History of the Christmas Advent Calendar

clipped from www.guy-sports.com History of the Christmas Advent Calendar As a child, Gerhard Lang's mother had made him a basic advent calendar so that he could count down the days until Christmas. She placed 24 sweets onto a piece of cardboard and each day the young Gerhard would take and eat a sweet. When he grew up Gerhard Lang made the first printed advent calendar in 1908. Later, in 1946, we see Richard Sellmer producing calendars in Germany. The US authorities had to grant him a license in the now post war Germany which led to his advent calendars becoming known and indeed very popular in the USA. Sellmer's first advent calendar was called 'The Little Town'. The calendar had pictures of many buildings in the town and you would open the windows and the doors to find nice things underneath for each day of advent.  By the end of the 1950s, chocolate advent calendars had appeared, and by the following decade they had become widespread.