For most people, an Advent calendar is a way to have daily chocolate snacks, but for Santa Clara, Utah, it’s a chance to bring the whole city together to remember its Swiss heritage and celebrate the unique time leading up to Christ’s nativity.
The city, which has an historic connection to Switzerland reaching back to the mid-1800s, has taken up the Swiss tradition of Adventsfenster, or “Advent Window.”
“In Switzerland, Adventsfenster is something they do every year,” said Denise Webster, a Santa Clara resident and co-owner of Frei’s Fruit Market, according to Fox13Now. “It’s essentially a live Advent calendar. So you go to a home, they open their window... And instead of picking a chocolate out of the box, they have a hot chocolate or a treat or something for you.”
At 7 p.m. each night of Advent, a new display is unveiled at a different location in the city.
Santa Clara’s annual observance of Adventsfenster began four years ago when Sherri Anderson, a member of the local Historical Society, first heard about the tradition and thought that it would be a good way to celebrate Advent and keep in touch with the city’s historic connection to Switzerland.
Santa Clara was founded in 1854, and a group of Swiss settlers and converts to Mormonism arrived in 1861, according to the Santa Clara Samuel R. Knight History Museum. Some families still trace their roots to these settlers, but people from all backgrounds and faiths enjoy taking part in Adventsfenster.
The first house decorated for this year’s festivities is owned by cousins Denise Webster and Sue Yocum, whose late great-great-grandmother Barbara Staheli was the first baby born to Swiss settlers in Santa Clara.
This year, Webster and Yocum have gone above and beyond. Instead of decorating a single window, the whole porch is decked out in a Swiss Miss hot chocolate theme.
Webster said that the tradition has grown each year.
"It's been really interesting because every year, other people have said, ‘Oh, I want to do it, I want to do it!’” Webster told Fox13Now.
“We're just trying to just create good Swiss traditions and try to keep our Swiss heritage alive.”