I'm joining in with Julie at
Julie's Scrapbook to bring you a picture every day as a sort of Advent calendar- these might take the form of stories, hand-drawn or photographs. I followed
Julie's blog two years ago because of it but not ever joined in! I thought it would spark creativity!
Today's 1st picture (or pictures in this case), must of course, for me, be an actual Advent calendar. This tells of a memory which is one of my happiest multiple Advent memories from childhood. I am incredibly sentimental about my Christmas childhoods and especially my very young years.
Here is the Advent calender that we saw every year in our younger years. It is Enid Blyton's Christmas story. It was created in 1953 and this is my Dad's first edition which he had as a child. When we were young, every evening, we would open a window and there was a short extract of the story to be read. I didn't realise it was by Enid Blyton as a child but the magical feeling I associate with it makes sense now as an adult, I know it was by her. She had a large influence on my imagination and reading choices as an adult.
My parents divorced when I was around 4, so I only have a few memories of hearing it every evening, yet when we went over to my Dad's for weekends, he'd read it to us, several chapters at a time to make up for the lost week just before we went to bed.
We loved it, truly we loved it. Even though we heard it each year, somehow, the lapse of 341 days since we first heard it renewed its magic. And of course, you must know I am a great one for nostalgia.
My sister and I, both now, when we talk about it, talked about the picture that scared us-
Grabbit the Gnome who stole away the children's Christmas presents they were going to take to the Baby Jesus. We were scared of it and always sat in secret thrill and horror for the window when he would appear- we could never remember which one!
My personal favourite was the chapter in which the window opened to see the tiny mice asleep in bed! Oh how I loved it!
Such happy memories. But it has remained a memory for many years now until last Christmas, we went over to my Dad's for Christmas and saw it out by the fire- my Dad is a great one for nostalgia and recalling memories too. I was utterly delighted to see it, fragile though it was and hastened to take these photos ready for next year's Advent. I knew immediately, that this would be my first post. I suspect I should have saved it for a Pause for Advent as was originally intended, but I knew it had to begin my daily photos.
Did you have any strong Advent memories like this?
xxx
