These are my pics this year for Advent Calendars that can still be sourced this close to 1st December 🙂

It is such fun to look around the Advent calendars on offer each year! Some truly clever ideas out there. You can have ones you eat every day, drink everyday, make, do or just look at it. Whether you are into candles, perfumes, Harry Potter, Minecraft or Unicorns -it’s all there.

I’m always a fan of the make your own, as I love the “crafty” touch to any Christmas tradition, and the bits as a family or parent that you can add to this that make it truly memorable, so my list below is more focused on those.

 

1.

This little starter for a DIY calendar is available on Domanye for $13 – how much fun could you have with it?!

 

2.

This Nutcracker themed Advent Calendar From Meri Meri – found at Robins Nest 

3.

A good old Chocolate one – just with my fav chocolate! I’m sure can be found at most places, but I found it looking through Myer

 

4.

Another sweet little Nutcracker themed Advent Calendar from Target this year

 

5.

David Jones has this sweet little reindeer (and some awfully beautiful Advent Calendars for Mummy’s at DJ’s too!! $$$ 😉

 

6.

Pretty cute Advent truck from Myer

7.

I love this idea for an older Adult, or someone with out kids … imagine what tea you might taste!!

 

8.

How about this as a lovely family idea – especially this year “Today I am grateful for” and doing it in the 24 days to Christmas … easy to copy this template and enjoy filling it out each day

 

9.

This visual Santa from Big W – esp for those young kids!

 

10.

For forward planning to 2021 – these ones from Hide and Seek Textiles in the UK are a pretty special heirloom style calendar, that is hard to beat!!

 

10.

This super cute book “How Winston Delivered Christmas” that has a craft activity to do with every chapter too

(we read this book last year, and did ‘some’ of the craft activities and my girls are already looking forward to reading it again this year!)

A sit down with Pippa t0 find out what it’s like to work with Santa!

I’m going to share more on this in the next few days …

I’ve been side tracked with getting on with the huge volume of orders that I need to get out and posted.

*This year each order takes me sooo much longer than every before, and I don’t mind because I love reading every letter and making up each letter parcel as perfectly as possible, but I don’t want to let anyone down, so I need to keep my head down and focused on the task so I don’t run out of time.

 

This year I have written a new letter called “believe” helping children to believe in Santa. I’ve been wanting to add this special letter to my collection for the past two years, so I am so proud and excited to say it’s finally here. I’ve been inspired by some beautiful stories and things I have read about this moment in children’s life. It’s a hard message to get right and I think that is why it has taken me so long to crack. But I finally have. And it’s beautiful (if I do say so myself).

Why a believe letter? In my journey or writing letters for Santa over the last six years I’ve learnt that there are plenty of older children who believe in Santa, or at least who desperately want to believe in Santa, and my letters have allowed them to feel connected to that belief and wonderment, even if just for a moment. But we all know that the older you get, the less the whole story makes sense in your brain, and that is just a natural (very sad) progression.

As I was driving home from a winter weekend away my seven year daughter and I had “the” full on chat about Santa. She asked me all the questions. I thought I was ready to handle them, I thought I was well qualified. But I wasn’t. The most interesting thing is deduced from the conversation was that I could hear in her voice she wanted me to tell her it was all true, she wanted to believe. So Bonnie, my darling, you were my finally motivator, this letter is for you this year and I hope it keeps the magic alive whilst acknowledging your concerns.

The “believe” letter is only going to be offered for children aged 7 years and older.

It explains what the magical feeling is at Christmas time, and powerful it is to believe in that feeling together.

It starts like this …

” … This year has been a bit befuddling, hasn’t it? That’s the feeling you get on the inside when things just don’t make sense, no matter how hard to you try to make them. 

There are a couple of things that have helped me during this most befuddling of years. It’s been thinking about all those people, elves and reindeer that I love. And it’s been imagining the joy and surprise on the faces of kids like you and Freddie all around the world when they wake up on Christmas morning. 

Do you know I was having a little chat to your Mum & Dad the other day and they said you were starting to feel a little befuddled about me and this whole Christmas Eve adventure? … “

As you know I don’t normally share my letters each year, it’s part of the magic for everyone. But this one is different. You can read the rest of the letter below, if you fancy.

When should you send this letter?

When you’ve really run the full length of the Santa magic in your house … it’s the last straw. I don’t think this letter will actually pop any bubbles, but it will nod to the child’s intelligence, and pending who the child is it may, or may not get them on the other side of the fence. My advice would be to leave it as long as you can …

You can order it here with all my other letters.

copyright LOVEFROMSANTA