THE NEW ADVENT CALENDAR
is ready to set up—not DIY anymore!
Say Hello to the all-new, 2024 Christmas village Advent calendar:
New, more polished design on sturdy, recycled paper—
ready for you to fill up with little gifts and set up right away!
+ it comes with a bunch of freebies and lots of ideas! (scroll down)
“I got the Mom of the Year award this Christmas because of this calendar! Thank you!” - Melissa B.
All you have to do is put your family members' favorite surprises and treats in the little paper house bags, close them up, and set up your village!
The 25 houses you will get are hand-drawn and gorgeous, and are also sturdy little bags. Each house is different, and they are numbered from 1 to 25, to be opened each day from December 1st to the 25th! Put your family members' favorite surprises and treats in the house bags, close the bags as shown in the included instructions, and set up your village! You will absolutely love it.
Hint: More family members involved means more houses and a bigger village! Fa la la la laaa, la la la la... You can set it up gradually too, if you only have space for a smaller village—or even hang it up like a garland. It’s so versatile to work for you!
STAY IN THE LOOP ABOUT THE MAGICAL VILLAGE ADVENT CALENDAR: SALES,
COMPANION ITEMS, AND MORE WAYS TO MAKE DECEMBER UNFORGETTABLE
* Your privacy is very important to us and we never, ever share your info.
Here are some additional items you can add to make your village more magical.
I am linking the Amazon items here but if you find these at local small businesses, please support them first!
Snowy blanket.
Alternate soft snow.
Trees for your village.
Lights for more magic.
Deer and animals.
LED lights for the magic.
“The process of creating your Christmas village with little surprises for your loved ones is so joyful! Last year, I set it all up while the kids were out on November 30th. When they came back home, it was already dark, and the little village lights were glimmering in the middle of the living room. It was truly magical. And the joy lasts throughout the month as they wake up excited to open their house of the day. Want to know what's even better? Come December 25, the winter village will be all gone and there will be no cleaning up to do! And the magic continues :)” - Louma.
GIFTS FOR YOU
1.
Download this super handy sheet that lets you plan the gifts to put in the houses and will then serve as a cheat sheet so you remember what you put in there!
If you're a planner and organizer like me, you will love this! It's so helpful to categorize the gifts you choose depending on the sizes of the houses in the calendar, and the day of the week (for example, for the kids, I like to leave the longer activities and sugary treats for the weekend or no-school days). And if you’re setting this up for multiple people, this sheet will help you plan better. Click on the image to download it and print it. And keep it hidden!
2.
Print out this memory sheet and fill it out with your child’s highlights and milestones of the year!
Better yet, come back and print the new sheet each year, collect them all and give them to your child as a booklet when they are older. That’s what I’m planning to do! We get so overwhelmed with keeping up with the kids’ milestones and logging stuff to remember later… Just fill out this one sheet at the end of each year (your camera roll will help you remember the events) and that will be all you need!
3.
Take a fun break with this mystery word search.
Don’t be fooled; this is much more than just a word search! Print these out and play along with your kids: find in the grid all the words that are listed below it. You will be left with a few unused letters: unscramble them to find your mystery word!
For more, check out the tots page.
WHAT TO PUT IN THE HOUSES
KIDS
Little treats from local small businesses: The gifts I add come from different places, including Amazon and Target, but for the edible things, I like to visit local bakeries and chocolateries. Truffles, small buns, hot chocolate bombs (these are amazing!), and hand-made artisanal chocolate bars (my mouth is watering just thinking about what's available in my own neighborhood). If you intentionally look for these things around you, you will find them, you may discover delicious treats that you will buy again, and supporting small and local businesses is, of course, a great thing to do, especially during the holidays. For freshness purposes, buy the local treats last, and put the most perishable ones in the first houses of the month.
Little activities: I have two daughters and for some of the houses, I put little games they can play together or with us, and activities they can do together like painting, sewing, or building something. Some stores have a wall of small games near their board games, I find little sewing kits at the craft aisles, Lego always comes up with new small sets to build small items, and their Lego Dots series is in the magical category between building and art. Love it!
Little gifts: Small stuffies are my girls' favorites. When they touch the bags and feel something soft they recognize new stuffies and get so excited! Fuzzy winter-themed socks or mittens have also been popular, and there never seems to be enough stickers and tattoos in their collection.
Little books: My girls are now reading chapter books, and some books are smaller than others and fit so nicely in those paper bags! These usually go in the taller houses at the back of the village so the book weight could rest on the back wall.
Sibling gift: If you have more than one child, have them choose a gift for each other. I do this for Christmas presents, and then started doing it for the Advent houses as well because it was so nice! I took each one of my girls separately to choose a gift that the other will like, and they even used their own piggy bank money. It was incredibly cute and a great lesson in generosity and thoughtfulness.
Written note from you: Nice words are a gift that can be more fulfilling than a present. They surely last longer, and they make kids feel good about themselves and understand that gifts come in different forms.
Something hand-made: Last year I put a home-made hot cocoa mix in one of their houses that I packaged nicely with little drawings and their names. My mom was visiting in December and she contributed hand-knitted hats in another house. It's wonderful to appreciate gifts that are hand-made especially for you.
Somewhere to go, in charades: Gifts can also be a nice place to go. I once planned a playdate in a park close by with some of the girls' friends, and what I put in the bag was a "charades" card where I drew the park and the friends with clues that made the girls guess what the plan was. I added Kinder surprise eggs in that bag, which the girls shared with their friends during the play date. They love the surprise eggs!
ADULTS & OLDER KIDS
Most of the above ideas that I listed from my girls’ Advent calendar can be adapted for any age, if you find the appropriate things that each person likes in these categories. Here’s more:
Favorite foods: Specifically in the category of foods that have a longer shelf life. Popular items are hot sauce, chutneys, little jam jars, teas and infusions, coffees from different places, small alcohol bottles for cocktails, different honeys, truffles, granola, etc.
Self-care items: Skin and beauty products, make-up, shaving items for men, hair things like little brushes, hair ties, hair clips, essential oils, candles and incense, sleeping mask, nail polish…
Small accessories: Ties and bowties, jewelry, socks, gloves and mittens, fine scarf…
Coupons: (Coming soon, coupons to print!) You can put a little treat inside the house and attach it to a coupon for an activity, like a certain amount of extra time on a video game for teens, or a coupon that says we’re all going to their favorite restaurant today (my kids LOVE these!), or a coupon for something that doesn’t fit in the bag—like a bigger book or piece of clothing—with a hint on where it’s located in the house.
Activities: I’ve signed my husband up for a cocktail making workshop and put the ticket in one of his houses. Also movie tickets, ice skating pass, art workshop, etc. Anything that requires a ticket you can leave inside the bag. Even better, make your own ticket for free activities like going on a hike or the recipient’s favorite thing to do, and spend time with them doing their own thing. The gift of time will be remembered most.
Hobbies: This is a no-brainer; getting your person things related to their hobby, especially if they want to do it but they haven’t had the time. In the hobbies category, I’ve seen Rubik’s cubes, yarns and needles/crochet, small chess sets, coloring pages, sourdough starter, candle-making kit, origami, and more.
Hand-made gifts: Little things that are made by hand for your person are the best, and they don’t have to be complicated at all. A woman who bought the Advent calendar from the market told me she is planning on curating poems and filling it with poems and treats or candles for her sister. I thought this was wonderful. I always have a hand-made card with beautiful words in one of the houses for my girls, and I’ve made them origami that they really loved.
Balance your bags with little treats, cards, and meaningful activities along with items that are higher priced to keep the element of surprise each day. What will you put in your Advent calendar houses?
Now it's your turn to get social and inspire others (ok, and to show off your beautiful village calendar)!
Don’t forget to post a photo of your village on Instagram or Facebook and tag @pokidots so I could see it and share it to inspire others with their Pokidots Christmas village Advent calendars.