Gratitude Monday: make us glad

If you don’t know about the Jacquie Lawson online greeting card empire, I’m sorry to hear that. More than a decade ago Lawson figured out how to monetize nostalgia for Olde England (and sometimes Scotland), with animated cards for every occasion. But where she really nails it is her Advent calendars, each year set in an idealized snow-covered village.

They work just like the IRL versions—for the first 25 days in December you click on a number and are given an experience: kids skating, someone making Christmas cake, dogs and cats rollicking about. But there’s also an interactive element—you can wrap presents, ice cookies, decorate a Christmas tree, assemble picture blocks. Just like for reals, only you never spill the little silver balls all over your kitchen or step on an ornament.

I’ve been really lucky for many years to be given the annual calendar and I confess that the rare December when it doesn’t show up in my inbox is a bit of a bummer. But this year my old choir-mate The Pundit’s Apprentice and his wife sent it to me and I was just delighted. Because this year—in addition to the usual—there are games. Like smashing ornaments, picking out words, solitaire, concentration and others. Thankfully, I have not downloaded it onto either of my work machines because I would be so tempted to spend the entire day in that Christmas room, with the fire and candles lit and the snow falling outside (extra points for the exteriors of the village being light or dark depending on your IP address’s time zone), going from game to game.

This year in particular I treasure this calendar. In past years, my older sister would send it to me. And when I visited her for the holiday, I’d open my daily surprise and also hear her in her room clicking on a puzzle or smashing ornaments, with the Christmas music in the background. (She has severe hearing loss.) So every time I click on something, I hear her in my heart and it makes me happy.

So today’s Advent piece is the “Sussex Carol”, because the Lawson village this year is somewhere in Sussex. And here’s the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, singing it.

May everyone receive gifts that connect them to loved ones as this does for me.