Saturday, December 01, 2012

Advent Calendar Day 1



It's December 1st and that means that all over the world, wherever Christmas is celebrated, young  children - and not so young - are pinning up their Advent Calendars and opening the first door to see what picture  - or chocolate - lies behind.
 
In past Decembers I've shared this tradition with you - offering a small surprise/giveaway for each day leading up to Christmas . It's been a way of sharing the time of celebration, of  thanking my readers for  sharing the past year with me - and specially for sharing and enjoying my books.  It;s also been a way of getting to know you all better because the way we share is that I ask you a question about yourselves, your lives, your families, the way you celebrate Christmas - or whatever you're celebrating right now if Christmas isn't a special festtival for you.

What you do is you leave me an answer in the comments section - here, or wherever I'm blogging on each day - and I pick a winner of a particular book to give away, Well -  no, I don't pick the winner. In the past that was always Sid the Cat's job. I gave him the names on pieces of paper and with a cat treat on the top of each one. And the first treat that Sid ate, the name of the winner was on that piece of paper.  Sadly dear Sid is no longer with us but he did train up his apprentice in Charlie The Maine Coon (and ccasionally Flora The Floozie). Charlie is well ready to perform this important task - and as you can see from the photo, he's already been practising on his own  Advent Calendar which was given to Sid by his dear Lady Across The Pond Anne McAllister  and has now been passed down to Flora and Charlie in their turn.
So today is December 1st -  the start of the countdown to Christmas and time for the first question .
 
Today's book is  a bumper givewaway - Mediterranean Tycoons is a 3 in 1 volume with books by two other great authors as well as mine:
The De Santis Marriage is by Michelle Reid
and
The Sicilian's Virgin Bride is by Sarah Morgan
 
My book in this collection is  The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife.  This was originally published in  2007
 
 
He thought she was his mistress . . .
Recuperating on his private Greek island after a car crash, Andreas Petrakos had no memory of the previous year. The last thing he remembered was his passionate affair with beautiful Rebecca Ainsworth.
. . . when actually she was his wife!
Becca returned to the island because Andreas had asked for her. But she had to hide the truth from him. So what would happen when he recalled throwing Becca out - on their wedding day - for a reason only he knew?


So would you like a chance to win a copy of this great collection?
All you have to do is to leave an answer in the comments section -
Today's question - well, I've been talking about Advent Calendars.  What about you?
Do you have an Advent Calendar in your house? For you or just for the children?
What picture/theme/design is it this year?  (The lovely Anne McAllister specialises in great Advent Calendars - she always sends me a Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar to have on my computer. I love it!)
So what does yours look like?  Do you have pictures or chocolates behing the 'doors'
Or perhaps you light an Advent candle or make a Blue Peter Candle Wreath   . . . or do something else entirely?

If you don't have advent, a calendar or anything like that - how do you mark the days leading up to a special celebration?  I'd love to know.

And yes- before anyone asks  -  I will send the prizes anywhere in the world. So back. Leave your answer  - I love getting to know more about my readers. So come and join in. The more the merrier.

16 comments:

Debby said...

I bought an online a Advent calendar this year. It is for me. I did all the calendars when my kid were young. We had so much fun.
debby236 at gmail dot com

Desere said...

Hi Kate, yes I do for my 7 year old son ,it is a Christmas themed one and has 25 days to count down and each day he get to remove a surprise ,some are a little toy and some days it is a chocolate,it goes on until Christmas day. Thank you for the really amazing giveaway ! Happy holidays
Desere

chey said...

I don't have an official advent calendar. I mark off the days by doing a little bit of Christmas prep every day. Shortbread's baked.

Laney4 said...

That's okay, Kate. I have THE GREEK TYCOON'S UNWILLING WIFE in my TBR pile, but I thought I'd answer anyway.

I always bought the Advent Calendars for my kids when they were growing up. Alas, they are adults now....

I always tried to buy the ones with Santa's face across the entire "cover"; as long as he was on it somewhere, the kids were happy opening doors up anyway, as they knew there would be chocolate behind each door.

I'm leading up to Christmas by trying to keep up with your blogs in December, LOL!

Anonymous said...

I have an Advent calendar for Christmas. The kids love it because you pull the boxes out and their are prizes in there. Thanks for such an amazing giveaway!!!!

readingdiva@ymail.com

Sharon Archer said...

Advent calendars were never a tradition in my family, Kate, but I do remember going to friends' homes as a child and being fascinated by them. Of course, I just wanted to open ALL the doors straight away to see what was behind them! LOL Actually, I can see that the calendars might be a good way of teaching children about delayed gratification!

Hey, I do like Charlie's calendar - "Santa, I've been a good cat!"

Merry Christmas, Kate!
hugs
Sharon

Mary Preston said...

Hi,

we don't have an Advent Calender, but that does not stop my daughter from counting down the days.

Kaelee said...

Hi Kate ~ I haven't been around much but just saw your post over on Tote Bags'n'Blogs and thought I'd stop by and see what you are up to these days. Please don't put my name in this draw as I already own this wonderful book.

My husband and I each bought an Advent calendar this year with a small chocolate treat for each day. mine has teddy bears on it and his has a tree scene.

SiNn said...

honestly we have a calander we cross off the days my neices help buy telling us what special day for each month we r waiting for they get so excited its much fun when they r so small
we have also started the rings of christmas where we have a 25ring wreath that we pull the rings of fone at a time till christmas even then the last one holds a prize of a small gift for getting threw the 24 days

Laurie G said...

I have a large felt wall hanging of a Christmas tree that you open a package everyday and it reveals a gift underneath. It's pretty and colorful. The gifts are a toy soldier, a teddy bear, a doll etc
I've had it for so many years. It's the first thing the kids look for when they come to visit.

Last year I gave my daughter an Eric Carle one with all of his amazing colorful creatures. My granddaughter just turned one. I'm sure she'll enjoy it this year.

Cheryl Wright said...

Hi Kate, we don't use Advent Calendars in our house, but the children count down the days on a communal whiteboard we have in the kitchen.

Manisha said...

Hi Kate
I dont have an Advert calender but that doesnot stop me from enjoying the activities in those malls... absolutely love the festive moments

JulieM said...

Despite the fact that there are no children in the house - and I'm 47 - I have a Lego advent calendar!

A couple of Christmases ago I fell in love with the Lego Winter Toy Shop and had to have it. Last year we got the Winter Post Office and we have the Bakery for this year.

The Lego advent calendar is great as you build something each day which fits in really well with our winter village sets.

Anonymous said...

We don't have an advent calender. When my boys were young we'd make a paper chain and remove one chain each day until Christmas. Now that they're 16 and 17 I'm lucky if they get out of bed before noon on holidays. LOL

Marcy
bmndshuler at hotmail dot com

GladysMP said...

I do not have an advent calendar, but I have a daily schedule of plans for each day posted on our bulletin board. I am amazed at how often hubby or I have to check that to keep from planning more than one activity at the same time. Just yesterday he was phoned and asked to come some place and he took the phone to check that bulletin list to see if there would be a conflict.

bn100 said...

We don't have an advent calendar. We just wait for the day to arrive and then celebrate.

bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com

 

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