold my head up around here.

Joseph was an old man and an old man was he
When he wedded Mary in the land of Galilee

When Joseph was married and Mary home had got,
Mary proved with child, by whom Joseph knew not.

Joseph and Mary walked through an orchard good,
Where was cherries and berries, as red as any blood.

Joseph and Mary walked through an orchard green,
Where was berries and cherries, as thick as might be seen.

O then bespoke Mary, so meek and so mild:
'Pluck me a cherry, Joseph; they run so in my mind.'

O then bespoke Joseph, with words most reviled:
'Let him pluck thee a cherry that brought thee with child.'

O then bespoke Jesus, all in his mother's womb:
'Bow down, then, thou tallest tree, for my mother to have some!

'Go to the tree, Mother Mary, and it shall bow to thee,
And the highest branch of all shall bow down to your knee.'

Then bowed down the tallest tree, it bent to Mary's hand;
Then she cried: 'See, Joseph, I have cherries at command.'

O then bespoke Joseph: 'I have done Mary wrong.
So cheer up, my dearest, do not be cast down!

Then Mary plucked a cherry, as red as any blood;
And she traveled onward, all with her heavy load.