My dad has an advert calendar from some charity or other, which instead of having chocolate treats or pictures connected with Yuletide behind each window, has photographs of people in the Third World who have terrible eye infections.
Now I know what point they are trying to make, but I have to question if this is the most appropriate format. I can't imagine small children running downstairs, desperate to open their advent calendar, calling out "I wonder what awful infection it will be today! Conjunctivitis, hopefully. Although they usually save that for the 24th."
Yes Christmas is a time to remember those less fortunate than yourself. I'm just not sure about, choosing to do that using the surprise reveal method.
I think they should take it one step at a time and maybe have traditional Christmas images behind each door, but ones that have severe ocular problems. A robin with a displaced retina, a snowman with glaucoma, a Santa with a worm that has burrowed into his eye and left him effectively blinded. Then on Christmas Eve the baby Jesus in the manger, with all the other characters around him, now cured by his miraculous powers. That's what Christmas is all about.
