"Maybe 10 years ago, I bought permanent Advent calendars for the kids: Scandi-looking Christmas houses with 24 tiny drawers, from Sainsbury's. I think my original plan was that some of the draws could contain something other than chocolate, not because I'm the kind of almond mum who won't let anyone eat sweets before breakfast, but because their dad and I are separated and have them half the time each,"
"One year, I found tons of different batteries for the drawers, and I thought it was the most genius thing I'd ever done, but they said: How is this a fun gift? If we needed a battery, we'd just go to the kitchen drawer, which is supposed to have batteries in it. I realised in about 2019 that I'd just have to start planning earlier, around July, if I wanted to strike the perfect balance of parity, festivity and usefulness,"
Permanent Advent calendars with 24 tiny drawers were bought to allow small, non-chocolate surprises. Shared custody and alternating mornings made chocolate-only fills unfair and excessive. Tiny drawers complicate parity because some years one child finds better items than the other. Attempts included erasers, lip balm, Lego Yodas, magnets and a battery-filled year that the children rejected as unfun. A successful strategy emerged by planning from July, balancing festivity, usefulness and fairness with items like tiny swear-business cards, whistles and unisex lip balm. A lapse in planning this year created panic and the need for spectacular replacements.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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