Well, in case you haven't noticed, apparently it's Xmas already - but interestingly, it's not, and in fact it's probably about the right time to think about what advent calendar you're going to use this year. If the usual chocolate Dr Who calendar isn't quite going to cut it for you, here are my suggestions for your alternatives. WARNING: they're all a bit nerdy in some way.
Is it Christmas dot com
In what could probably be the most binary form of advent calendar, and one of my favourite websites to help maintain perspective during the commercialised Winterval season, www.isitchristmas.com provides a simple, no-nonsense way to tell whether or not it's Christmas. But not how far away it is - for that you need an actual calendar. They used to also provide an RSS feed, which was an excellent addition to my daily reader feed, and always a treat to see it come through on the day itself. Although RSS has now gone the way of the cassette tape, apparently.
Completely accurate and appropriately excited advent calendar (pdf)
This was the result of a conversation I had with a friend, regarding the practise of referring to the day before something as '_____ eve', and whether this could be stacked. I used to know someone who annually held a 'Christmas Eve Eve' party, since Christmas Eve was for family stuff. Anyway, this calendar, if each window is opened on the correct day, maintains both complete nomenclative accuracy, and expresses an appropriate level of excitement (provided you accept more exclamation marks = more excitement). Simply print both sheets onto thick card, cut around three sides on each of the windows on the top sheet and layer them, gluing appropriately so as not to bum it up. Voila!
NRICH advent calendars
NRICH, which is an excellent site full of maths puzzles and activities, has put out two advent calendars this year - one for primary and one for secondary, with fun stuff to do every day during advent. You bet I'll be looking every day. Also, the primary one looks like a TRAIN. Choo choo!
My YouTube Advent Calendar
In what can only be described as a plug, I've put together a list of my favourite (diversely themed, possibly sweary) YouTube videos, using the strict selection criteria that if it's memorable enough for me to be able to name it off the top of my head, it's gone on the list. One video will be selected randomly each day, and added to this page, which will be updated each day during advent, provided I remember and have access to the internet. I should hopefully be providing reminders as such on Twitter.
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