Other early styles were the Adventclock or the Adventcandle - a candle for each of the 24 days until Christmas, similar to todays Advent wreath. In religious families little pictures were hang up on the wall - one for each day in December. Another tradition was to paint chalk strokes on the door, one per day until Christmas Eve.

The first printed specimen was made by a Swabian parishioner, Gerhard Lang (1881-1974) from Maulbronn in Germany.

When he was a child his mother made him an Advent Calendar with 24 "Wibbele" (little candies) which were stuck on a cardboard.

Later, Lang was a Principal in the printing office of Reichhold & Lang. He produced little colored pictures which could be affixed on a cardboard at every day in December. This was the first printed Advent Calendar, although without windows to open, published in 1908. This Calendar was named "Christmas-Calendar" or "Munich Christmas-Calendar". At the beginning of the 20th Century Lang produced the first Advent Calendars with little doors to open.

At this time as well the Sankt Johannis Printing Company started producing religious Advent Calendars, with Bible Verses instead of pictures behind the doors.

The Advent Calendar started a triumphal way around the globe. But Lang had to close his company in the thirties. Until that time he had produced about 30 different designs.

World War II terminated the success of this German tradition. The cardboard was rationed and companies were forbidden to produce Calendars with pictures. The first printed specimen after the war were printed by Richard Sellmer in 1946.

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