THIS week I’ll be posting Advent calendars to our godchildren.

Let the calendar shopping begin. I am what you might call a selective buyer. Each prospective calendar has to meet certain criteria: Attractive to children? Easy to understand Nativity scene? Non-fiddly windows with pictures or words that fit the story?

Fortunately I’ve already seen some that tick all these boxes… and one that adds in Fairtrade chocolate and a Christmas story booklet to boot.

But I also can’t help noticing that more and more calendars seem to be attempts to market products as part of a “countdown to Christmas”. And it got me thinking about how deeply such calendars are selling the season – and us – short.

Because we need Advent and Christmas to be more than marketing. Encircled by rain and darkness, faced with conflict and disaster whenever we turn on the news, battered by economic uncertainties – let alone whatever personal questions we face – we long to have a sense that the world isn’t just an ever-worsening mess.

As Archbishop Tutu’s famous prayer says: “Goodness is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, light is stronger than darkness, life is stronger than death.”

Marketing campaigns aren’t going to fill that need. But the real Advent and Christmas can.

Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, is a time of waiting. It reminds us that many years ago, when God’s people were in the darkness of pain and exile, they clung to the promise that light would come.

That’s why I want a calendar that tells the Christmas story – with pictures and words that explain the hope the season brings.

The words behind my imaginary windows will be readings from the Bible. Maybe the prophets. Maybe the Christmas story. There’s still time to decide.

And the pictures? They’ll be the things each day in which I see Christ present in His world: maybe an act of kindness, maybe a moment of astonishing natural beauty, an occasion when justice triumphs, a sense of God’s closeness in conversation or silence.