Guns replace crib in new advent calendar
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Your support makes all the difference.AN ADVENT calendar depicting cartoon characters squaring up to each other and brandishing guns and grenades has been criticised by parents and church leaders.
The calendar, which features characters from Small Soldiers, an animated film by Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks company, glorifies combat and turns the Christmas message of peace and reconciliation on its head, according to the Church of Scotland.
But Clive Beecham, managing director of Kinnerton, which makes the calendars, said the product was justified.
"The church has a right to its point of view, but Christmas has become so commercial that there is no connection between a chocolate advent calendar and Christmas anyway.
"What if we did a ... Bible with scenes from David and Goliath? The Bible itself is quite a violent book and the scenes would be no worse than these. You could say that the gun of today is the sword of biblical times."
He said Kinnerton, which is the largest advent calendar manufacturer in the country, also made a large range of traditional advent calendars but they were not as popular.
Calendars based on cartoon and film characters outsold the traditional nativity scenes by a huge margin and now accounted for 95 per cent of all turnover.
Cornelia Oddie, of Family and Youth Concern, urged parents not to buy the calendars. "Advent is a religious period in the run-up to Christmas and the advent calendars have always been a fun thing for children which teach them the Christmas message. This calendar has nothing to do with Christmas," she said.
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