THE ADVENT CALENDAR
Advent Calendar posts from 2023.
Merry Christmas, and happy holidays! Every day in December holds a new mini blog post, recipe, memories, doodles, or just about anything I find relevant to the season. It’s a little variety pack of treats every day! Ideally this should feel like sitting down to share a little cocoa and conversation on a frosty day.
December First
Honestly in some ways I find the buildup to holidays more fun than the actual holiday itself. Halloween is a huge example: a lot of my fond memories of Halloween are seeing the decorations go up around the neighborhood, or shopping for candy, or preparing a costume, or classroom Halloween activities more than Halloween night itself!
Christmas is such a big holiday that it also has a really fun buildup tbh. Going out in the evening to the mysterious Christmas tree tent, shopping for presents, my family's annual IKEA trip to get jarred herring... And, of course, the advent calendar. And my family always went hard with it, rather than just getting a premade one with cheap chocolates. Hints for treasure hunts or little toys, assorted candy, and more. I've always had a lot of affection for the concept, especially digitally! I knew when I started adding a Halloween event to my page I wanted to do more seasonal stuff as well... Advent was a perfect fit, of course. I’ve always had some kind of advent calender growing up, from chocolates to teas to a playmobil set with different woodland creatures... It's really easy to adapt my usual web content into a format like this. It's also nice making some smaller, more bite sized stuff after working on a pretty large project (as I write this I'm hot off the heels of finishing Clovenglade, which is my most intricate web project. So, yes, all this was written well in advance :P)
I kind of missed writing some more personal stuff on my blog, it kinda made me a bit self conscious, but I think it's about the right time to talk about how I usually celebrate this season. Not that all of this is gonna be mini blog posts about my boring life, haha. But you should get some small windows into my Holiday Experience- this is a personal website after all, lol.
December Second
Just a VERY rough little doodle :) It’s based on 1. my love of drawing Shanoa being happy and enjoying her life post-OOE, and
2. my love of cooking with my girlfriend! I wonder what they’re baking?
December Third
Here are some seasonal horse gifs I found online... I remember a while back I sent them to my girlfriend and she said “horses are kindof christmas in a way i cant describe well”, and somehow this makes perfect sense to me. I theorized that this is because all of the wishes of young girls who wanted horses for Christmas weren’t fulfilled so all the energy of the wishes went into the horses themselves. Or something. Maybe this is Clovenglade lore.
December Fourth
Have you ever heard of tomten/nisse? They're like little gnomes, and are from Scandinavian folklore, and are supposed to be guardians over your home, though they can be easily offended. But a bowl of porridge on Christmas eve is said to appease them for the coming year. My family is Swedish, and we usually leave some rice pudding for our tomte on Christmas eve. I decided to hunt down my mom's recipe cards so you can use the recipe too, for reasons that may or may not be tomte related.
Rice Pudding: combine 3 cups milk, 1 cup uncooked minute white rice, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup raisings, and 1 tsp salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 6 minutes. In a small bowl, beat 2 large eggs with 1 tsp vanilla. Stir a small amount of the hot milk mixture into the eggs. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the sauce pan, stirring constantly. Heat on low for one minute- you can also add in cinnamon, nutmegs and almonds- and stir until thickened. Remove the pudding and let it cool for 30 minutes.
December Fifth
Apparently tonight is Krampusnacht! Hopefully my visitors haven't been naughty!
So I thought today would be a good time to link to a pretty entertaining video about strange Christmas related folk villains of Europe.
It's by the channel Kaz Rowe, whose work I highly recommend!
December Sixth
Christmas movies! Generally a mixed bag, but here's a short list of what I usually end up watching.
-A ballet production of The Nutcracker on DVD. I don't know which production it is, it's just the DVD we've always had. I think it manifested in our house one day and never left. Anyway, I was always kind of transfixed by the stage effects and the massive Christmas tree. Every time I watch it it feels like a hazy dream, but I guess that's ballet for you.
-Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (the original stop motion one). I was a Rudolph FREAK as a kid like I would draw red on my nose and demand people called me Rudolph when I was five, and I still have a lot of affection for the little guy and his story of being an outcast and outsider. The janky and jerky animation is just so absolutely charming and it just has the right ~ vibes ~. Also this isn't relevant to anything but as a kid I always heard "you'll go down in history" as "you'll go down in his story", like you'll be sucked into the Rudolph world and go on adventures with him. In my mind that's still true.
-The holiday episodes of Great British Baking Show... Always fun to watch with my girlfriend especially, we binged several episodes before we went to the botanical gardens to see the Christmas lights display and it was so much fun! And you get very hungry by the end...
-The Green Knight. Yes, it counts. It at least partially takes place on Christmas! It's just more spiced cider than hot cocoa, you know what I'm saying? It's a powerful piece about facing your own death with bravery, and the meaning of honor- some absolutely beautiful filmmaking. Feel free to leave discourse about whether or not you think Gawain died at the end in my Guestbook. Also the fox is cute.
December Seventh
No clue if I've ever brought this up on my site before, but I love Tasting History! Definitely one of my favorite youtube channels, I always want to try making everything and I have made one or two of the recipes. Here are some of my favorite Christmas themed episodes!
Edit 12/12 - Tasting History has a new holiday video out! It's on medieval boar's head!
December Eighth
Christmas music... is weird, when you think about it. I don’t think there’s any other holiday that takes over entire radio stations for a couple months. And even though I’m a retail worker and am being exposed to hours upon hours of christmas music, I honestly don’t hate it. It’s better than what we usually play, at least. (Some of the covers are a bit questionable though)
Christmas music is like... it’s either good, or fucking unbearable. Like, I have generally positive feelings about Carol of the Bells and Coventry Carol and Last Christmas, but if I ever hear Little Drummer Boy or Silver Bells again it will be too soon.
Anyway, if you want to hear what is possibly the most baffling xmas song I’ve ever heard, look up “Christmas Tree by Lady Gaga”, it’s like hearing aliens trying to compose Christmas music. It’s so... oppressive to listen to. No one knows about this one so I feel insane when I think about its existence.
Also, worth noting- on my xmas pages this year, I've got Cocteau Twins covers playing! Did you have any idea they had done some xmas music? I didn't until I got jumpscared while shuffling their discography LOL
December Ninth
Previously I mentioned that I really enjoy the Coventry Carol, so as a treat here's one of my favorite covers of it, by Loreena McKennitt!
Also, a reminder of how delightfully cute Shanoa’s christmas outfit from Grimoire of Souls is...
December Tenth
Here's a picture I took last Christmas. This is really silly, but a running joke I have when I visit relatives or anyone with a posable nativity setup is I replace the baby in the manger with a lamb whenever possible... They always fit inside perfectly. It was only meant to be!
December Eleventh
Christmas always puts me in the mood to draw something with warm lighting. And candles!
December Twelfth
Today, here’s a link to a page my girlfriend made for my advent calendar!
December Thirteenth
I have no idea how widely Santa Lucia/Saint Lucy's day is celebrated here in the U.S., but my family always does something for the occasion despite not really practicing any religion. But generally what we do is bake some bread (coffee bread rather than saffron buns) the night before, and then I would present it to them while wearing a wreath with plastic candles, a white night gown, and the traditional red sash in the morning. I stopped as I got older, but we still make the bread.
It's not a super formal thing, but the coffee bread we make is delicious and there's always enough to share with friends, so here's the recipe I shamelessly stole from my mom's recipe box again (sorry mom)
Add 1/2 cup warm water and 2 packages of dry yeast (proofed for 10 minutes) into a bowl. Add 1&1/2 cup lukewarm milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsp salt, 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup butter, 2 tsp ground cardamom, and 3 cups flour. Mix well, then add up to 4&1/2 cups more flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn out on a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Round up in a greased bowl, cover it with a damp cloth, and let it rise until double (which should take approximately 1 and a half hours). Punch down and let it rise again for 30 minutes. Shape the loaves, let them rise for another 30 minutes, and then bake for half an hour at 350 degrees fahrenheit. You can then make multiple smaller loaves. I also recommend adding in cinnamon, raisins and walnuts.
December Fourteenth
Here are five reindeer facts, since the real animals are more interesting than you’d think:
-In pop culture, Santa’s reindeer are depicted closer to other deer species like white-tailed deer.
-In the winter time, male reindeer shed their antlers, so realistically Santa’s sleigh would be pulled by female reindeer.
-Reindeer are adapted well for their cold environment, and are actually good swimmers as well. Their fur helps them to float.
-Reindeer have 25% more blood vessels in their nose than humans, which can make their noses appear red or pink in the cold.
-Reindeer can see ultra violet light!
December Fifteenth
Not entirely seasonal, but here’s Hollyleaf seeing a bit of a snowflurry from inside the tunnels.
December Sixteenth
One of my favorite festive images, it always makes me smile. Hopefully it makes you smile today too!
December Seventeenth
One weird thing my family usually does is the Christmas IKEA trip... It sort of makes sense, since they have jarred herring and ornaments and stuff, which is what we usually are after, but when I mention “Christmas IKEA trip” to other people they think it’s quite novel.
I’m a big fan personally, and as I actually went to IKEA with my girlfriend instead this December (And we bought a cool chair! I believe the name was “Strandmon”). There’s just something about their meatballs that really gets me in the winter mood, and looking at all the furniture and daydreaming about what to put in my apartment when I finally move is a bonus too.
December Eighteenth
December Nineteenth
Another very specific holiday memory: my mom works at a school with a madrigal program in their choir class. So, every year, around Christmas, there was a big fancy madrigal dinner where everyone who was at least somewhat involved with the school may attend and eat while the students perform. There were jesters and everything. The food was pretty good but the best part was the spiced wassail.
You may remember wassailing being brought up in a video I linked in a previous day, and I fully believe it should be brought back. Christmas needs a trick or treating equivalent. I mean, Valentines has one (via the “bring a box and candy for the whole class and everyone gets candy” setup). All holidays need this actually.
December Twentieth
Toriel Undertale with Christmas pudding! I really ought to replay Undertale sometime but it’s one of those games you really need the right time to replay, I think...
December Twenty-first
Happy Solstice! May the long dark night engulf you forevermore. My family usually burns a Yule Log- cut from the previous year's Christmas Tree- on the solstice and the bonfire is always a fun little event./
A weird little memory I have is that as a kid I saw women dancing in the flames and immediately decided I had been visited upon by the Fire Ladies and I needed to worship them. So to this day I like to leave a little wish written down on a slip of paper to fuel the fire a little bit. One time I jokingly put down "Castlevania GBA collection" as my wish and it came out the next year, so honestly I think the Fire Ladies might be real, and I'm the only one who ever recognized their power. Thus, I must pass on their message.
December Twenty-second
I admit I kept something from you, in my previous blog post about Christmas music, and that is my two favorite Christmas albums. Goth label Projekt Records put together two covers compilations in the 90s, featuring some absolutely lovely ethereal and dark takes on Christmas classics. My parents would always put these on (they are former goths and I suspect I got my own tastes from them) and it’s funny looking back and seeing just how many bands I first encountered via these comps I ended up being a huge fan of. Including my favorite band, This Ascension!
Volume one was recently remastered, and is fully available online. However, volume two is out of print, and some of the individual songs are not online. I’ve uploaded the second volume as a large youtube video, everything’s ripped directly from the CD. Enjoy!
December Twenty-third
The Eve is swiftly approaching! I’ve always sort of thought Christmas Eve felt more like Christmas than Christmas Day itself. Maybe it’s just because my family’s always opened our presents on Christmas Eve (and then go to see extended family on Christmas Day), but something about the dark, cozy evening just feels like Christmas!
We start with Christmas dinner, which is usually the “greatest hits” of Swedish cuisine like gravadlax and meatballs and herring. And it’s always delicious... After that is usually when we have the rice pudding I mentioned before. Somewhere along the line we end up eating some pepparkakor, too. Then we start the present-opening ritual. My parents try to enforce an “everyone takes turns, one present at a time” structure but it never works, lol.
And then after that... we go to sleep :) and get ready for the day ahead of us. But what will Christmas Eve hold in this digital realm...? I guess you’ll have to find out tomorrow!
