This is a re-post from the old Ninja Book Box blog, but a subject I still feel very, very strongly about and so I thought it was worth sharing again! Everyone who wants one should feel 'allowed' to have an Indie Book Advent Calendar, for goodness sake.
Recently, I made a quick video about my thoughts on hearing a woman tell her grown up child that she was 'too old for an advent calendar now', and as I'm trying to post more regularly on this blog it seemed like a brilliant chance to expand my thoughts. Here is why you are never too old for an advent calendar...
The whole festive season often gets harder as we get older, for a multitude of reasons. Personally, this year brings a whole new set of adjustments from our usual 'one year in Kent, one year in London with the grandparents' rules, as our extended family grows and includes an international contingent as well as many more grandchildren for my parents to divide their time between. A good thing of course, but for our household of neurodiverse routine lovers, an adjustment. Surely if we have more to deal with, we deserve a little bit of something lovely every day or every week to give us something extra to look forward to? If life is harder the older we get, it makes sense that we should have more things to help make it a little bit easier.
Christmas is not just for children. Whether you're spending lots of time trying to make it magical for the kids in your life, or whether your holiday season doesn't involve children, or whatever your situation is, the idea that Christmas is for children and therefore we shouldn't get to celebrate with as much exuberance as adults, is an entirely silly one. I think we should take joyful moments wherever we can find them, whether that's something as small as opening a door each day to find a chocolate, or opening a mystery book parcel each week with strangers on the internet, seize the tiny joyful moments with both hands!
As I said in the video I made, the idea that anticipation and excitement are just for kids or that they're less important to us as adults is absolute crap, made up to entice us into the idea that our sole purpose as adults is to basically slog at a job as our main purpose in life. Of course it's important to earn money to live, of course. But I rebel hugely against the idea that it should be our main goal. In order for our brains to be balanced, it's so hugely essential to have things to look forward to, and to anticipate opening a parcel each day or each week is a small, lovely way to do that.
Any type of Advent Calendar is great, whatever floats your boat, but if you fancied our particular advent calendar it's brilliant because your weekly books give you something to immerse yourself in if you're feeling in need of a distraction, and of course they come with different activities, traditions and recipes so there's loads of different stuff to try out, as well as our weekly Cosy Advent Lives which are an opportunity to hang out with me and a group of other bookish folk on the internet, opening parcels together and generally having some lovely chatter.
If you don't have any extra in the budget for an advent calendar for yourself this year, you can make one for yourself that's more of an advent calendar of activities. I do this for my kids each year, and many of the activities are totally free. Our favourite one is to make a thermos of hot chocolate and go on a walk round our local area to spot Christmas lights. We also go to local carol concerts, make decorations out of paper, watch Christmas movies together, bake and all sorts of other things. I've got a whole Pinterest board of Christmas Inspiration, if it's of use to anyone in making their festive season more fun!
If you feel like you need a permission slip to indulge in something special for yourself this December, consider this it! Some favourite ideas of mine are Chai Wallah's Tea Advent Calendar, The Yarn Whisperer's Yarn Advent Calendar, Moments of Meaning's Activity Advent Calendar and of course our own Indie Book Advent Calendar. If you have an advent calendar you really love, do let me know in the comments.
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