Appetite For Distraction

The Advent calendar is today unrecognisable from the days of waxy chocolate behind flimsy cardboard. The Christmas stalwart has had a luxury upgrade, and there’s nothing wrong with that

Advent calendars have come a long way since Patrick Kavanagh’s famously austere poem

‘We have tested and tasted too much, lover. Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.”

So wrote Patrick Kavanagh in his beautiful poem Advent, berating himself for seeking out too many pleasures of the mind, body and soul. Promising that he will regain the wonder of childhood innocence and purify his soul through penance, self-denial and “dry black bread and sugarless tea”. What noble words. What beautiful imagery. What . ...