Friday Fun - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

[Thomas Schlegel]

Ho Ho Ho - How long have I been waiting to say this again... 

It's me, your elf from the North Pole. @Thomas Schlegel asked me to fill in today - he became very nervous when he received the wake up call from  @Monique vdB - he completely  forgot that this is his Friday Fun today... And he's so busy... - Well, big luck for me,  now this is my Friday Fun - I always wanted to do this one day :-) ! 

If you don't know me by now: I'm a good friend of Thomas. Years ago I moved away from the North Pole, lived in a fairy land, worked there as an administrator but had to go back  this year because of Corona restrictions. If you want to know more, you can read my story here.

And what's the main topic for an elf from the North Pole? Of course - "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". Well, at least at Santa's Hut it looks like Christmas already. We, the elves are very busy, just five weeks left for us to prepare everything for the whole world.

For me, this holiday season is very different from last years seasons. I'm not at home, I have to work hard, it's cold and uncomfortable in the North. Thomas told me, that he's missing the Christmas Markets (he loves Christmas Markets - that's another reason why we are best friends, you know). 

How about you? Will this holiday season be like every other year? What do you miss the most these days?  Tell us more about that! Will Corona be the perfect excuse for not visiting the rich but boring uncle far far away?     

I'm also responsible for the Holiday Countdown Calendar here in the Community. Will there be another one here this year? Maybe, you'll see on December 1st.

But first, another question: Do you have a real Advent / Holiday Calendar? Maybe one with chocolate or tea, beer, candles or a self-made one?

Is there something like an Advent / Holiday Calendar in your country? Or is this a German / North Pole thing? What would be behind the doors of your perfect calendar? 

By the way, this is mine - it's using Augmented Reality - every day, I have to find the right door with an app. I'm super excited and can't wait for December, 1st - at the moment, the calendar app is showing only ticking gearwheels. 

And just one more question for today: Thomas asked me to ask you for ideas and suggestions for the Community Holiday Countdown Calendar 2021. What do you like to see? Be creative! What's your favourite theme? 

So, I wish you a nice holiday season 2020. Let's end this cursed year with some awesome weeks. I'll do my best to entertain you, craft toys and gifts and hope you have some fun with all of this. And of course with the Holiday Countdown Calendar 2020, if there will be one, maybe ;-)

Thank you for having me here

Your friend from the North Pole

[Kat Warner]

My child is finally old enough to (hopefully) understand the waiting and fun involved with an advent calendar so he is getting his first one this year.

I was so excited to buy him one with chocolates because I never got one like that growing up (though I was equally happy with the biblical themed and generic Santa paper ones I did get) that my husband insisted I buy a chocolate advent calendar for me as well. (Holy run-on sentence Batman! Just a consequence of Christmas excitement).

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

I have lived in the States for the last few years but I am from Iceland. Due to Covid, I have not been able to visit Iceland at all this year. So... we are going to miss some of our Icelandic food this Christmas :(  

On the bright side, did you know that Iceland has 13 Santa clauses?   

Have a great Friday!

[nina_schmidt]

Thanks for the link, I only knew Yule Cat 🎄

[Thomas Schlegel]

Never heard of the Yule Lads before. That‘s great, thank you for telling us, @Kristján Geir Mathiesen  and I hope you can visit your home country soon!

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

@nina_schmidt  awesome! The Yule Cat is a bit cray cray. One better get a new article of clothing before Christmas else...

[nina_schmidt]

So this is why I have a dressing room that is about to explode 😂 @Kristján Geir Mathiesen 

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Heck yeah! You don't want the Yule cat to get you...

[Dave Liao]

Oh snap, I didn't know about the Yule cat... so cute, yet so evil...

[Liam Green]

I still feel like we're too far away to start Christmas - for me it begins on December 1st.

We have advent calendars here in the UK.  It used to just be chocolate, or homemade ones - but now you can find almost anything - I've bought my fianceé a stationery advent!

Christmas is likely to be a lot quieter this year, but we will make the best of it...and try and have virtual catch ups if we can't meet people in person!

[Sven Cipido]

We also have advent calendars. As the beer country (I think you know which country I mean) I saw a few beer advent calendars.

For myself, I bought this year the Luville Advent Calendar. Luville is a brand that creates christmas villages. 
And I also bought the Lego City Advent calendar so I have some more pieces to use in my scrum games/ceremonies/Trainings :-)

As a whisky lover, I was thinking about the whisky advent calendar. But the ones that I want are very expensive. So a No Go. But OK.

Christmas starts maybe early this year. We ourself already have setup the tree and other things. Normally we wait till after December 6th. But because of the dark year it's nice to see the lights already and give us hope for next year.

[Thomas Schlegel]

Oh, These Luville villages look so nice. This calendar might be an idea for next year!

[nina_schmidt]

I started decorating last week 🎄and since this morning I saw sooo beautiful ice flowers at my skylights I can hardly wait for the first snowflakes to fall. Perhaps already tomorrow - the weather person said ❄️☃️

And as every year I have two advent calendars: a chocolate one (the one with the red Lindt bubbles 🥰) and this year a premiere one with nuts / berries ☺️

I love winter and Christmas and every day I would love to go back to Finland where I met Joulupukki (Santa / Nikolaus / Weihnachtsmann) at his home in Rovaniemi Lapland back in 2018. ☺️ >> plan for next winter is set! ☺️ 

[Thomas Schlegel]

Great pictures, @nina_schmidt . Here in Northern Germany we hardly ever have snow. I‘m sure chances are better in Nürnberg. 

[Sven Cipido]

Beautiful pictures.

[Dharma Ramos]

We love advent calendars. My mom found a wooden one at a garage sale that you fill with whatever you want every day. For years I used to do that for my not so little one. But this year, I bought everyone advent calendars:

• Wine for me
• Beer for the hubby
• Chocolate for the teen
• Treats for the dogs

I bought them all the same day and felt like Oprah when I got home:

[Thomas Schlegel]

My husband gets a liquorice calendar. He doesn‘t know that yet, so please don‘t tell :-)

Our cats don‘t have one... I have to think about it.

[John Funk]

Where our children were young (they are 25 and 23 now!) we had an Advent calendar for a few years that had a shiny quarter behind each day. I am sure inflation would cause that to be a very low number for children in this day and age.  :-)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Bah. Humbug.

And I don't even like Humbugs. 

I do  like the clock-cube though - bit of a Clive Barker fan, bigger fan of Gallifreyans, and I've got a partner who loves clocks.

[Dave Liao]

Love the Dr. Who reference!

I've got a smart speaker, and wish I could have it speak with K9's voice. 😅

[Daniel Ebers]

Yeah, an advent calendar! What a crazy coincidence that I received one when I read loud out what the current Friday Fun topic is here at home - so having this topic was really beneficial for me, so happy ☺️☺️☺️

It is a "spicy calendar" which will provide 24 delicious things like curry powder, garlic, cinnamon, chili and whatnot.

I will not attend any Zoom-Xmas party. Nothing against Zoom but enough is enough 🎄☺️

[Sven Cipido]

Wow, that looks a nice advent calendar for the kitchen and when preparing christmas food.

[Dave Liao]

I don't know what an advent calendar is, but if I were to make one, I'd involve coffee somehow. And those little bottles of liquor you get on airplanes. 😉

[Kat Warner]

An advent calendar is a countdown typically of the 24 days from December 1 to Christmas Eve.

Traditionally they were made of card and you opened a 'window' each day to reveal a picture.

There are also ones with a tiny chocolate behind each window or any type of gift.

Check out this coffee themed option - https://19grams.coffee/en/collection/coffee-advent-calendar

[Dave Liao]

@Kat Warner - ooh, I love that! ☕

[Jimmy Seddon]

This is going to be an interesting Christmas.  On tradition my wife and I started when we moved to Guelph is going to the drive through light display in on of the local parks.  It's still running this year they just aren't serving hot apple cider at the end.

As much as people say zoom isn't enough, we live a few hours away from both of our parents so we haven't seen them except for Zoom calls in a very long time.  With a really young child we want our 3 year old to be able to recognize his grandparents so we will be going a Christmas morning Zoom call so he can show his grandparents what he got for Christmas.

[Gonchik Tsymzhitov]

It's very interesting to read during our new year holiday period. 

In that year holidays I started to go into total digital detox and visit more and more snow forest. 

I would say that's very curious experience and also, after movie "A social dilemma".