Tag Archives: Advent calendars

Advent adventures

CT.033480; Japan Series Tokyo Department Store 1960s-80s by Brian Brake. Gift of Raymond Wai-man Lau. Te Papa.

I’ve enjoyed searching through Te Papa’s collections to find items related to Christmas for this year’s advent calendar.

Advent calendars developed from a 19th century German Lutheran tradition of counting down the 24 days before Christmas. An advent calendar has 24 doors that you open each day from 1 December to Christmas Eve to reveal images or small gifts.

With our Collections Online calendar, we add a new collection item every day up to 24 December. Make sure you check each day to see what’s new.

Christmas cake decoration, about 1950. Gift of Annette Baier. GH4855-27. Te Papa

My favourites this year are the Christmas cake decorations, like the one above, that were donated to the museum in 1996.

I was also pleased and surprised to find some Brian Brake photographs with a Christmas theme. The one at the top of this blog is another one of my favourites. There are more Brian Brake photos on the Brake minisite.

Christmas in Te Papa’s Collection

An angel, mistletoe and pohutukawa are the beginnings of Kirstie’s Christmas in the Collections ‘Advent’ calendar.

New Zealand scenery, 1960s - 1980s, Brian Brake

New Zealand scenery, 1960s - 1980s, Brian Brake

Each day, Kirstie chooses and adds an object to the page. This is the second year our curators have found Christmas-sy stuff in Collections Online.

I love it as it is a very diffent way to look at our collection. I hope you love it too.
Christmas in the Collections, 2009

Lucy in IT

PS If you love Brian Brake, put a note in your calendar for October 2010. Te Papa is putting on a major retrospective exhibition that will explore his life and work.
Brian Brake exhibition    
Brian Brake in Te Papa’s collection

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