Advent calendars have been around since the 19th century... possibly even earlier. My first experience with them was back in the late 70's or early 80's when one of my friends had one that gave him a piece of chocolate every day. I thought... twenty-five pieces of chocolate... that's awesome!
Not sure if my parents ever granted my wish and gave me one, but I've purchased a few Lego advent calendars for myself over the years and have been receiving one from my buddy Ryan (SumoMenkoMan) every year since 2021.
If you've never seen them, I recommend you grab yourself some hot chocolate or a cup of eggnog... and click here or here. You won't be disappointed.
The thing that separates this advent calendar from others I've experienced is this one has been tailor-made for me... which makes them that much more special and appreciated. Not only that... but he packages them individually and writes a note for each day.
Just like your traditional advent calendar, Ryan has designed it for me to open one present each day leading up to Christmas. Unfortunately December is typically crazier than your average month... so it wasn't meant to be.
So I broke the advent calendar rules and started opening the presents up the day after Christmas. The plan was to open up all twenty-five presents and show them off in one post, but the documenting process took much longer than anticipated.
This year... I'm breaking the rules... and to breaking up this calendar into four or five posts.
But before we get into the first round of daily presents, let's discuss the two cans of Popfuji that Ryan tossed in as box toppers. I'm not a beer guy, but the next time I'm in Southern California I'm going to track down some of these for my brother and his wife.
As for these cans... I'm going to cut up one of these cans and somehow display the logo. The other can will go on my Papa Fuji shelf next to his golf balls, business card, and other little knickknacks I've collected of his. Thank you Ryan... for thinking of my father... and for building this awesome advent calendar.
Okay... without further ado, here are December 1st through December 6th's presents...
December 1st
Undated Diecut & Embossed Santa
1994 Star Wars Galaxy Series 2 #148
Ryan kicked things off with some Santa cards... one old and one new to start the holiday season!
December 2nd
Let's go! Batter Up! Top of the order... and 23 more days to go.
1995 Donruss Top of the Order Starter Deck
I'm looking forward to the day when I can sit down, open this starter deck up, and write a post about what's inside. But right now, it's on to the third present...
December 3rd
On the third day of December... my buddy gave to me. Three packs of YoYoExpert trading cards:
2017 YoYoExpert Trading Card Packs
Never even knew there were professional yo-yo players... or trading cards of them. I opened up one of these packs. The plan is to write my first post over on A Pack to Be Named Later in over six years, so stay tuned.
I opened up one of these to check them out. Not sure if I'll have a chance to document it over on APTBNL, so I'll just share my results here:
Not sure if anyone cares... but the Hulk in the middle has some gold foil added to it. Maybe something special? Maybe not.
December 4th
More packs! This time it's Chinese Marvel cards.
December 5th
Even more packs!
Looks like someone already wrote a review of this product on APTBNL, but these will be heading into the rainy day pack stash. Sure hope the Bay Area has another wet winter, because I've got a lot of stuff to open.
You're looking at five packs of Cul (pronounced "cool") Heroes... which are Irish trading cards. Looks like I have more APTBNL post material in 2024. But if you don't want to wait... and are curious about these cards, Ryan posted a review of them over on YouTube. If you're interested in watching it, click here.
December 6th
Heck yeah! More packs.
1995 Sport Flix Packs
Well that wraps up the first six days of December. I've already opened up the December 7th envelope... and it contained some pretty special packs. Ryan's original plan was to make this an unopened pack advent calendar. I told him that he should market a wax pack advent calendar. My guess is there are plenty of collectors out there who would be interested in ripping open twenty-five packs in December. And I'm guessing most collectors would stick to the rules and open them up one per day.
Happy Thursday and sayonara!
7 comments:
Nice friend, sending you lots of really fun stuff to open.
That Top of the Order pack should be fun. I got a pack or two of the set out of some either Christmas or Easter themed gift box from Wal-Mart in the late ‘90’s and still have a few of the cards. I can’t imagine the cards from the set are that plentiful 30 years since it was released.
Wow, that's a great start! Curious to see what's next.
I've been intending to write a post on how to play Donruss Top of the Order, but I need to learn how first. Maybe I'll do that over the long weekend
I think that it is awesome Ryan does that for you each year. Kudos.
Very cool! It still surprises me we haven't seen an advent calendar from the main card companies.
My son has a Teenymates NFL one this year he loved.
This gives me a great idea for next year!
the angels in order - yeah, ryan is very generous and a good friend.
jeremya1um - i'll definitely open it up and share the contents in a post. i'm pretty sure i have a few singles floating around in player and team collections
shlabotnik report - looking forward to reading that top of the order post. i've never played it, but i'm excited to crack the deck open
johnnys trading spot - me too. it's not just the presents. i didn't really show them, but he wrote individual notes for each of the presents. he puts a lot of thought into this advent calendary.
the lost collector - that teenymates advent calendar sounds cool. if they had a baseball one, i'd consider buying it.
matt - can't wait to read about it on your blog.
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