My advent calender 2023 - a Christmas Chamber Concert

Some of you may remember my 2022 advent calender

The annual 1:6 advent calender is based on a group activity in a German Doll Collector Forum (mostly Barbie and fashion dolls, but also many types of other dolls, mostly 1:6). Every year some members team up for an advent calender. Everyone handmakes a little present, as many copies of each as there are participants. The presents are shipped to a one person who repacks the parcels so that everyone receives one piece of each present. In the ideal world 24 people would do 24 different items. In reality we rarely have 24, so some people do more than 1 present for us to get to 24. This year 18 collectors are participating in the calender.

Some of us take pictures of the deboxing, some even do little stories almost every day. It is a lot of fun - and easily the best thing in December for me (I am not really an X-mas person).

Last year I enjoyed my little calender and the deboxing pics very much and I hope to do so again this year. I may not be able to take pictures every day (1:1 life sucks a little these days and our family will also be off for 4 days in mid December) but I will try my best. At least I will show the content of the little packages. I hope some of you will enjoy this thread the same way you did last year, some days more some days less so...

(Please keep in mind that the picture quality may not be the best. I have to do quick mobile snapshots and can't use a tripod and camera for the subdued Christmas Light).

In 2023 my advent calender theme is "My Christmas Chamber Concert"

We start with a tune that is not actually approved a Christmas classic, though a major part of a German audience would recognise it as such. It‘s part of the soundtrack of an old fairy tale movie that is on German TV several times each year in the weeks up to Christmas: „Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel“, a very lovely Cinderella adaptation, a timeless TV gem.
Moon performs the tune on our new grand piano.









She gets to debox package number 1, which does not come as a big surprise to me as it is my own contribution to the calender. The question was only what colours would find their way back to me.

A bead necklace  



and a vase of flowers.



we quickly called in Louise, aka Loulou, to model the necklace for us as it does not go well with Moon's dress:



Here are my pics of the 18 necklaces and 18 "vases" (some with dried flowers, some with painted textile flowers)

Oh yay! Thank you for doing this again! Those necklaces and vases are gorgeous and that particular necklace of course looks amazing on Loulou.

What a superb setting! That piano is amazing!

And the little details, like the beaded jewelry, enhance the scenes even further!

These scenes are remarkable!

Thank you so much for checking in. Hope you will bear with me until Christmas...  


Today Siobhan has One Wish... before checking out present #2.







Number 2 is matchbox sized... (the original size target for the presents - which somehow seems to have gone in disregard   )



there's is quite a bunch of nice lovely mail in the present today that ca be put to good use in a dio:

Awww, Siobhan is gorgeous, and those letters are lovely! What a beautiful idea!

Awesome. So cool that you’re doing this again. Some great stuff and what a cool environment. Neat grand piano. Is the bookshelf actual miniature books, or is the whole thing just a backdrop?

Beautiful photographs and figures, thanks so much for posting these

Stryker2012 wrote:Is the bookshelf actual miniature books, or is the whole thing just a backdrop?

I wondered that, too, so I checked: The corner is perfectly smooth and some of the pattern repeats, so... wallpaper.
Very cool. I also really like that stone wall(paper).

Diana wrote:Awww, Siobhan is gorgeous, and those letters are lovely! What a beautiful idea!

Thanks so much! Siobhan is the latest addition to my collection of Fashion Dolls and has been a real grail to acquire. Difficult to come by at a reasonable price (well, the price was not strictly "reasonable", but better than what is asked on ebay ... you know it: what the collector's heart wants... )
The letters have mostly been seen as love letters by my fellow participants

Stryker2012 wrote:Awesome. So cool that you’re doing this again. Some great stuff and what a cool environment. Neat grand piano. Is the bookshelf actual miniature books, or is the whole thing just a backdrop?

Thanks for joining! I remember Xmas is not your season either, so I hope you will enjoy bits of my calender again nevertheless
Of course Diana is right. It is a cardboard backdrop. I wish I had a shelf with books like these. A fellow collector has an awesome one...

BAMComix wrote:Beautiful photographs and figures, thanks so much for posting these

Thank you for leaving a note! Glad you enjoy them... today we will have some action figures

Cool that you're doing it again. It was very entertaining last year. So thank you for putting all this effort in.

TravelGuide wrote:Cool that you're doing it again. It was very entertaining last year. So thank you for putting all this effort in.

You are most welcome. I am glad you are joining this year too



so, today Neo and Wanda have a modern classic for us: Fairytale of New York.










#3 is one of the very big presents



A cozy blanket - they are looking forward to a lovely evening on the couch...

Wow. That's beautiful. The whole thread, the idea, everything.

Neo and Wanda is an interesting combination. Reality warpers, each in his/her own right. And it ultimately works.

Awww two of my favourite characters of yours getting a planket. Now we can leaves them alone again.

Visisonor wrote:Wow. That's beautiful. The whole thread, the idea, everything.

Neo and Wanda is an interesting combination. Reality warpers, each in his/her own right. And it ultimately works.

Thank you very much!    That is an interesting point you are making there...
In my universe they are both part of Violaine/Violet's gang and are one of the few given couples in my world

Valiarde wrote:Awww two of my favourite characters of yours getting a planket. Now we can leaves them alone again.

yes, we can.
Nice to see you around too

Today we get to know another of my glamour ladies: Thea takes you to the Winter Wonderland









Present #4 is a smaller one again - oh, another knitted piece. Thea does not want to risk ruining her hair and calls for Neo to try it on.



Perfect fit. Nice colour. Ready to take off to the Winder Wonderland.




(Colours are slightly off in my pics, I am afraid. The pompom's colour is a perfect match with the colour of the hat.)

Ah, how lovely to see this again this year! It's a fun activity for the holidays and how nice to both give and recieve little gifts like that.

And great choice for the first day's music.... I LOVE that movie!!! I didn't grow up watching it for Christmas (I'm from the US originally, now live in the UK), but I love old Czechoslovak films from that era, and have adopted that one as my Christmas movie. :')

My fave pics so far are the Neo and Wanda having a little romantic moment, nicely posed!  

skywalkersaga wrote:Ah, how lovely to see this again this year! It's a fun activity for the holidays and how nice to both give and recieve little gifts like that.

And great choice for the first day's music.... I LOVE that movie!!! I didn't grow up watching it for Christmas (I'm from the US originally, now live in the UK), but I love old Czechoslovak films from that era, and have adopted that one as my Christmas movie. :')

My fave pics so far are the Neo and Wanda having a little romantic moment, nicely posed!  

I totally agree! so imaginative and fun as always!

OMG Neo and Wanda make such a cute couple and you posed them so ridiculously well!
But he looks wonderfully ridiculous with that hat!

I understand that Thea wouldn't want to risk that gorgeous hairdo.

Very cute stuff. Neo in a winter hat is quite the change. Beautiful photos.

skywalkersaga wrote:Ah, how lovely to see this again this year! It's a fun activity for the holidays and how nice to both give and recieve little gifts like that.

And great choice for the first day's music.... I LOVE that movie!!! I didn't grow up watching it for Christmas (I'm from the US originally, now live in the UK), but I love old Czechoslovak films from that era, and have adopted that one as my Christmas movie. :')

My fave pics so far are the Neo and Wanda having a little romantic moment, nicely posed!  

aaah - so lovely to know you are familiar with this movie too! I had no idea which countries may have seen these Czechoslovak films and series... there are quite a few nice ones (I just loved "Die Märchenbraut" OT "Arabela").
yeah - I really like Neo and Wanda together whenever I take pics of them.
Thanks for joining!!

BAMComix wrote:

I totally agree! so imaginative and fun as always!

Thanks so much!

Diana wrote:OMG Neo and Wanda make such a cute couple and you posed them so ridiculously well!
But he looks wonderfully ridiculous with that hat!

I understand that Thea wouldn't want to risk that gorgeous hairdo.

Thank you! - I try to sprinkle a little bit of fun too, even when my sense of telling stories does not quite work this year and I focus on my models and on songs instead.

Stryker2012 wrote:Very cute stuff. Neo in a winter hat is quite the change. Beautiful photos.

Yes, he got caught unaware... he is quite a sight
Thank you!

In Germany Dec 6 is „Nikolaustag“, Santa Claus Day. He brings sweets, fruit, nuts or/and small presents on the night from Dec 5 to Dec 6. To remind everyone, Mr Grindelwald is announcing Santa‘s visit.







He's got company on the grand piano by Zahara:





Today's present feels soft like some textiles - again... it does not come out easily...



A lovely set of scarf and bonnet. Very skilled knitting and nice colours (not as bright as the pics make them appear).



Hats off by Santa!



Meanwhile someone else is interested in the cords of Santa's bag.




Unfortunately my picture hosting site presently does not allow for the upload of new pics. Quite a bummer. My alternative site makes them quite small which reduces the quality even more and they look even more blurry
I really hope the other site to be back eventually.
EDIT: I replaced the smaller ones with an upload on a different site, as suggested by BAMComix. Thanx!

Grindenwald looks... unamused
I haven't seen the movie, he is probably supposed to look grumpy, being the darkest wizard of his time and all that. But here the impression is that he looks so because he is forced to wear this Santa outfit.

P.s. and turns out it's Johnny Depp. Of course I did not recognize him...

Illusion wrote:In Germany Dec 6 is „Nikolaustag“, Santa Claus Day. He brings sweets, fruit, nuts or/and small presents on the night from Dec 5 to Dec 6. To remind everyone, Mr Grindelwald is announcing Santa‘s visit.

He's got company on the grand piano by Zahara:

Today's present feels soft like some textiles - again... it does not come out easily...

A lovely set of scarf and bonnet. Very skilled knitting and nice colours (not as bright as the pics make them appear).

Hats off by Santa!

Meanwhile someone else is interested in the cords of Santa's bag.

Unfortunately my picture hosting site presently does not allow for the upload of new pics. Quite a bummer. My alternative site makes them quite small which reduces the quality even more and they look even more blurry
I really hope the other site to be back eventually.

Have you tried postimage? I use it as a back up to my flickr for quick pics. Just use he hotlink for forums on the share option and your good to go. Hope it helps.
Wonderful pics again! I love that Christmas robe!

Awesome new stuff. Like the scarf and hat. The kitten looks interested as well.