Finding your Advent Star

Tomorrow many of us from the Nordic countries will ceremonially hang our advent stars in a window and switch them on as darkness falls. Advent stars have been decorating our homes for around 100 years, and to most of us December wouldn't feel the same without one. The trick is to find one when you live abroad. Paper stars are readily available here in the UK, but not with integral lighting. My husband and I found our star in a lighting shop in Norway a number of years ago. It is made of twigs painted in gold and has tiny lights running through it. All we need to do to install it is sling it over the curtain rail, position it in the middle of the window, and plug it in. And of course, we need an adaptor.

Last year I decided to get a white paper star as well, and found a beautiful large pleated one. No light of course. I asked in lots of electrical shops if they would sell me a bulb on an electric lead, with no joy. But then I spotted a really corny ad on television (I thought IKEA must have decided to be ironic, it was so cheesy) and I realised that Swedish ironmonger/vendor of all sorts, Clas Ohlson, had launched here in the UK. Bingo. Ordered the bulb-holding electric lead with UK plug and received it in no time. Even spoke to a fellow Norwegian at their call centre to correct my order details. White pleated paper star with light ready to go. Please do note that you must use a low watt bulb inside a paper star. 20 or 30 watts at most, otherwise the paper could end up catching fire.

If you haven't found your advent star yet you can get one in store from IKEA , in store or on-line from Clas Ohlson, or from independent shop Scandiliving, for example. The online designer retailer Royal Design has a substantial selection by House Doctor, Georg Jensen, Watt & Veke and SMD Design, but bear in mind that they ship from Sweden so it takes around 7 working days to receive items.

Photo: Watt & Veke, available from Royal Design UK