Meaningful Advent Calendars
At Home with the Hastys - Meaningful Advent Calendars
The Backstory
New to Hasty Book List? Read about the fire that prompted this home renovation, here.
The Inspiration
This will be our first Christmas in our own home. Just writing that sentence brought tears to my eyes. I’m bracing myself for an emotional season. We bought this place in November of 2019. When we moved in on November 22, we immediately put up our Christmas tree. My mom gave us vintage tinsel, the kind that feels like real metal and has that beautiful brassy glow. We hung our family ornaments and marveled at being home owners. Two days later, the place caught fire and our beautiful vintage tinsel tarnished and shriveled. Our tree smelled of smoke. And our family ornaments were taken to the cleaners, not to be seen again for a year.
A couple weeks later, the custom “our first home” ornament I ordered as a surprise for Eric arrived in the mail. Eric was out of town on work trip (back when that was a thing) so with tear-filled eyes I marched to the closest tree lot, bought the smallest tree I could find (we were living out of a hotel room, after all) and hung the ornament. It was depressing.
Meaningful Advent Calendars | hastybooklist.com
Fast-forward to Christmas 2020, we did our very best to make our temporary apartment feel extra cheery. One way we celebrated the Christmas season was by treating ourselves to an advent calendar. I surprised Eric with the Bonne Maman advent calendar and we had the best time ranking our favorite jams.
But this year is our first Christmas in our own home. I’m feeling the pressure to find us a really good advent calendar to celebrate this occasion. We’ve done a wine advent calendar before and weren’t too impressed. The wines were so-so and you never knew when you were going to get a white one that had to be chilled and thus enjoyed the next day. I’m also not a huge fan of the chocolate ones, there is usually just one piece of chocolate and two of us. I really didn’t want any food-related ones. Food didn’t seem special enough.
So after spending weeks searching for meaningful, special advent calendars, I put together this list of my top five favorite ones. I hope you find something on this list that will be special for you, too.
25 Days Of Christmas Advent Calendar For Book Lovers
It will come as no surprise that the first advent calendar that appealed to me was one related to books and reading. This advent calendar includes 25 wrapped gifts including a book sleeve, bookmarks and bookmark keeper, candles, perfumes, wax melts, stickers and more.
Meaningful Advent Calendars | hastybooklist.com
Hand-Rolled Incense Advent Calendar
My husband and I love burning incense. There are lots of candle advent calendars out there, but this one appealed to me because it was a little different. We like incense because they have a short burn time, there isn’t an open flame, they have beautiful and unique fragrance, and many versions are smokeless. This advent calendar by Leftover Hippies includes 6 incense sticks per day for 24 days.
Meaningful Advent Calendars | hastybooklist.com
A Mindful Advent Candle Set
This advent calendar really tugged at my heartstrings. It includes 25 beeswax candles with a lovely honey scent and a brass stand. Each candle burns for 20 minutes, time for you to sit back, relax, reflect, or calm the mind. There is also a general mindfulness version if you aren’t as into advent calendars as I am (or if you want to continue the practice after the holiday season.)
Meaningful Advent Calendars | hastybooklist.com
24 Days Of Stationery Advent Calendar
My grandma and I write letters back and forth to one another as a fun way to keep in touch. I loved the idea of opening new stationery each day, some of which might be perfect for one of those hand-written notes. This advent calendar includes 24 beautiful items of stationery including a personalized notebook, a list pad, a luxury pen, Christmas cards, etc. Each item is wrapped inside foil embossed boxes. The box lid is customized with the recipient’s name and three of the contents inside are personalized with your name and initials.
Meaningful Advent Calendars | hastybooklist.com
Jane Austen Advent Calendar Christmas Bags
If you’re the type who likes to fill your own advent calendar with goodies personal to your loved ones, then you’ll like these advent calendar bags. This set is Jane Austen themed (perfect for my fellow book lovers!) It includes 25 bags with unique images from the classic Jane Austen novels Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility. If Jane Austen is your cup of tea, you might like this neutral set, this red and gold reindeer set, or this crocheted set.
Meaningful Advent Calendars | hastybooklist.com
