It’s December 1st! For many LEGO fans, the Christmas Season is already in full swing with Christmas music playing 24-7, Christmas trees up and decorated, and lots of wrapped packages underneath with that extra special rattly sound that only LEGO makes.

Today is also the day that we start opening our LEGO Advent Calendars with all those fun mini-builds and unique minifigures. C-3PO in an ugly Christmas sweater? Yes, please! I’m sure you’ll see many other LEGO fan sites doing daily posts, analyzing every aspect, minibuild and minifigure from each of LEGO’s five(!?) calendars this year.

But here’s a secret: Advent hasn’t officially started yet. It officially starts on Sunday, December 3rd this year. (It only starts on December 1st on years when Christmas falls on a Wednesday, like 2024 and 2030! Who knew!?)

So What is Advent?

Christmas wreath 2 in 1 Set 40426 modified with tall purple and pink advent candles.

Advent starts four Sundays before Christmas, which is why it varies in length from year to year. The First Sunday of Advent is also the start of the Liturgical year for the Catholic Church. Other Christians observe Advent as well, but for this brief explanation I will stay with the Roman Catholic celebration of the season since that is what I’m familiar with. Advent is a time of preparation, of Joyful Waiting. We are preparing for the great feast of Christmas, for Christ’s return at the end of time, and to better welcome God into our lives every day!

An Advent Wreath is used to mark the passing of the four liturgical weeks. It has three purple candles and a pink candle. In the Church, the color Purple is often associated with Penance, the act of quieting ourselves, and preparing the way for the Lord. Purple candles are lit during the first, second and forth weeks of Advent. Pink/Rose is a color of “JOY” for Christmas is almost here. At the third week, Joy is more of a deep contentment and rejoicing in God’s love in the theological sense, more than what many just deem happiness.

Often Advent calendars are used, too, although commercial ones are only 24 days and start on December 1st. Manufacturing doesn’t like things that vary, especially when it can be anywhere between 22 and 28 days long! If you’d like to learn more check out BustedHalo.com’s Advent in 2 minutes video.

25 Years of LEGO Advent Calendars

Thanks to Brickset’s database, I discovered that this year is the 25th anniversary of LEGO Advent Calendars, starting with Set #1298. Get it? 12, December; 98, the year 1998. The earlier years had some delightful Creator style calendars, with the long running LEGO City Calendar introduced in 2005. Clikits, the very coveted 2008 Castle calendar, Pirates, and Bellville themes pop up in one or two instances.

Star Wars and Friends were added in 2011 and 2012 respectively establishing the offerings until Harry Potter was added in 2019 and Marvel in 2021. A subset of Marvel, there’s also been a Guardians of the Galaxy Advent for 2022 and 2023. I suppose once your franchise passes the 20 movie mark, you qualify for another Advent Calendar?

Advent Calendar Time line Images from LEGO via Brickset.com

But Wait, There’s More!

Over the years BrickNerd has gotten in on the Advent fun too! Check out this beautiful Advent Calendar build by kjm161 from 2017. Click the picture to read Tommy’s write up, and see an interior picture.

Are wrote about a struggle with the postal service and an Advent Calendar of his own devising. Pretty crafty!

And last year we took a deep dive into gender disparity and many, many other aspects of past Star Wars Advent Calendars. Of course there’s a pie chart! (BTW, they found Leia this year!)

From Around the Web

This is from brick_a_brad way back in 2010. It was built as a window display, with each room representing a different day. Not sure what the ICBM is about, but I’m sure there’s something Christmassy about it.

Next we’ve got a gift dispensing Advent frame surrounding a lovely Christmas Eve scene. It was submitted by builder Veverka Hazelnut, on LEGO Ideas. The little boxes could be filled with small builds, minifigures, or tasty treats, like chocolate or jerky nuggets. Hey, don’t knock it until you try it!

Speaking of tasty treats, this calendar has a plethora of doors, turnstiles and slides to dispense Hershey’s Kisses! Sarah Dees demonstrates its functionality in the video.

Advent Wreaths

LEGO offers lots of opportunity for building an Advent Wreath. You could take my approach, and modify the fantastic Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 like I did at the beginning of the article, to have purple and pink brick-built candles. I originally wanted 2x2 round bricks but they don’t come in pink yet, so the first version used regular 2x2’s (at right) and was later changed to the Travis brick core with tiles. Or you could purchase this tiny set from Domestic Church Supply, made from real LEGO! My son was gifted a couple of their sets. They are well done!

MCLEgoboy ! built this delightful tiny wreath several years ago. I love the way the leaf pieces are worked together, and the red ribbon, which is actual LEGO , is a nice touch, too.

Or if you really want to go all out, you can follow Stilly Bricks' example and build a wreath and table to go with it. Very convincing!

Presently, That’s a Wrap!

Hope you have enjoyed learning a bit about Advent! Surely there will be future additions of the Advent sets, and even more variety! I hope that whether or not you celebrate Christmas, you have a peace-filled and blessed Christmas season, starting on Christmas Day, and running 12 days to the Epiphany, traditionally on Jan 6th, but often celebrated on the nearest Sunday (January 7th for 2024). So yes, the Christmas season officially runs a week into January, so you can keep your tree up, sing carols, and continue saying Merry Christmas!

Just make sure you finish up the eggnog… you don’t want that to turn…

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published December 1, 2023.

How many LEGO Advent sets did you get this year? Do you wait to open the little doors day by day, or just open everything at once? Leave your thoughts below.

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