I like it and am surprised that I never knew about it. So I checked out Wikipedia:
An Advent candle is a candle marked with the days of December up to Christmas Eve. It is typically used in a household rather than a church setting: each day in December the candle is burnt down a little more, to the mark for the day, to show the passing of the days leading up to Christmas.[1] As with reusable Advent calendars, some Advent candles start marking the days from 1 December, rather than the exact beginning of Advent. Some households will make a Christmas decoration out of sprigs of evergreen and Christmas ornaments, with the candle at its centre; others will simply put it in a candlestick. It is usually burned at the family evening meal each day.
The custom of having an Advent candle seems to have started in Germany, …
Now I grew up in Germany and never stumbled upon it there and there is no Wikipedia entry for Adventskerze, actually it forwards to Adventskranz aka Advent Wreath
Still I actually love it. When you have smaller children and every day at supper you burn the candle a bit more and get closer to Christmas. Very lovely!
Thanks for sharing, Mark.