Outrageous and shocking: New-age Advent calendars stray away from Advent's true meaning

The anticipation is brewing and the time is amongst us. Advent is a time to come together to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord's coming into the world and prepare ourselves for His final coming.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Advent calendar, although based on the calendar days of December rather than the four Sundays of Advent, is a tool we have come to use as a countdown to December 25. Traditionally, these calendars are full of secular images and meanings or are Catholic-based.

However, the mainstream market has got its hands on the Advent calendar, twisting it and seemingly straying away from the true meaning.

Surprise a family member with a Christmas gift that stays true to the meaning of the holiday.

Although the newer Advent calendars are remaining true in the countdown to Christmas, they are treating the consumers with different things and are rarely, if at all, tying it to the coming of the Lord.

New, quirky and flashy calendars contain anything and everything. They range from jewelry and toys to beauty products and tea bags, even a calendar for your pet; these new calendars have become about the items received, instead of celebrating the Lord.

Big brand companies, like Lego, Sephora, and Starbucks, have taken notice to the trend and came out with their own versions of the calendar.

While these may all be in good nature and perhaps aim to help different groups understand and participate in Advent, some new-age Advent calendars have taken things too far. Twelve different panties as part of the Advent calendar? A different sexually explicit video for each day of December? These are completely outrageous and are spreading a different meaning for Advent.

If popular culture wants to use, or rather misuse, a meaningful tradition for Advent, they should take off the Advent title; because clearly, most of these Advent calendars have nothing to do with Advent.

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