Today is Advent Sunday, which marks the beginning of Advent. Advent has mostly lost its original religious meaning here in Sweden and is, effectively, “the time of waiting for Christmas”.

Thus, Advent Sunday and the first weekend of Advent is the time for hanging up Christmas decorations and lights. At home, that is: shops and businesses have had theirs up for weeks already (since they cleared out all the Halloween stuff). After weeks of creeping, gradually increasing darkness, there is just a little bit more light out there. I love the way our neighbourhood looks, with sparkles of light in just about every window.

We have our two advent stars that I bought last year, but not much more in the way of decorations. I don’t like visual noise, our living room feels cluttered already, and traditions are not very important to me. But I think Ingrid would enjoy having a bit more Christmas feeling at home. She’s been pointing out every single Christmas tree, Santa and fake snowman we’ve passed. I guess I will try to figure out some way to introduce some more Christmas cheer here. If not in time for this Christmas, then definitely for next time.

I did, at least, manage an Advent calendar for Ingrid. Nothing fancy, since I didn’t start planning in time – just a 24-piece puzzle in 24 red envelopes.