Is this a “thing” in the U.S., too?

The 24 craft beers advent calendar, yours for 60 British pounds, or about $75.

A generation ago, the advent calendar was a pious little bit of two-layer cardboard, maybe 18 inches square, stuck to the fridge, a sort of countdown to Christmas.

The first layer usually was an imagined image of Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. A few houses, a barn front and center.

Scattered around the image were numbered “doors”, 1 through 24.

Over each of the first 24 days of December, kids (usually) pried open the corresponding door on the calendar and were rewarded with a tiny image pertinent to the Jesus’s birth. A sheep. A camel. An angel. A shepherd. A wise man.

And then, on the 24th, a two-sided door opened to display the baby Jesus in the manger.

And that was that.

Sometime over the past 20-30 years, bigger advent calendars came into vogue — because chocolate was hidden behind every door.

These appear to be big, in Europe. (And maybe the U.S., too.) A visit to a local supermarket today demonstrated a dozen kinds of choco-reward advent calendars, in just about any imaginable theme — aside from a religious one. Like The Little Mermaid. Frozen.

Many of these are produced by the chocolate companies Lindt and Kinder.

But some brewers are taking advent calendars to another level. A boozy one. With a different craft beer from December 1 through December 24.

The company at the website, linked above, promises “various beer styles including IPAs, strong ales, porters, bitters, blonde ales and more”! (Exclamation mark added.)

And on the off chance that the eager beer-advent-calendar consumer feels a hint of guilt that he or she is glugging 24 beers (and not sharing with the kids, let alone friends) … the producer has an answer for that.

“Don’t think you can drink a beer every day? Why not save up 2 or 3 beers for a little tasting session with friends! You could even save the last beer for Santa and leave it out for him on Christmas Eve … or not!”

The beer advent calendar is a lot bigger than the ones hiding a candy or a couple of M&Ms, and you need an adult or older kid to put it in the shopping cart.

It’s a case of beer, after all, and the calendar needs space for all those suds.

Ah. Just when you think the celebration of Christmas can’t stray any further from its religious roots, someone looking to turn a profit finds a new angle.

Those simple advent calendars from days of yore … don’t know if they still are for sale. I do know I couldn’t get one at the grocery store in the south of France.