Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So, as this episode airs,
Speaker 1: we are already into Advent, both on the religious calendar
Speaker 1: and as the word relates to Christmas countdown calendars and
Speaker 1: those two things. Even though the countdown calendars have become
Speaker 1: very very secular in some iterations, they still share a
Speaker 1: root origin. And today you can get gift calendars that
Speaker 1: are called Advent calendars don't even count down to Christmas,
Speaker 1: they don't really reference Advent at all, but they'll still
Speaker 1: get called that, right, Like there are birthday countdown calendars
Speaker 1: you can get. It's doesn't have anything to do with Advent,
Speaker 1: but the name has become so connected to this idea
Speaker 1: of a countdown calendar. And to talk about Advent calendars,
Speaker 1: which is really what this episode is about, we do
Speaker 1: have to talk about the religious observation of Ada, which
Speaker 1: has historically been less clear cut in execution than you
Speaker 1: may imagine. I feel like, especially if someone's not deeply
Speaker 1: religious or if they're not Catholic, they're like, Advent has
Speaker 1: a lot of rules well kind of, we'll see, they
Speaker 1: don't always get they have certainly not always, and even
Speaker 1: today they don't always get observed in the same ways.
Speaker 1: And the transition to commercially available products that are more
Speaker 1: about the secular celebration of Christmas than the religious one,
Speaker 1: but still have the same name centers more than anything
Speaker 1: on children and private celebrations, and how that kind of
Speaker 1: changed over to be something else. But the commercial version
Speaker 1: of the Advent calendar, i will say, is a pretty
Speaker 1: recent development. So that's what we're talking about today. So
Speaker 1: the word advent comes from the Latin ad venire to
Speaker 1: come to, and you'll sometimes see the word adventists, which
Speaker 1: means arrival. So from a religious perspective, Advent is part
Speaker 1: of Christian religious preparation for Christmas. Just does a note
Speaker 1: of clarity, Like we were talking about non Orthodox, like
Speaker 1: not the Orthodox churches, but like Catholicism, most Protestant denominations. Right,
Speaker 1: there are other versions of Advent within those other religions,
Speaker 1: but they they're on a slightly different calendar and they
Speaker 1: don't track quite the same way. Right, So the common
Speaker 1: version of Advent that our listeners are probably most familiar
Speaker 1: with runs over four Sundays leading up to Christmas ending
Speaker 1: on Christmas Eve. So, for example, the year that we're
Speaker 1: recording this in twenty twenty three, Advent is on the
Speaker 1: shorter side because Christmas Eve is on a Sunday, so
Speaker 1: this is from Sunday, December third to Sunday December twenty fourth.
Speaker 1: This period is intended to be a time of reflection
Speaker 1: and preparation for the Christmas holiday, and it's also considered
Speaker 1: a preparation for the second Coming of Christ. In I
Speaker 1: would say in some denominations that was like not a
Speaker 1: big part of it in my upbringing. Yeah, there are
Speaker 1: some Catholic churches that really go in on that in
Speaker 1: my experience, and some that do not. So some churches
Speaker 1: celebrated it more generally as a season to focus on
Speaker 1: and honor Christ. Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year,
Speaker 1: and depending on the denomination, Advent celebrations might include an
Speaker 1: Advent wreath with those four Sundays represented. Those Sundays usually
Speaker 1: each have their own theme. A lot of times it's hope, peace,
Speaker 1: joy and love, and the use of a wreath to
Speaker 1: celebrate Advent is tied to German Lutheran Johann Vickeran who
Speaker 1: introduced it as a visual countdown to Christmas in his
Speaker 1: church at a home for boys in eighteen thirty eight,
Speaker 1: and we'll come back to that. Advent has been around
Speaker 1: at least since the fourth century, when Bishop Perpetuus of
Speaker 1: Tours set up a pre Christmas fast as part of
Speaker 1: his church's calendar. Similar pre Christmas observations rapidly spread to
Speaker 1: other parts of Europe, and it took different forms then,
Speaker 1: often dependent on location. So there was a version of
Speaker 1: it that lasted for six Sundays. Pope Gregory the First
Speaker 1: also known as Gregory the Great, reduced it to four
Speaker 1: Sundays during his papacy that ran from five ninety to
Speaker 1: six oh four. And while there appear to have been
Speaker 1: some efforts to confine Advent just to December, that timeframe
Speaker 1: was not adopted by the Catholic Church right so Advent
Speaker 1: can start in November. The longer version may have been
Speaker 1: intended to include Epiphany that would account for that six
Speaker 1: weeks that goes past Christmas and beyond, but that's a
Speaker 1: little bit unclear. It doesn't really match up to some
Speaker 1: of the original dates mentioned, but there is a pretty
Speaker 1: popular theory that includes Epiphany, in that early instances of
Speaker 1: Advent may have tied not just to a Christmas countdown,
Speaker 1: but to the preparation for the baptisms that would normally
Speaker 1: happen to coincide with Epiphany. The start of the Advent season,
Speaker 1: going back to Bishop Perpetuus, appears to have initially co
Speaker 1: incided with the death of Saint Martin in a fast
Speaker 1: that follows the Feast of Saint Martin that begins in
Speaker 1: early November, So that would have initially included the stretch
Speaker 1: from early November to Christmas, not into January, and that
Speaker 1: might account for the sixth Sunday length. By the eighteenth century,
Speaker 1: the idea of Advent had been deeply cemented as an
Speaker 1: important part of the religious calendar. There had also been
Speaker 1: more lore and tradition established regarding Advent. In the seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy five book The Movable Feasts, Fasts and Other Annual
Speaker 1: Observances of the Catholic Church, the reverend doctor Alban Butler
Speaker 1: wrote this about Advent quote, Advent is a time of
Speaker 1: penance and devotion before Christmas, appointed by the Church to
Speaker 1: serve as a preparation to that great solemnity of the
Speaker 1: birth of Christ. Festivals were commanded by God himself and
Speaker 1: the Old Law to commemorate his principle, benefits and mercies,
Speaker 1: that men might be more perfectly instructed in them, bear
Speaker 1: them all ways in mind, be always thankful for them,
Speaker 1: and stirred up to dispose themselves to receive the fruits
Speaker 1: of these wonderful mysteries. The festivals of the New Law
Speaker 1: of Gray sought to be celebrated with so much the
Speaker 1: greater preparation and devotion as the mysteries which we commemorate
Speaker 1: transcend those of the Old Law, which, how wonderful of ever,
Speaker 1: were no more than weak types and figures, and empty
Speaker 1: shadows of them. By the time of Butler's writing, the
Speaker 1: rules of advent timing within the Catholic Church were firmly established,
Speaker 1: though he notes that there continued to be differing observations regionally.
Speaker 1: He establishes the four Sundays of Advent as falling from
Speaker 1: the Sunday nearest Saint Andrew's Day on either side of it,
Speaker 1: so even if the Sunday was before it or after it,
Speaker 1: whichever was closest, that's where it started. He also notes
Speaker 1: in the text that a forty day Advent was in
Speaker 1: place at one time as a sort of parallel to Lent,
Speaker 1: and was established in five eighty one at the Council
Speaker 1: of Mine. That version was forty days, no matter how
Speaker 1: many Sundays were involved. It was also sometimes called Saint
Speaker 1: Martin's Lent rather than Advent. Butler also notes that in
Speaker 1: Milan in the late eighteenth century, the six week Advent,
Speaker 1: which includes six Sundays, was still being observed when he
Speaker 1: wrote this so late eighteenth century. According to Butler's research,
Speaker 1: in the tenth century, Pope Nicholas the First also endorsed
Speaker 1: the four sunday version rather than forty days. Up to
Speaker 1: that point, monks in England and Ireland particularly had continued
Speaker 1: to observe the forty day rule, fasting most of the
Speaker 1: day and then eating one meal in the evening. Butler
Speaker 1: concludes his discussion of the varying advent calendar dates by saying, quote,
Speaker 1: almost the whole Latin Church, in conformity with the Roman
Speaker 1: has long since reduced advent to the uniform rule of
Speaker 1: four weeks, or at least four sundays beginning about the
Speaker 1: end of November, from the Sunday nearest the Feast of
Speaker 1: Saint Andrew. So we just mentioned fasting, and even the
Speaker 1: rules around that have been wildly different depending on the
Speaker 1: time and place. That Council of macall in five eighty
Speaker 1: one that we mentioned laid out a proposed fasting schedule
Speaker 1: of three days a week Monday, Wednesday and Friday for
Speaker 1: the whole forty days, and even on days that weren't
Speaker 1: fasting days, meat was to be avoided. Some churches encouraged
Speaker 1: both fasting and quote abstinence from cohabitation in the married state.
Speaker 1: Some observances of Advent focused more on spiritual preparation for
Speaker 1: the Christmas holiday and its meaning within the church, rather
Speaker 1: than requiring physical observation through fasting or abstinence from sexual intercourse.
Speaker 1: Even in Butler's book, he notes that quote in monastic orders,
Speaker 1: the fast of Advent has always been looked upon us
Speaker 1: less rigorous and less solemn than that of Lent. The
Speaker 1: bottom line is that even though there are church recognized
Speaker 1: dates and practices of Advent, even within any religious denomination,
Speaker 1: different areas or even individual churches can still define for
Speaker 1: themselves a lot of the specifics about how this period
Speaker 1: is observed and celebrated. So this is all religious history
Speaker 1: obviously that we've been talking about, but Advent is often
Speaker 1: marked by secular advent calendars, So how did that start.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about it right after we take
Speaker 1: a quick sponsor break. We noted in the discussion of
Speaker 1: religious observations of Advent that a wreath was introduced into
Speaker 1: churches as a way to visually mark the progression of
Speaker 1: the season and the approach of Christmas, and in Germany
Speaker 1: in the mid nineteenth century, this was one of several
Speaker 1: practices that shifted the Advent to include ways to track
Speaker 1: the countdown to Christmas at home for children. So sometimes
Speaker 1: marking the days that countdown to Christmas was really simple,
Speaker 1: like families just marking the day with chalk. I read
Speaker 1: different accounts it said like in some families, like they
Speaker 1: would put on the door, for example, like all of
Speaker 1: the chalk mark for all of the days, and they
Speaker 1: would erase one each day, and in others they would
Speaker 1: add one each day. Like it was a very personal
Speaker 1: way of marking it, and everybody had their own way
Speaker 1: of doing it. It also started to include small physical
Speaker 1: daily items, often paired with Bible verses to combine the
Speaker 1: religious observation with this idea of excitement of a visit
Speaker 1: from Santa and also teach kids about calendars. This started
Speaker 1: to shift from lining up with the moving target of
Speaker 1: Advent dates that are like the four Sundays, say and Andrews,
Speaker 1: to just being December first to twenty fourth. And that
Speaker 1: makes sense, particularly when you consider that these work countdowns
Speaker 1: that focused on children. Right, it's easy to track Advent
Speaker 1: when the first day of it lines up with December
Speaker 1: first and so on, but it would surely be harder
Speaker 1: for little kids in particular to have the calendar say
Speaker 1: November twenty ninth, for example, when the Advent calendar says two.
Speaker 1: So for example, a family might be setting up a
Speaker 1: line of candles on their mantle to be lit in
Speaker 1: a succession as the twenty four days from December first
Speaker 1: to December twenty fourth unfolded. The Advent wreath, as we noted,
Speaker 1: is credited to Johann Heinrich Vickern in the eighteen thirties,
Speaker 1: and this was adapted for home use in Germany in
Speaker 1: a way very similar to the way that we use
Speaker 1: Advent calendars. And in this countdown, each day a prayer
Speaker 1: or a Bible verse was read and then a candle
Speaker 1: was lit on the wreath. If you haven't seen one
Speaker 1: of these before and you're like, how would this work?
Speaker 1: The wreath is flat on a surface or hung from
Speaker 1: a chandelier. It's not vertically on the wall or a
Speaker 1: door or something like that. Versions of the Advent wreath
Speaker 1: could vary from the four candle one that mimicked those
Speaker 1: that might appear in churches all the way to twenty
Speaker 1: four day ones that mark December one through twenty fourth.
Speaker 1: These could be decorated with ornaments, but the focus remained
Speaker 1: on the religious verses and using the light the candles
Speaker 1: to create kind of a halo. So the Advent wreath
Speaker 1: is associated with Protestant traditions, and this too offers a
Speaker 1: possible insight into why they count down from December first
Speaker 1: instead of the religious calendar of Advent as it related
Speaker 1: to the Catholic Church. They simply were not governed by
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church's rules of when Advents started, since most
Speaker 1: of the Protestant versions of countdowns were part of family
Speaker 1: traditions and celebrations rather than part of any more formalized
Speaker 1: church observants, they were also just free to do what
Speaker 1: they wished and what made sense for their family in
Speaker 1: this regard. Another Protestant originated countdown convention is the Advent tree.
Speaker 1: This is a practice that began in eighteen forty six
Speaker 1: in Duisburg, Germany. And once again this was a tradition
Speaker 1: that started in a home for wayward boys as both
Speaker 1: a Christmas countdown and in didactic religious practice. So a
Speaker 1: small fur tree was planted in a pot in the
Speaker 1: home at the beginning of Advent, and then every day
Speaker 1: a Bible Verse was read aloud by one of the
Speaker 1: boys with the intention that they would all memorize it
Speaker 1: that night. And then the next day a candle was
Speaker 1: lit on the tree and another Bible verse was read
Speaker 1: to be memorized, and this daily candle and Bible verse
Speaker 1: practice continued every day of Advent until the tree was
Speaker 1: decorated and Advent ended. This practice was picked up in
Speaker 1: private homes as well, and a business grew out of
Speaker 1: it as printers started producing heavy paper or cardboard ornaments
Speaker 1: that had Bible verses printed on them and even stars
Speaker 1: to top the tree. So to be clear, this Advent
Speaker 1: tree was not something used instead of a Christmas tree.
Speaker 1: A lot of times the two would be alongside one
Speaker 1: another as kind of a commingling of Christmas decora and traditions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one rite up that I read kind of made it
Speaker 1: sound like you did the Advent tree and then when
Speaker 1: it was done, you carried that one into the room
Speaker 1: with the Christmas tree. But I wasn't sure if that
Speaker 1: was a translation issue. It seems like it would be
Speaker 1: a pain in the neck to move a tree with
Speaker 1: candles on it, so I think that is what the
Speaker 1: problem was. Austria developed its own variation on the Advent calendar,
Speaker 1: called a Heaven Ladder. This version walked children down the
Speaker 1: ladder as the days progressed, so each wrung was a
Speaker 1: day and it was intended to represent the way that
Speaker 1: God descends to earth to be present with humanity on Christmas.
Speaker 1: There were also candles that could be used in some celebrations,
Speaker 1: intended to be burned only a specific amount each day.
Speaker 1: That was in both Austria and other European countries. There
Speaker 1: are also, we should say, a lot of different ways
Speaker 1: to count down Advent that we're not even touching on
Speaker 1: because some of them probably aren't even documented as personal
Speaker 1: ways to do it. The German Christmas Museum describes Advent
Speaker 1: calendars this way, which Holly found delightful. Quote. Advent or
Speaker 1: Christmas calendars are tools devised by adults for children to
Speaker 1: make the remaining time until Christmas Eve countable and to
Speaker 1: stir up anticipation. Their English translation of their page on
Speaker 1: Advent calendars, so Holly is hopeful that the German language
Speaker 1: version is just as charming. I don't know why. It's
Speaker 1: like it's a tool for kids to make them happy,
Speaker 1: keep them occupied. We noted that the days were sometimes
Speaker 1: marked really simply in advent countdowns, like with chalk. But
Speaker 1: another form of simple advent calendar was mentioned in an
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty one children's book about Christmas by German social
Speaker 1: activist Elise Averdick. In that book, a little girl in
Speaker 1: her mother marked the days by hanging pictures on the
Speaker 1: wall related to the story of Christmas, and a lot
Speaker 1: of homes did this for decades. Advent calendars for home
Speaker 1: use were also homemade. I don't want to make it
Speaker 1: sound like that's over. There are still people that make
Speaker 1: homemade Advent calendars, and so they can take whatever form
Speaker 1: the creativity of the adults involved desire. The first printed
Speaker 1: Advent calendar was made in nineteen hundred in Munich and
Speaker 1: told the story of Santa Claus. But this is a
Speaker 1: very small run. Two years later there was a commercially
Speaker 1: made Advent clock. This was not really a clock, but
Speaker 1: it was two printouts of clockfaces in which each of
Speaker 1: the twelve hours on the first image corresponded to December
Speaker 1: one through twelve, and the twelve hours on the second
Speaker 1: image corresponded to the days thirteen to twenty four. So
Speaker 1: each day the hands of the clock this paper clock
Speaker 1: could be advanced as Christmas could grew nearer. Because that
Speaker 1: nineteen hundred Santa Claus Advent calendar appears not to have
Speaker 1: been widely released, there's another point at which the Advent
Speaker 1: calendar is often said to have been invented. In the
Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds, a German printer named Gerhard Lang is
Speaker 1: credited with printing the first commercial Advent calendar. According to
Speaker 1: the legend, this was inspired by his mother's practice of
Speaker 1: sewing twenty four cookies into a box lid for him
Speaker 1: every year as a child, to be opened day by
Speaker 1: day as Christmas approached. And if you're wondering how cookies
Speaker 1: would survive twenty four days involved in this countdown, these
Speaker 1: were allegedly Vibela cookies, which are more like biscuits that
Speaker 1: share characteristics with meringues or the cookie part of a mackerel,
Speaker 1: so they were probably okay for a few weeks. The
Speaker 1: last few probably chewier then that would be freshly made.
Speaker 1: Because Lang's not only made a widely distributed calendar, he
Speaker 1: continued to print new ones for decades. His name is
Speaker 1: the one that's most associated with the beginnings of advent
Speaker 1: calendars as a consumer product. There is not a load
Speaker 1: of readily available information about Gerhard Lang. If you search
Speaker 1: his name, a few examples come up over and over,
Speaker 1: none of which are him. One is a printer from
Speaker 1: Frankfurt who was born in nineteen twenty one and is
Speaker 1: linked to the beginning of font design, which is pretty fascinating.
Speaker 1: Another was a botanist born in nineteen twenty four, and
Speaker 1: yet another was a brewer and Democratic State committeeman who
Speaker 1: lived in Buffalo, New York. None of those are the
Speaker 1: Advent calendar guy. So we don't know much about the
Speaker 1: life of Gerhard Lang, who is sometimes called the inventor
Speaker 1: of the advent calendar. But what we do know is
Speaker 1: that he eventually was made a partner in a publishing
Speaker 1: company called Reichold and Lang. The date that Lang published
Speaker 1: his first calendar is different depending on what source you
Speaker 1: look at. Some say nineteen oh eight, others placed the
Speaker 1: date earlier in the nineteen hundreds. There's a children's book
Speaker 1: called Waiting for Christmas from two thousand and six that
Speaker 1: shares an imagined version of Gerhard Lang as a child
Speaker 1: learning about Advent through his mother's cookie countdown. The book
Speaker 1: says the cookies were Lebkitchen, So who knows that book
Speaker 1: included the nineteen oh eight date, and it might be
Speaker 1: where other recent accounts picked that year up. Lang's collaborator
Speaker 1: on several of these Advent calendars was an illustrator named
Speaker 1: Richard Ernst Kepler. You can find some of Kepler's early
Speaker 1: Advent calendar illustrations for Laying online, and one of these
Speaker 1: is from nineteen oh three, and it's titled in the
Speaker 1: Land of the Christ Child, and it features in an
Speaker 1: array of scenes that all depict children, either representing moments
Speaker 1: from the life of Christ or showing some imagery that's
Speaker 1: commonly associated with the more secular aspects of Christmas, like
Speaker 1: nutcrackers and dolls and other toys. These calendars started out
Speaker 1: just as paper calendars that had a degree of activity
Speaker 1: to them. You could open a little window and see
Speaker 1: a Bible verse, or you could paste an image onto
Speaker 1: the square that noted the day. The original edition of
Speaker 1: In the Land of the Christ Child, for example, wasn't
Speaker 1: even sold on its own, It was an insert in
Speaker 1: a newspaper. It was the Stuttgarter new Tagblat. There were
Speaker 1: two sheets that made up the calendar, and then after
Speaker 1: reading the Bible verse framed in each square of the calendar,
Speaker 1: kids could cut out the corresponding art to paste over it.
Speaker 1: The National Museum of Germany recognizes nineteen oh three as
Speaker 1: the year of the first advent calendar because of that
Speaker 1: newspaper distributed start of Lang's long career, making them Another
Speaker 1: reason the nineteen oh eight origin date comes up is
Speaker 1: because although Lang started before that date, it wasn't until
Speaker 1: nineteen oh eight that he was actually producing advent calendars
Speaker 1: that sold just on their own outside of some other publication.
Speaker 1: Over time, the Lang Advent calendars became more complex and
Speaker 1: they started to look a little more like the ones
Speaker 1: that you could purchase today. If your family has one
Speaker 1: of those calendars, that's like part of the family tradition
Speaker 1: that hangs on a door with pockets or some other
Speaker 1: interactive feature. Those door calendars are an idea that came
Speaker 1: from Lang. Similarly, the first Advent calendar with a chocolate
Speaker 1: behind each door is credited to him, although his first
Speaker 1: one did not have the chocolate included. It was just
Speaker 1: set up so that parents could fill it up for
Speaker 1: their kids to then have them. This is a good
Speaker 1: way to get around the idea to sidestep the problem
Speaker 1: of chocolate getting stale on shelves because it goes out
Speaker 1: onto the show shelf sometime in July. One of his calendars,
Speaker 1: which sounds very quaint, was a small cardboard house, and
Speaker 1: each day of the Advent countdown, one of the windows
Speaker 1: would be opened, and then when all of the windows
Speaker 1: and finally on the last day, the door was open.
Speaker 1: The calendar had become a lantern and it was meant
Speaker 1: to put a candle inside. He created the first Advent
Speaker 1: calendar for blind consumers in nineteen thirty and by the
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties Advent calendars had become very popular in Germany
Speaker 1: and they were a pretty standard part of a lot
Speaker 1: of families holiday traditions. They had also become pretty popular
Speaker 1: by that time in Great Britain because Lang had started
Speaker 1: shipping them there in the years following World War One.
Speaker 1: During the time that Lang was making calendars, the Sank
Speaker 1: Johannis Printing Company also started making Advent calendars. Sank Johannas
Speaker 1: started printing in the nineteen twenties and sometimes is credited
Speaker 1: with the openable doors on Advent calendars, although Lang also
Speaker 1: gets the credit for that in a lot of sources. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's hard to pin down. World War two, though, put
Speaker 1: the brakes on the printing of Advent calendars, as it
Speaker 1: put their Greeks on a lot of things. Not long
Speaker 1: after the war started, the rising prices on paper products
Speaker 1: meant that reich Holden Lang just could not stay in business,
Speaker 1: and then paper goods were also rationed. Then no illustrated
Speaker 1: calendars were allowed to be printed under the Third Reich,
Speaker 1: at least not any that were not Nazi produced and
Speaker 1: intended to indoctrinate children in a Nazi ideology. New Advent
Speaker 1: calendars just simply could not exist during World War II.
Speaker 1: But when the war ended, the Advent calendar was one
Speaker 1: of those things that pretty quickly bounced back. The companies
Speaker 1: that had survived the war were able to get back
Speaker 1: into printing production relatively quickly, and this also was probably
Speaker 1: motivated by a desire to recapture a sliver of normalcy
Speaker 1: for children in Germany post war, and there were Advent
Speaker 1: calendars available by Christmas nineteen forty five. US soldiers stationed
Speaker 1: in Europe bought them and then brought them home when
Speaker 1: their tours were over. One of the major sellers of
Speaker 1: Advent calendars after the war was Richard Selmer, who started
Speaker 1: producing Advent calendars in nineteen forty five. Selmer's first calendar
Speaker 1: was called The Little Town, sometimes also appearing in print
Speaker 1: as the Little Christmas Town, and it featured a serene
Speaker 1: looking village in the winter kind of a balm. After
Speaker 1: the war. Incidentally, you can still buy the Little Town
Speaker 1: calendars from Selmer's company, which today is called Selmer Verlag.
Speaker 1: As their offerings have expanded to include a wide variety
Speaker 1: of Advent calendars. Selmer Verlag reports that they sell as
Speaker 1: many for adults as they do for children. Her website
Speaker 1: also has photos of some of their Advent calendars from
Speaker 1: decades ago. Selmer's real genius, though, was expanding his business
Speaker 1: into the international market, seeing how eager visitors to Germany
Speaker 1: were for Advent calendars, who started distributing in North America
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty six, and one of the pivotal moments
Speaker 1: in the US that is cited as giving Advent calendars
Speaker 1: a huge boost was a photo that was published during
Speaker 1: the Eisenhower presidency. That photo was of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Speaker 1: opening an Advent calendar with his grandchildren. There were also
Speaker 1: some additional photos of the kids holding up the calendar
Speaker 1: and smiling. Those photographs ran in Newsweek in nineteen fifty four,
Speaker 1: and it made the novelty of an Advent calendar something
Speaker 1: that a lot of US families wanted in their own homes.
Speaker 1: A photo, though, was no accident. The photo op was
Speaker 1: intended to promote the sales of the calendars to raise
Speaker 1: money for the National Epilepsy League, and the calendar that
Speaker 1: was photographed with the Eisenhower family that was Richard Selmer's
Speaker 1: Little Christmas Town. Selmer had arranged for the calendars to
Speaker 1: be sold for charity because he knew that it would
Speaker 1: help establish the United States as a market for Advent
Speaker 1: calendars for years, and he was of course correct. In
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, Cadbury introduced its first Advent calendar filled
Speaker 1: with Cadbury chocolate santas, although that didn't catch on immediately,
Speaker 1: and the company didn't always offer Advent calendars because they
Speaker 1: didn't always sell. By the nineteen nineties, though, they had
Speaker 1: become a regular part of the annual product offerings. Today.
Speaker 1: One of the interesting ways that Advent calendars have evolved
Speaker 1: is into this unique space of being a marketing tool.
Speaker 1: So more and more companies have custom calendars printed just
Speaker 1: to market their products, and this can be a giveaway,
Speaker 1: so like think the kind of calendar mailers you might
Speaker 1: sometimes receive from companies in the winter to promote their
Speaker 1: offerings or and this is really fascinating to me, there's
Speaker 1: this more subtle aspect where they become products themselves. So
Speaker 1: when consumers purchase Advent calendars that are made by companies
Speaker 1: because they're perhaps fans of that company, they're also essentially
Speaker 1: getting samples of products that might lead them to buy more.
Speaker 1: And because Advent calendars are also marketed as gifts, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like consumers are paying a company for a
Speaker 1: gift they will give someone else that will help market
Speaker 1: that company's products to the recipient. We mentioned a moment
Speaker 1: ago that Advent calendars have become not just a way
Speaker 1: to count down to Christmas, but also are now gifts themselves,
Speaker 1: and there's truly something for everyone. There are socks. Every
Speaker 1: ip you can think of probably has an Advent calendar
Speaker 1: associated with it. Another evolution of the concept of Advent
Speaker 1: calendars is like virtual digital calendars, and sometimes these are
Speaker 1: packaged as a physical item, but every day's reveal is
Speaker 1: something that you have to open online. Yeah. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: like the music download calendar and you just get a
Speaker 1: new song every day, like the There have been so
Speaker 1: many creative iterations of how to use this concept. The
Speaker 1: largest Advent calendar on record, according to the Guinness Book
Speaker 1: of Records, was built in two thousand and seven at
Speaker 1: Saint Pancras station in London as part of the station's
Speaker 1: renovation celebration. That was seventy one meters that's two hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty two feet and eleven inches high and twenty
Speaker 1: three meters as seventy five feet five inches wide. I
Speaker 1: will say I have seen some other Advent calendars that
Speaker 1: looked like they might be more giant than this like,
Speaker 1: there's a town in Germany where their town hall is
Speaker 1: made into a giant Advent calendar every year. And I'm
Speaker 1: not sure it's not bigger than this, but this is
Speaker 1: the Guinness World record holder. But this giant Advent calendar
Speaker 1: at Saint Pancras station had digital windows. The entire thing
Speaker 1: was really a fundraiser for the Great Ormond Street Hospital charity.
Speaker 1: Maybe the most startling of all the advent calendars that's
Speaker 1: turned up in Holly's research was one that was offered
Speaker 1: by Porsche in twenty ten, and there were only five
Speaker 1: of them made available, one for each continent where the
Speaker 1: company had businesses. The physical calendar itself was made of
Speaker 1: brushed aluminum and as tall as a person. The treats
Speaker 1: inside each revial were completely over the top. The recipient
Speaker 1: of this would get a watch one day, gold sunglasses another.
Speaker 1: There was even a custom designed kitchen and custom yacht.
Speaker 1: Each of these Advent calendars, sold in twenty ten, cost
Speaker 1: one million dollars. One of the most beautiful advent calendars,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, that has been published since twenty twelve
Speaker 1: is the Atlantic's annual Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar. So
Speaker 1: This online outlet posts a new image from the Telescope
Speaker 1: each day, selecting some of the most spectacular and fascinating
Speaker 1: photos of space that humans have ever seen. The Advent
Speaker 1: Calendar has also manifested as a community event in some places.
Speaker 1: So every day people gather at a spot to see
Speaker 1: an actual thing like a storefront window or a church
Speaker 1: door or et cetera, something that's been decorated to mark
Speaker 1: the day. Some of these are religious, some are more secular.
Speaker 1: It's a neat way that's sort of taken something that's
Speaker 1: become very commercial and maybe kitchen some ways to more
Speaker 1: bring people together. Yeah, Advent calendars. Listen, we can talk
Speaker 1: about having calendars a lot behind the scenes because I
Speaker 1: love them. Uh. And now we're gonna pop over to
Speaker 1: listener mail. Hey, this listener mail is from our listener Rebecca,
Speaker 1: and she is writing in response to our episode about
Speaker 1: Gin based cocktail history. She writes, Hey, y'all, I have
Speaker 1: started to write so many times, but the Gin Cocktails
Speaker 1: episode finally made me follow through. I was raised by
Speaker 1: a very proper Southern Baptist Mama. Yes I am that Southern.
Speaker 1: My parents were and will always be Mama and Daddy
Speaker 1: They weren't exactly teetotalers, but alcohol just wasn't a thing
Speaker 1: in our home when I was growing up, like everybody
Speaker 1: else in North Georgia. They both had uncles who made
Speaker 1: liquor or were known to frequent the best moonshiners when
Speaker 1: they got a thirst. My parents married in the sixties
Speaker 1: and started to move in circles where an occasional cocktail
Speaker 1: was served. A lady in town who was known for
Speaker 1: exceptional good graces and manners advised Mama to order a
Speaker 1: Tom Collins and sip it very slow, and throughout their
Speaker 1: social lives that became her go to. In my college days,
Speaker 1: I had the requisite fun that comes with matriculating in
Speaker 1: a southern university town. Go dogs. But if my parents knew,
Speaker 1: they never let on. I'm going to pick up this
Speaker 1: email from Holly and say after graduation, Mama sat me
Speaker 1: down and said, now, when you're at a cocktail party
Speaker 1: or a work function, order a Tom Collins and sip
Speaker 1: it really slow. She had no idea that I was
Speaker 1: much more educated when it came to cocktail choices, and
Speaker 1: I let it stay that way for the most part.
Speaker 1: Mama passed away in February the episode brought me a
Speaker 1: sweet memory of a story I've shared many times through
Speaker 1: the years. Sometime soon, I planned to have a Tom
Speaker 1: Collins in memory of both my parents. I don't have
Speaker 1: a pet right now, so I don't have a picture
Speaker 1: to share. I tried to find one of Blackie, mama's
Speaker 1: last cat. She showed up one Saturday morning and didn't
Speaker 1: leave for eighteen years. Daddy was a dog person, but
Speaker 1: that cat stole his heart too. Thanks for all the
Speaker 1: great and hard work. I hope y'all do a live
Speaker 1: show in Atlanta someday soon so I can meet you
Speaker 1: both in person. Rebecca Tracy picked that up because I
Speaker 1: got real weak about it. So I also read this
Speaker 1: email this morning, and it reminded me earlier in my life,
Speaker 1: when I was in college. I think I went to
Speaker 1: the beach with my mom and a couple of her sisters,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to make a thing they can they
Speaker 1: typically consumed on their beach trips, which they described as
Speaker 1: wine coolers. It was diet mountain dew mixed with white sefidel,
Speaker 1: and they were having trouble getting the cork out of
Speaker 1: the white zefandel, and I went and effortlessly took care
Speaker 1: of it, and there was a shared moment among my
Speaker 1: mom and her sisters in which they just sort of
Speaker 1: wordlessly acknowledged that I, their daughter slash niece, who they
Speaker 1: still saw as a child, knew how to operate a corkscrew.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. Good memories. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about that Diamount and Duo White z Evanel in a
Speaker 1: minute when we do behind the scenes. I have some thoughts,
Speaker 1: So if again, thank you so much for this email,
Speaker 1: and I want to send my condolences. You got me
Speaker 1: all choked up. It's so sweet. If you would like
Speaker 1: to email us, you can do that at History Podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also find us on
Speaker 1: social media as Missed in History, and if you have
Speaker 1: not subscribed yet, you can do that lickety split in
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.