For about fifteen years, our family has had a tradition of a shared Advent calendar. Every day from December 1 – 24, the children take turns opening the little packages, one for each day of the Advent season.

After a disastrously messy first year’s (chocolate) calendar when our boys were toddlers, we’ve had many years’ enjoyment with Playmobil calendars. Every day is a different little box, with a different little posable guy or accessory, and by Yule, you have a whole vignette – Santa’s workshop, or a holiday bakery, or a forest in wintertime.  We look forward to revealing that new surprise every day.

Added to my daily Advent routine this year is Grant’s Advent Calendar, a daily video podcast.  Every day, host Grant Baciocco reveals the prize hiding behind that day’s tiny calendar door. The presents are small (so far: color-change Silly Putty, and a Reese’s peanut butter chocolate tree), but Baciocco clearly revels in the process, and that childlike excitement is contagious.

Other media creators are following suit, making their own Advent video podcasts, like this one by Breakman Z. The “rules” for the Advent podcast, as I understand them, are as follows:

filmed in one take,
no peeking in advance at that day’s surprise,
videos have to be published on the same day

The feed for Grant’s Advent Calendar is here.

Baciocco encourages others to follow suit. If you have a holiday (Yule, Christmas, Channukah, or something equally festive) podcast, please let us know in the comments.