Christmas Traditions: Counting Down

When I was a child, there was only one thing that would motivate me to get out of bed and leave my warm flannel sheets on a cold, frosty December morning: a four inch cloth bear.

If you read my post about the nativity set, which describes how my sister and I would race to find baby Jesus, then it probably won’t come as a surprise to you that we would race to do other Christmas related activities.

When my sister and I were both infantile, my mother sewed up this large hang-over-the door cloth advent calendar. It features a three story house (plus attic) and shows the inside of all the rooms. This house belongs to a family of bears. The title of this advent calendar is “A Beary Merry Christmas.” Beneath the large bear house is a grid of days, which is labeled “Decembear.” On each day, it lists where the bear looked for Christmas. For example, on day one, he might look inside the mailbox. On day two, he looked in the bed room, on day three, he checked behind the clock, etc. The very best part of this calendar is that you get to move one of the bears around and make him look in all these places for Christmas. This is what motivated my sister Jess and me to get our butts out of bed. We would wake up at the crack of dawn so we could race to the living room and move the little bear.

As you may imagine, this created some fights. We shared a bedroom and thus we were highly aware of when the other person woke up. We’d do things like body slam each other, or lock each other in, or slide across the wooden floors in order to get there faster. All in the name of Christmas, of course. What might happen is Jess would get there first and move the little bear to check in the attic or whatever, and then put it on day seven. Then right in front of her eyes, I would rip the bear off and make him check the attic again (just to be sure), and replace him on day seven.

When my mother discovered our antics, she suggested we take turns. Jess would do things like try to trick me into thinking my day was yesterday, and her day was today, even though she had fully moved the bear the day before. She did this because I was littler and quite impressionable. I wised up though, over the years. I remember when I was about nine; Jess and I were deciding who would go first. I nicely told her she could start on day one. This of course meant I had all the even days. The calendar ends on Christmas Eve, which of course is the 24^th, and an even number. I had cleverly calculated it out so that I would get to make the little bear find Christmas. My victory was sweet that day, when she realized what had happened. With much satisfaction I moved the bear to the remaining spot. To this day, I am more of a planner than my sister.

Even through high school, we were dedicated to moving that bear along and making him search the house for Christmas. We might have forgotten to do it every day, and he’d have to search four places in a row, but he still did it. When I moved away to college, my mom put up the bear calendar, but of course she forgot to move it. When I got home on Christmas break, it was still stuck on day five. 

Last year the advent calendar moved into my possession. Again, it was one of those things that both my sister and I wanted, so we agreed on joint custody, but Jess said I could have it first. This is my second year with it, and Jess has not yet been over to my house to notice. It’s hanging up on the coat closet door in my living room, and I move the little bear every day.

Today is day 15, and the bear looked in a trunk in the attic.  

Check back Sunday evening for another tradition which involves cousins and torture.