Description
He is already on the roof. That is the first thing anyone notices about this house — Santa is halfway over the ridge with the sack over his shoulder, snow banked up around him, and the household below apparently none the wiser. Down at the front door the tomtar have gathered under the snowy firs, the windows are lit, and nobody is looking up. The whole picture is the half-second before anyone knows he is there.
Houses like this one are the oldest form the Advent calendar takes. When the first printed calendars appeared in Germany at the turn of the last century, the idea was simply to give children something to do with the waiting — a door a day, and no way to hurry it. The house made the waiting literal: a building that fills with light as the month goes on.
This one works the same way. Twenty-four windows open across the front and sides, each backed with translucent paper, so once a light is standing behind it the house reads as a lantern rather than a card. The doors you have opened glow. The ones still to come stay dark.
Illustrated by Barbara Behr. It arrives flat with an envelope and a small greeting card, so it can be posted first and stood up afterwards.
- 11.5 x 16.5 cm / 4.5 x 6.5 inches assembled
- 24 windows opening onto translucent paper
- Iridescent glitter accents
- Envelope and greeting card included
- Suitable for LED tealights — light not included
More on where the counting down began in our history of Advent.
