It’s the middle of November, now, which means it’s time for me to start thinking about advent calendars for the boys. We’ve got a lovely “book” advent calendar that comes out every year – it tells the story of the Nutcracker in 24 little board books that you can hang on the Christmas tree. Gorgeous little thing.
But the boys like to get a bit of chocolate, too, so I’ve got one of those re-usable calendars with pockets to put a little treat in. Except I’ve made work for myself this year…
This year, I made the mistake of asking the boys what they’d like me to put in the re-usable calendar. Really, I was looking for a, “Quality Street, please, Mum!” (or something along those lines). What I actually got was an excited: “Oh! Can you hide the chocolates round the house and give us clues?” Their plan is that I write a clue each day to help them find the hidden chocolate and put that in the calendar instead – they’ve got it all figured out. “The clues could be riddles!” Ed chirped.
Sigh. Yes, boys – thanks. I’m going to be tearing my hair out by day 15!
But you don’t have to put quite that much effort in if you want to make your own advent calendar for friends and family. There’s a free service I’ve found online called My Advent. Just click on this link and then click the button that says “Create free calendar” to get started.
The way it works is that you upload a photo, video, voice recording, written message (or any combination thereof) for each day of your calendar. Then you can share it with your friends and family for them to “open” online.
You don’t have to make it all at once, either – you can come back and edit your calendar as many times as you like, so as long as you’ve got the first day’s “door” ready for the 1st December, you can add to it as you go. And it’s completely free for personal use.
I think it sounds like a lovely way to share the build-up to Christmas with people who live a long way away – although I think I’ve got enough on my plate this year!