I was shopping today and saw an Advent calendar and it reminded me of how much the kids (not just the kids) enjoy opening the little doors and finding a candy or toy treat. Advent calendars have only been around (according to a quick Google search) for a hundred years or so.  So in the spirit of Christmas (which they have in spades here in Germany) I’ll share a personal Christmas story on the first day of December.

I remember when I first doubted the existence of Santa Claus.  I was 9 years old and woke up on Christmas morning looking for Santa’s gifts under the tree. My family had a tradition that all gifts were opened on Christmas eve except the gifts from Santa (of course). So you can imagine my and my brother’s disappointment when there were no gifts under tree on Christmas morning. We ran to our parents room to ask what happened (perhaps the first subliminal clue) to Santa. Parents were, at that time, the source of all knowledge since Google didn’t exist yet.

My Mom got a semi-panicked look and said she needed to call Santa (Santa had a cell phone before cell phones?) and we needed to go back to bed or he wouldn’t come. Our bedroom shared a wall with my parents room and their closet was on that wall as well. My brother and I heard crashing in the closet, with some muffled mumbling.  After a few minutes of thrashing sounds from their bedroom my mother opened our bedroom door and said Santa had just left. After the initial excitement of opening the presents and playing my brother and I began to talk.  Why had Santa landed in my parents bedroom closet?  How did she call Santa?  How did Santa even get in the house?  We didn’t have a fireplace.

Needless to say I kept my doubts to Santa’s veracity to myself since the understanding was if we stopped believing in Santa, then the gifts from Santa would cease to be delivered. I may have been doubtful, but I wasn’t stupid.

Happy December 1st and the official first day to open your advent calendar.