Last holiday season may be a distant memory even if it was spent at a distance, but for our family, this was not foreign. Over the years we have hosted several exchange students and each brought their own culture and traditions to our home for a year. Although our kids of the heart don’t spend the holidays with us regularly, we adopted a few traditions that have kept us close despite the distance and enjoyed sharing with our family in town as well. Universally, counting down the days during this season helps momentarily break up the monotony of our daily routine and builds anticipation!
Gifting Advent Calendars for Family Members
1. Our favorite quick and low maintenance Advent calendar to gift option is the $1 Trader Joe’s chocolate Advent Calendar. Affordable, light weight, easy to ship, and filled with chocolate for each day of the season, these are great calendars that children–and adults can enjoy.
2. If you are the creative Pinterest person who has an abundance of time between Halloween and Thanksgiving, then a stocking or package countdown might be for you. We like to fill these tiny stockings linked together like garland with miniature surprises for the entire family! Trial size anything, whistles, stickers, candy, notes, jewelry—anything that fits into a 4×4 inch pouch. This is a little harder and more expensive to ship (Pro Tip–just go with the Priority Mail Box), but it is just as fun to collect for and stuff and we love the feedback we get when they are received!
3. Our all time favorite calendar didn’t hold gifts or candy, it held tiny slips of paper that offered our family an experience. Each day an activity (or gentle behavioral reminder from a certain resident of the North Pole) was listed—bubble baths in mom’s soaker tub, hot chocolate with unlimited marshmallows, driving around to see Christmas lights in our pajamas, decorating cookies, building gingerbread houses, an overseas Zoom call, 25 different experiences as easy as reading an extra bedtime story, or as complex as building a fort in the living room—each one offered something unique that cherished our children’s wonderment of the season.
4. The Twelve Days. Remembering to move the bloody Elf happens just as often as forgetting to open each day of an Advent Calendar. Occasionally, we will go with the 12 Days following Christmas to help alleviate the mom-guilt and keep the holiday break manageable–it is the same concept of the Advent calendar, just half the time. Oh! In case you felt as if you needed my permission, Advent calendars are for adults too! This year, I’m gifting my out-of-town sisters (shhh!) a self care box to be opened on Christmas that is filled with 12 items individually wrapped and numbered 1-12. My hope is that we set aside a designated moment to connect while unwrapping the item each day. Books, candles, and wine make great bundle options too!
5. Favorite Things! Shopping for a “loved one’s loved one” (AKA—significant others who are not yet permanently and/or legally members of our family yet) affords me a quick challenge to stuff a stocking with my favorite things—usually trial size makeup and hair products, gift cards, and small perfumes get me through but sometimes I’ll throw in coffee, coco or bath bombs. I love these because I get to know the individual, and he/she gets to know me in return.
