Without stress fill several advent calendars
Packing advent calendars for three children was sometimes more stress than joy for me, until a few years ago I came up with the idea to fill them every day.
Advent calendar for three children means 72 nicely wrapped surprises ready by 30th November. Everything has to be bought in time, distributed equitably, it has to be decorative packed, it must not fall out of the parcels. One should not realize in advance what's inside. And such a package must not be too easy to open, so that no one spits or steals something from his brother or sister. With 72 packages, I really can not remember what's in there, or if something is missing. This quickly turns into stress.
The daily filled advent calendar saves a lot of work and stress!
Each child has made one (1) treasure chest or taken a ready-made package and I then stuck a piece of blackboard foil on it. The boxes are on the chest during the Advent season in the hall and are still framed by Advent jewelry. On the eve I fill the treasure chests with the daily advent surprises and write the date of the next day on the blackboard with chalk or white pencil. That's the sign for everyone, that now the surprise lies in it. If you want to be surprised, do not spit. And if someone wants to steal something, my memory for the contents of 3 packages is just enough.
Since then I do not have to finish all 72 parcels at the same time, but I can also buy something later. Often, the ideas for suitable surprises come to me only during the Advent season. It still has to be fair. That's why I keep three bags of names under my belt, in which I distribute evenly, or at least equivalently, everything I gradually come up with surprises. And every evening I take something out of his bag for each child and put it in the chest.
Actually, I thought the kids are getting too old for an advent calendar. But they do not want to give up this stress-free advent calendar, they just confirmed it to me.
