I have always loved Advent Calendars. From the beautiful one that has always graced my family’s wall each year to the newer ones bought each year, I have come to appreciate them.
This year, I’m doing several. Some that are advertised as Advent calendars, and others that… well, okay, it’s more like a series. But it counts!
Lego Star Wars 2025 Advent Calendar
For the past few years, I have made it a point to do a Lego Advent calendar. In 2023, it was the Lego City calendar, and last year was the Lego Star Wars one (mostly because it included a minikit! I couldn’t pass that up!)
This year I had been planning on returning to the Lego City calendar, but it has been sold out since mid October, I swear. So, instead, I’m “settling” with the Lego Star Wars one, as the other themes don’t do it for me and I’m too lazy to come up with something for myself, at least like this.
Each day comes with either a Minifigure to put together or a little set that is Star Wars themed. They are very adorable to look at and the Christmas theme, while not exactly Star Wars appropriate (as besides several Lego Star Wars movies, Christmas doesn’t exist in Star Wars to my knowledge…).
A Heart For Christmas by Sophie Jomain (A Advent Romance)
Thanks to the magic of random internet browsing, I happened upon a novel designed to be read as a chapter a day. Of course, being myself, I didn’t bother to read the reviews (not exactly great…) and instead just bought it and have been impatiently waiting to read it.
From the first chapter, I’ve met the main female character of this romantic (apparently young-adult) story, who is eighteen and spending the Christmas holidays in the Alps with her father, two years after a heart attack left her with a donor heart. I’m curious to see if the story takes off into unexpected directions or if I’ll be reading the same old tale again… We shall see.
Disney’s Twisted Tales Advent
Ever since I saw the first book in Disney’s Twisted Tales series, I’ve been wanting to get into them and enjoy all that is within the pages. Of course, every time I think “this is it”, something comes up and I never crack open that book.
This summer, I happened upon an official Advent Calendar for the Twisted Tales, originally released in 2023. I scooped it up… and then promptly forgot about it until yesterday, when I was starting to set up for Christmas and found it again. So I decided I would do a tale a day… until discovering that there were only ten actual short stories, and the rest were diaries, coloring pages, and other random things. And THEN (I promise this will be the last one, I swear), I found out that a second Twisted Tales Advent was released in the UK in October. So that will get here when it gets here, and until then I’m doing two. The short stories are spread out enough to accomidate that, or so I hope.
This might be the only one that I’m behind on come the end of December.
A Manga a Day…
And finally, my own kind of Advent calendar, based entirely on my feelings for that day.
Over the past few years, my manga collect has massively expanded. I’m reading series that I would have never though to touch before (including a horror series, and I hate horror! And I love that series!). There’s long ongoing series, short ones that I have collected complete, a few that I’m in the middle of because of printing issues (In/Spectre, why are volumes 5 and 6 still the only ones out of print?!)… All over the map at this point.
Because I have so many unread volumes due to life and other obligations, I decided that each day in December, I’m going to read at least a volume a day. It doesn’t have to be from the same series (for example, on December first I finished Aria the Masterpiece and then volume 13 of Otherside Picnic, two wildly different manga). My reason for this is two-fold. I have so much left to read… and I desperately want to pad my Goodreads total for personal reasons. Yeah, that’s happening.
And Of Course, The Classic
The final Advent calendar is the one that hasn’t actually been put up yet, because this year we’re behind in our decorating.
Many years ago, I think before I was born or the year that it happened, my parents were gifted a beautiful Advent calendar from my aunt. Yes, I think it was from a catalogue, and yes, it’s old, but we hang it every year and fight where to place all but a few of the pieces (certain ones have their own special place, because I said so).
No matter what happens, no matter if we have ten Advent calendars or one, this will always be that one. And that’s what makes it all that more special.
Once the month draws to a close, I’ll rate and discuss which one were worth the money, and which ones weren’t (hint, it’s probably the book, based on the reviews alone, from people I trust, haha).
Until then!
