Are advent wreaths a thing outside of Germany?

US here, I was raised Catholic in West Virginia. The church I went to growing up always had an advent wreath, and when I was younger, our family would light one at home. I believe the church still does it but my family hasn’t done it since I was younger.

In my part of the US they seem to be rare in houses but common in churches, at least Methodist churches.

Four candles for the Sundays before Christmas. Most have purple candles for three Sundays but one pink one typically lit on the third Sunday. Most also have a more prominent, central, white. christ candle that is lit for Christmas eve services and Christmas day. Some churches then remove the wreath but continue lighting that candle until later in the church year.

Typically a family will be asked to light the candles for each service and recite a reading.

The candles/days are usually themed: Hope, peace, joy, then love. Sometimes they are associated with characters from the story. E.g. pink being Mary's candle.

Grew up in the Catholic Church in New Jersey, USA and we had these every year.

I'm from the northeast United States, my ex-wife would do the advent wreath. My family would do an advent calendar; we particularly loved the Lego ones.

Weird. These are really popular with Catholic people in Canada. They are found in Catholic Churches, schools and usually the center of dinner tables during Advent. It's always an evergreen wreath with 3 purple candles, 1 pink candle and 1 center candle which is unusually white. The wreaths at church get lit at Sunday Mass, one candle for each week of Advent then the center one on Christmas. Generally wreaths at dinner tables are the same but you will light them at Sunday dinner (I can't remember if they get lit throughout the week as well and you just light the same number of candles as the same week of Advent)

I know people who aren't religious or no longer are, sometimes still use a wreath without candles as a centerpiece for their dinner table in the winter. It just provides a nice Christmas feel, similar to a door wreath

Advent wreaths have been a thing in Ireland for as long as I can remember.

I'm from Spain and I don't have a clue of what are you talking about.

In the US, I've seen advent wreaths at churches but not in anyone's home. But I'm sure some people have it in the US. Usually wreaths are hung on the front door as holiday decorations.

We do have the christmas calendars and jokes about eating them all at once.

Belgian here. I have one at the door every year. I make it with my children around the first of December. The table top wreath is still a thing in my mothers' place. She's 70.

We have an advent calendar which is a box with small doors. Every day the kids open one door and get the treat or trinket behind the door. They are 16 and 18 but insist on tge tradition to be kept.

Here in Mexico, a predominantly Catholic country, Advent wreaths (with five candles) are definitely a thing, though I can't say how much the tradition is still followed nowadays (I'm not a religious person). I've seen them in the central and southern regions, but I'm not sure about other parts of the the country. I've seen Advent calendars too, in churches and some houses.

In Britain you see them in churches but nobody has one at home.

From lithuania :3 I learned about it in school as a tradition, but never knew anyone that actually did it

We have something similar in Norway. "Adventstake".

In the northeast US, we have both advent wreaths and advent calendars. The "wreath" we had growing up was metal but made to look like a wreath. (Probably because a wreath is a fire hazard)

I don't see a lot of wreath's anymore but advent calendars are still popular.

I was a little confused by your calling it an "advent wreath". It is quite common to light advent candles here in Sweden, counting down the number of weeks until the yule evening. Yule calendars are also fairly frequent, often with little gifts (chocolates, tea or whatever) for each day.

Then there are actual yule wreaths, which we often decorate our doors with, like this one:

In the UK we have wreaths of holly that go on the front door, but not as a countdown that ive ever been aware of.

We do have these advent calendars where you open a door every day and there's usually a little chocolate behind it.

US, been all over but currently west coast. My parents grew up slightly Christian/Catholic (By elementary school they became Pagan though). I had never heard of these really

They are a thing here in Denmark too but on the other hand, Denmark is just a mini Germany

It was a thing in Hungary, but I don't think many still do it nowadays.

it is a thing here in czech "totally not catholic" republic

Yes :)

wreath

In my culture we use them only at funerals.

I’ve not seen them outside of Germany same with the Christkind