UBC January 2025 - Village Advent Calendar

Welcome back to January's UBC. Today we're talking about our village's "walk-in advent calendar" that takes place every other year.

How does it work?

Throughout the town, residents (these can be private individuals, but also small businesses or institutions such as the kindergarten or the home for the disabled) will make one of their windows available and number it with the respective number. This should be clearly visible and accessible from the street. In most cases, the window is then lovingly decorated and officially lit up for the first time on the assigned day. 

On their assigned evening, most organize a small reception with gingerbread, mulled wine and the like. It is a great opportunity to promote the community spirit and for couch potatoes to leave the house during the cold season to visit the respective advent window. 

Our office building happens to be a former grocery store with typical shop windows, predestined for the use of an advent window!

When I joined hubby's business in 20212, we participated for the first time, and we had a vintage Winter Olympics' theme.

2014 the internet inspired me to make my very own cardboard desktop fireplace.

If you look closely, you will notice that there is a miniature cable car on the right-hand side.

In 2016, it was a snowy landscape with trees and deer.

In 2018 I didn't have it in me to go to great lengths, so I had a large NY City 6th Avenue poster printed, we hung some stars, and a dear FB friend donated her fake Christmas tree. I wrapped some empty cardboard boxes as gifts, and we were done!

The main attraction was our fire-eating friend anyway. He didn't technically eat the fire, he just used it to make "fire tongs punch", it was a big hit if for nothing else than the entertainment! 

Colin and his friend were ten years old, aww!

The event was due again in 2020. As I was saying, usually we are offering snacks and warm beverages for passersby. In year one of the Pandemic of course we were discouraged from doing so. 

interestingly while we were still applying the finishing touches, people would walk by and wave, so of course I'd go outside and talk to them. I felt I met more people than when we had a regular event. It was really nice to meet some new folks, too.

By the way we made a contest out of our fondue display. We had a sign asking people which two people they thought should eat fondue together in our advent window. The answers ranged from “Fauci and Trump” to comic figures, Swiss personalities and the participants themselves. 

My coworker had back surgery in 2022, and I had to work full-time over the course of several weeks, so I took a break from participating. This year we were back. 

We used all the tools that today's technology has to offer: AI Art for the invitation (see intro to this blog post) and a 3D printer for the creation of our own little Matterhorn mountain ;-)

There was rain in the forecast, and unfortunately right about when the reception was scheduled, we got poured upon. Luckily, our blinds, which are originally intended to shield us from the sun, were used today to keep us and our guests reasonably dry. And a lot of people came, which made us very happy! 

Special shoutout to the guy in the black jacket on your right. Alessandro, our intern, baked the most delicious gingerbread! Even a professional chef among the guests said so! He was one of two people who offered to bring home-made baked goods. His plate is the one on the left hand side of the table, it's almost empty. 

I love our bi-annual advent calendar event. Even though it's always a lot more work than anticipated, it's always charming. What do you think of this tradition? Who do you think should have eaten our fondue back in 2020?