ABOUT

When I was a child, one christmas, I got an advent calendar, that I loved so much because it was not your typical chocolate calendar, but had little gifts instead. They were cheap trinkets, but to me back then it was the most fabulous time to have a real surprise every day.

A few years ago I noticed that my kids didn't find the chocolate calendars all that exciting anymore and I gave them the option of me getting them small items in place of a chocolate calendar and one less bigger gift at christmas (to make up for the increased cost) and they have been choosing this every year since, even though I also put in some useful stuff like socks.

I've looked to find calendars that have a range of things for my kids and also for myself and adults around me, because starting your day with this small surprise is exciting to me as well. Unfortunately it seems to be the case of 24 different lego people or 24 small bottles of vodka, and I guess if lego or vodka are a true passion of yours this would be really cool, but I'd rather have the unknown and take the risk of some stuff not being totally my cup of tea (or in my case coffee - but I'd just pass that on to someone that loves coffee), just for that little bit of fun.

That's how I ended up creating these myself last year. I noticed that 12 days are a lot more flexible than 24, so this year I'm doing only 12 day and 6 day options, that can be mixed as desired or supplemented with candy or personalized / useful things.

In order to keep things a surprise, no inventory is listed, which can be scary given that the calendars are not exactly cheap. Here are some points to reassure you perhaps: I don't include anything that I wouldn't give to my own kids or use myself. For example, my kids love slime and sticky figures that 'walk' down walls and I can't stand them because they leave oily stains everywhere and the slime will inevitably end up in clothes and upholstered furniture, so these are not allowed in the house and I would not include them in the calendars. I do a lot of quality control and, where possible, test gifts before they are packaged to make sure that they are working at that point.