This Christmas Train Advent Calendar is about 28 inches long and 16 inches wide. The calendar part itself is a rectangle made of soft green felt hanging from a wooden dowel rod that in turn is hung by a red braided rope. At the top of the green rectangle are the words Merry Christmas written in the smoke coming from Santa’s train. The train cars each represent a day of the month, they are made of soft red felt with the date in white and the wheels are buttons. To help mark the day Santa is holding a gold lame cord connected to a candy cane that can be placed in the appropriate box car, leading all the way to the 25th Christmas Day! Select this link to view our Unique Christmas Gifts.
Advent Advent (from the Latin Adventus, implicitly coupled with Redemptoris, "the coming of the Savior") is a holy season of the Christian church, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, also known as the season of Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western Christian year and commences on Advent Sunday. (The Eastern churches begin the year on 1 September.) Adventus is the Latin word for "coming", and is the exact Latin equivalent for the Greek word parousia, commonly used in reference to the Second Coming. Thus the season of Advent serves a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting that Christians today endure as they await the second coming of Jesus the Christ. Select this link to view our Christmas Figurines.
Western Christian Tradition
In Western Christianity, Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The earliest Advent can begin is November 27 and the latest is December 3. Advent ends on December 24 before the Vigil of Christmas (the evening of December 24). If December 24, Christmas Eve, should fall on a Sunday (as in 2006), the Sunday obligation for Catholics to attend Mass still applies, and it is treated as the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and the Vigil of Christmas begins at Evening Prayer I later that day.
In the Roman Church the liturgical color of purple or violet is used in the liturgy. Often the purple used is a darker purple (sometimes called "Royal Purple") whereas in Lent the color is often a reddish purple ("Roman Purple"). On the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, the color rose is used since this Sunday takes on a more joyous tone. In some Anglican and Lutheran churches, blue is the liturgical color for Advent, a custom traced to the medieval Sarum Rite. This color is often referred to "Sarum blue."
The "Late Advent Weekdays" or December 17-24, mark the singing of the Great Advent Antiphons. These are the antiphons for the Magnificat at Vespers, or Evening Prayer (in the Roman Catholic Church) and Evensong (in the Anglican Church) each day, and mark the forthcoming birth of the Messiah. They form the basis for each verse of the popular Advent hymn, "O come, O come, Emmanuel."
From the 4th century, the season was kept as a period of fasting as strict as that of Lent (commencing in some localities on 11 November; this being the feast day of St. Martin of Tours, the fast became known as "St. Martin's Fast," "St. Martin's Lent" or "the forty days of St. Martin"). The feast day was in many countries a time of frolic and heavy eating, since the 40-day fast began the next day. In the Anglican and Lutheran churches this fasting rule was later relaxed, with the Roman Catholic Church doing likewise later, but still keeping Advent as a season of penitence. In addition to fasting, dancing and similar festivities were forbidden, and to the present day, in accordance with the symbolism of liturgical colors, purple vestments are worn at the church services, although in recent years blue has gained favor (to make Advent more distinctive from Lent, which continues to use violet), an apparent revival of the Sarum Rite, which dates from medieval England (Sarum being the Latin name for Salisbury, where the custom of using blue vestments at this time of year originated). In the Eastern churches, red is used. Select this link to view our Christmas Nativity Scene.