Advent Calendar

A devotional counting device for the days leading up to Christmas (typically December 1–24), taking the form of a printed card or box with numbered doors or windows opened one per day to reveal images, verses, or small gifts. The practice grew from 19th-century German Lutheran piety — families hung or affixed devotional pictures one per day in Advent — and was commercialized into a mass-produced printed form by Munich publisher Gerhard Lang in the early 20th century. Lang issued roughly 30 designs through the late 1930s before ceasing production. After World War II the tradition was revived by German publishers (notably Richard Sellmer Verlag from 1946) and spread globally, evolving from religious images to secular chocolates and gifts while retaining the 24-door December structure.