It’s the first of December which means the Christmas period is well and truly here and the first window in my calendar has been opened.  

Well, to be perfectly honest, I’ve actually got two advent calendars this year – my delicious dark chocolate Hotel Chocolat calendar courtesy of my husband Jeff, and my little traditional advent calendar that I spent nearly two weeks trying to source in shops and online. 

When I was a little girl my dad would get our advent calendars from the little shop at the back of our chapel in St Bridget’s in Baillieston.

It was always a manger scene on the front with Joseph, Mary, the baby Jesus and all the little angels and they were always so beautifully decorated with glitter and beautiful bright colours.

We had those type of calendars all through our childhood and even when our friends had the chocolate filled variety I never wanted anything but my little sparkly calendar up on my bedroom wall.

I honestly used to lie awake on November 30, unable to sleep with excitement at the thought of opening my calendar because Christmas was always such a big deal in my house and it was just a time filled with love and joy. 

As an adult I tried to find those little calendars again in shops around the city, as our little Chapel shop stopped stocking them, but I never had any luck, until this year. 

I decided to go online, not really sure what I was looking for so I typed in calendar, glitter and manger scene into a search engine and discovered that they were in fact vintage calendars from Germany and were known as Kruger advent calendars. 

After some more searching, I managed to source two of them from a lady in Germany and they arrived yesterday just in time. I actually had a wee tear in my eye when I opened the big padded envelope as all of those wonderful Christmas childhood memories came flooding back to me and I just couldn’t stop smiling.

The funny thing is, now that I have them, I’m so reluctant to open them as I want to keep them all shiny and brand new forever or maybe I’ll even pass them down to my little niece and nephew when they are old enough. I know it might seem silly to get so moved over a big piece of decorated cardboard but if you can’t get a little nostalgic at this time of year, when can you?

On another note...

Well, since it is the first of December I can now admit freely that my tree is already up. 

Now I know, I know it’s not the traditional 12 days before but I have been writing a Christmas show since September this year, so give a girl a festive break here. 

Yes, I’ve been talking about snow machines, twinkling lights, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman for the past few months and I can’t believe in less than three weeks it will all come to life. 

If you didn’t already know Michelle McManus’ Winter Wonderland feat the incredible Soundsational Choir is coming to Glasgow on Thursday, December 21 for three nights and a matinee show on Saturday, December 23 at 2pm. 

It’s honestly the most festive show you will see this year with Christmas comedy, all of your favourite Christmas songs and carols to sing along to and the entire show is being sponsored by the delicious Eden Mill Gin which is made right here in Scotland – so what’s not to love about this? 

We are so delighted to be working with Eden Mill and to be spreading lots of Christmas cheer with this show again after its huge sell out success last year when we performed at the Old Fruitmarket. 

If you haven’t already got your tickets you can call the box office on 0141 287 2999 or log onto the website www.ticketsglasgow.com and click on The Mitchell Theatre under the venues option. Hope to see you all there.