Sweet-scented lotions and dinosaur Legos

Peanuts with chocolate and colorful Play-Dohs

Small Christmas figures with magnetic clings

These are a few of my favorite things

Actually, there are just of few of the items that can be found in Advent calendars.  The season of Advent started Sunday.  It is a celebration of the coming of Christ’s birth.  Churches honor this by lighting the Advent candles (hope, peace, love and joy) each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, with the Christ candle being lit on Christmas Eve. 

However, companies have taken to creating Advent calendars (Dec 1 – 24) that count down until Christmas with little, individual gifts.  These can include anything from sweets to toys to candles and everything you just sang above.  The calendar is a box with individual doors that are opened each day to reveal a surprise. 

But we know Christmas is the season of giving, so we are going to do it a little differently in what is called a Reverse Advent Calendar.  Each day for 24 days, a donation item will be added to the box.  On Christmas Eve, the box of items will be donated to our local food pantry.  Stay tuned on our Facebook and Twitter pages for daily progress.  And please join us in participating by adding the items to your own box each day and donating.