The countdown to Christmas begins next week – and now comes with a daily dose of tea.

Whether or not you’re Christian, there’s no mistaking the coming of ‘the festive season’ towards the end of the year – the wheels of commerce start sporting tinsel and fairy lights suddenly stud the evening dark. One of the growing traditions that has solidified in the last few years is the place of the advent calendar as a countdown tool.

‘Advent’ is a word that means the arrival of a notable person or thing, which is why it is associated with Christ’s nativity. Christian historians note that since the 4th century ‘advent’ has indicated the period of four Sundays, the first starting as close to St Andrew’s Day (30 November) as possible, for converts to Christianity to prepare for baptism. Today it is used as a countdown from 1 December to Christmas Eve.

In the mid-19th century it was the practice of German Protestants to mark each day of advent with a chalk stroke. It then became popular to hang little pictures on the wall or light a candle to recognise each passing day. By the early 20th century, this had evolved into a calendar, first printed in an Austrian newspaper and then in Germany, as a gift for readers.

Gerhard Lang, son of two devout parishioners, is credited as the first to make the calendar commercial. When he was a child, Lang’s mother would make a calendar with sweets stuck to cardboard for each day. Lang copied this idea and produced little coloured pictures that could be adhered to a cardboard backing each day. He later evolved this to produce a calendar with doors to open, introducing the element of surprise and delight to the design.

The doors of advent calendars through the ages have contained everything from Bible verses, to chocolate, to small toys. Today you’re just as likely to find beauty products, Lego figurines and tea. Advent calendars are a great way to introduce tea-lovers to different varieties of tea and offer an antidote to sugar-laden treats, while encouraging a daily tea habit.

Australian tea businesses such as Neo, The Rabbit Hole and T2 have advent calendars on offer this year and some of the most popular ones from overseas include brands like Adagio in the US, France’s Palais Des Thés, Twinings and Pukka in the UK and Vahdam Teas from India. If you have left it too late to develop one for sale, you can always encourage bespoke advent practitioners to drop a sample of tea in their homemade versions.

And if you’re not Christian, there’s no reason to celebrate the advent of Christ; you can instead celebrate the advent of something else significant to you, whether that’s a birthday, anniversary or New Year’s Eve, or the duration of other customs such as the 15 days of the Lunar New Year or the eight days of Chanukah – or should that be Cha-nukah?

Whether you adhere to the traditional date of the Sunday closest to St Andrew’s Day, which this year is 29 November, or the modern standard (next Tuesday), Christmas is coming. Give us this day our daily tea.

This article originally appeared in AUSTCS enews 25 November 2020. Mailchimp no longer allows external links to the original newsletter.