Adventskalender

The first advent calendar can be traced back to the 19th century. The first styles came from the protestant area. So religious families made a chalk line for every day in December until Christmas.
The tradition did set back with World War II.
But it is still very popular with children in German speaking countries mostly.
Advent Calendars are usually hand-made at schools and every little cubboard that opens, contains a small treat for the children.

Here you can find the Online museum for Advent calendars:
http://www.sellmer-verlag.de/MuseumE/index.html

Some interesting "Adventskalender" with competitions and continuing stories ( in German) are to be found at:

http://www.hueber.de/sixcms/list.php?page=pg_uebersicht2007_adv

http://www.deutschlern.net/