Advent began on Thursday (December 1) with the 24 days leading up to Christmas often being celebrated by lighting Advent Candles and opening the doors of traditional Advent calendars.

The traditional Advent calendars have either just a picture behind the little cardboard doors or if you are lucky, a chocolate.

These days the less traditional and more expensive ones apparently have a bit more.

For a whopping £22,000 you could be opening the doors (Stately?) of the most expensive Advent calendar, created by jewellers, CW Sellors.

The calendar is made in the image of stately home Chatsworth House and the daily door opening will reveal a range of high-end gifts from jewellery to a limited edition gin.

Other gifts in this costly calendar apparently include an 18ct heart-shaped rose gold pendant and white gold and diamond stud earrings.

The most special ‘jewel in the calendar’ is behind door number 24 - a Faberge pendant with a Derbyshire Blue John gemstone.

Crafty calendars are becoming increasingly popular according to various polls.

Homemade creations can obviously be made to suit your own budget and imagination, from simply numbering boiled sweets 1 – 24 and popping them in a jar, to using recycled envelopes pinned to a notice board with a positive message, affirmation or Random Act of Kindness in each one.

There are lots of creative ways to celebrate the approach to Christmas and I can’t help thinking that if Dad had thought about this when my brother and I were kids, we would have had 24 different jobs to do during Advent.

I have always loved the wild plant, Honesty, and it has a special place in the borders during the winter with its decorative translucent papery seed pods that stay on the skeleton of the plant during the harshest of weather.

The purple flowers, which appear in May and June, are popular with pollinators, and are beautifully fragrant and all parts of the plant are edible.

As it is a member of the cabbage and mustard family, Brassicaceae, it will come as no surprise that the young leaves taste like cabbage (and can be used as such) and the seeds have a mustard flavour, which is intensified by crushing them and adding a little cold water.

The flowers are also edible and a tasty and visual addition to salads and even the roots have a strong mustard flavour and can be cooked or grated and eaten raw.

Honesty is known by many common names including Moonwort and Money Plant.

The latter two names refer to the seed pods resembling the moon and silvery coins respectively, but it is thought that the seed pods are also responsible for the more common name ‘Honesty’, referring to the transparent, and therefore ‘honest’, nature of the pods.

It is also a favourite for witches and in folklore as a protective plant and for spells using the flat ripe fruit pods to attract prosperity and wealth.

Deserving a place in any garden, it is a hard working plant, easy to grow and has even received an award of garden merit from the Royal Horticultural Society, suggesting Honesty is the best 
policy.