The Laboratory

Happy Advent! It's not often the 1st December is also the 1st Sunday in Advent, so we get to open our advent calendar AND light the first candle on the Advent Ring. Alt-text for the young people: a picture of an old-looking man (who frighteningly is only 31) about to set fire to a complicated construction of flammable tinsel and coat hangers. Welcome to year X of our Advent Calendar (it's probably 22 or so) and as usual we will be sharing the best of Christmas preparations and traditions as they come to us. Place your bets now on how long it will be until Adam is more than 24 hours late posting on the blog. Since we have a Blue Peter picture today, here in detail (from the "Blue Peter Make Cook And Look Book" 1978) is how to make your own Advent Ring, and for the girls, some Tinsel Birds.

Welcome back to our annual Advent Calendar. We hope you enjoy the pictures, words, and videos each day. We would also love you to send us ideas and contribtions, anything that makes you feel seasonal, or Christmas decorations that you really love. Today is Sunday 1st December, so it is Advent Sunday. We light our first candle on the Advent Crown. Sarah is delighted with her Advent Calendar, the way that the Lindt Teddy is peeking through the door, just waiting to be eaten on 24th! Adam is also delighted, but mainly because he gets chocolate everyday!

We're now officially in the season of Advent. Joke for any Anglicans out there: how can you tell? Because we don't sing the Gloria! But you can also tell because we have started to light our Advent Ring. Invented in the 1970s by John Noakes, this tradition has now become mainstream. In the absence of a Blue Peter Annual this year (for shame, in its 60th Anniversary year) you really should buy " Here's One I Made Earlier ", a collection of classic Blue Peter crafts. At Ottershaw Church, we had our first Advent candle lit, and also made Christingles out of oranges. Bonus Church Advent Calendar: St Mary of Bethany, Woking has a new reflection every day (that I am reliably informed was inspired by this very Advent Calendar!)

Advent begins properly today, and of course at church we will have the Advent Crown, the Christingle service, and some classic Advent Hymns. One of the big themes of Advent is light coming into the darkness, whether we can show this by putting a candle in an orange or in a wreath of holly and pine. For our friend Mike, here's over 3 hours of the best Advent music ever:

Time for a nativity today I think. Here are some Russian 'Matryoshka' dolls that represent the major characters in the Christmas story ... including the animals! They are from John Lewis. Do you have a nativity scene up? Or maybe your church has one. Do send us pics, or share them on Facebook, and we'll put some nice ones on here! And do enjoy lighting the second candle on your Advent Crown!

3rd Sunday in Advent:

It's the third Sunday in Advent so we've been lighting our advent crown at church, which puts us in mind of Blue Peter and how as good British middle-class kids they had a candle to light every week as well. Here's a video from Christmas 1990 with John Leslie, Diane-Louise Jordan and Yvette Fielding. You can see their PURPLE advent crown about 6 seconds in, with real lit candles. You think they'd never get away with that nowadays (Elf & Safety), but wait until you see tomorrow's Tate Tree...