US here, I was raised Catholic in West Virginia. The church I went to growing up always had an advent wreath, and when I was younger, our family would light one at home. I believe the church still does it but my family hasn’t done it since I was younger.
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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Having just received a Fourth Advent video via messenger, in which The Count of Sesame Street counted the four burning candles, I wondered how much this is common outside of Germany.
Wikipedia tells me that the tradition also is followed in other countries nowadays, but not how much.
So:
Do you know this in your country or maybe even light some candles to count the remaining time until Christmas yourself?
Or have you never heard of it before?
Do you perhaps have any other similar countdown traditions (we e.g. also have Christmas calendars giving you a little tread every day until Christmas)?
Episcopalian in South Dakota. Also had Advent wreaths.
Did you also have some ritual around lighting the cancles?
Where I come from, the family typically gathers together in the evening, lights the candles in the dark and sings a few traditional Christmas songs.
No family rituals around the candles that I can remember. We lit them with the lights off but no singing or sayings or things along those lines once they were lit the lights would come back on. We did it once a week, I think on Sundays since that’s the start of the new week and then we would let them burn for a bit before putting them out until the next week.
I'm from the northeast United States, my ex-wife would do the advent wreath. My family would do an advent calendar; we particularly loved the Lego ones.
In my part of the US they seem to be rare in houses but common in churches, at least Methodist churches.
Four candles for the Sundays before Christmas. Most have purple candles for three Sundays but one pink one typically lit on the third Sunday. Most also have a more prominent, central, white. christ candle that is lit for Christmas eve services and Christmas day. Some churches then remove the wreath but continue lighting that candle until later in the church year.
Typically a family will be asked to light the candles for each service and recite a reading.
The candles/days are usually themed: Hope, peace, joy, then love. Sometimes they are associated with characters from the story. E.g. pink being Mary's candle.
Advent wreaths have been a thing in Ireland for as long as I can remember.
That's actually quite intersting, given that it started as a protestant tradition.
But catholics are also doing it here, so maybe completly disconnected from its origins by now...
Grew up in the Catholic Church in New Jersey, USA and we had these every year.
Weird. These are really popular with Catholic people in Canada. They are found in Catholic Churches, schools and usually the center of dinner tables during Advent. It's always an evergreen wreath with 3 purple candles, 1 pink candle and 1 center candle which is unusually white. The wreaths at church get lit at Sunday Mass, one candle for each week of Advent then the center one on Christmas. Generally wreaths at dinner tables are the same but you will light them at Sunday dinner (I can't remember if they get lit throughout the week as well and you just light the same number of candles as the same week of Advent)
I know people who aren't religious or no longer are, sometimes still use a wreath without candles as a centerpiece for their dinner table in the winter. It just provides a nice Christmas feel, similar to a door wreath
Sounds pretty similar to the German traditions surrounding it that I know of.
Except of the colours and the center candle, which sounds like a nice extra touch!
In our family we usually wait until Sunday evening in the dark to light it, while singing some Christmas songs.
I am also not very religious, but still love it, same with the advent calendars!
I'm from Spain and I don't have a clue of what are you talking about.
Here in Mexico, a predominantly Catholic country, Advent wreaths (with five candles) are definitely a thing, though I can't say how much the tradition is still followed nowadays (I'm not a religious person). I've seen them in the central and southern regions, but I'm not sure about other parts of the the country. I've seen Advent calendars too, in churches and some houses.
Five candles... Last one lit on Christmas day, I suppose?
There is a well-known Advent rhyme in Germany with an addtitional line that makes a little fun of the Advent Wreath tradition:
Und wenn die fünfte Kerze brennt, dann hast du Weihnachten verpennt.
Meaning:
And if the fifth cancle is burning, you have slept through Christmas
Yes, if I recall correctly, the last one is lit on Christmas day, though some people do it on Christmas Eve.
In the US, I've seen advent wreaths at churches but not in anyone's home. But I'm sure some people have it in the US. Usually wreaths are hung on the front door as holiday decorations.
We do have the christmas calendars and jokes about eating them all at once.
We do have the christmas calendars
Interesting, did expect that to be a primarily local tradition here.
Do you only have the chocolate-filled ones for children or is it more widespread?
From lithuania :3 I learned about it in school as a tradition, but never knew anyone that actually did it
Makes sense, given that Lithuania directly borders Kaliningrad, which has been part of Germany as East Prussia until the end of WWII.
I guess that there has been a lot of cultural exchange going on until then.
In the UK we have wreaths of holly that go on the front door, but not as a countdown that ive ever been aware of.
We do have these advent calendars where you open a door every day and there's usually a little chocolate behind it.
Churches have the wreath with the candles. For some reason the candles have different colours, not sure why.
They have become a thing here too.
Not sure if we imported this tradition from you (or the Americans...)
I was a little confused by your calling it an "advent wreath". It is quite common to light advent candles here in Sweden, counting down the number of weeks until the yule evening. Yule calendars are also fairly frequent, often with little gifts (chocolates, tea or whatever) for each day.
Then there are actual yule wreaths, which we often decorate our doors with, like this one:
Funny thing: we are currently having not a traditional Advent Wreath at home, but a straight line of elks.
And NO, it is not from Ikea, but hand-made by a local charity employing hadicapped people...
But might perhaps have gotten its inspiration from you guys up there?
Oh yeah, you could definitely find something like that in a Swedish home, although usually we have taller candles in the advent candelabra (so it becomes obvious that the earlier ones have been burning down for longer)
taller candles in the advent candelabra (so it becomes obvious that the earlier ones have been burning down for longer)
Yes, that is a major drawback of that design.
But the elks throw cool shadows on the wall... :-)
In the northeast US, we have both advent wreaths and advent calendars. The "wreath" we had growing up was metal but made to look like a wreath. (Probably because a wreath is a fire hazard)
I don't see a lot of wreath's anymore but advent calendars are still popular.
We have something similar in Norway. "Adventstake".
Same in Sweden
Image search for that expression shows me triangular stair candle holders. Is that it?
What does it count? Most I saw had 7 candles.
It's usually a candle holder in some form, yes, but for four candles.
In Britain you see them in churches but nobody has one at home.
wreath
In my culture we use them only at funerals.
We also do that here in Germany, but that's different:
No countdown candles on the funeral ones. ;-)
Marktlücke!
They are a thing here in Denmark too but on the other hand, Denmark is just a mini Germany
You gave us Lego Advent Calendars, so I am grateful you also have very similar traditions. ;-)
Advent wreathes are a thing in the US, but mostly a religious thing. Traditionally the 3rd candle is supposed to be pink and the others purple
US, been all over but currently west coast. My parents grew up slightly Christian/Catholic (By elementary school they became Pagan though). I had never heard of these really
it is a thing here in czech "totally not catholic" republic
Yes :)
I’ve not seen them outside of Germany same with the Christkind
Christkind is a special one.
Invented by the protestants to spite the catholics and the cult they were following around their saints (including St. Nikolaus, which became the blueprint for Santa Claus), it later was somehow adopted by the catholics.
Surprisingly, Wikipedia tells me that it is also a thing outside of Germany:
The Christkind (German for 'Christ-child'; pronounced [ˈkʁɪstˌkɪnt] ⓘ), also called Christkindl, is the traditional Christmas gift-bringer in Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Southern Germany and Western Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the eastern part of Belgium, Portugal, Slovakia, Hungary, parts of northeastern France, Upper Silesia in Poland, parts of Latin America, in certain areas of southern Brazil, and in the Acadiana region of Louisiana.
I live in BW, nobody talks about the Christkindl, it's all about der Nikolaus.