by Eric Schenck
If you celebrate Christmas (and even if you don’t), you should make somebody an Advent calendar at least once in your life.
Truly, an Advent calendar is the most under-celebrated joy of Christmas. If presents under the tree on Christmas morning are the rich and highly accomplished lawyer of the family, an Advent calendar is his far less successful (but way cooler) little brother.
You can buy one, sure: but the ones you make on your own will always be the best.
With that in mind, here’s your guide to creating an Advent calendar that’s guaranteed to delight.
10 Rules For Making An Advent Calendar
1) Make sure your person has fun with it
We start with the Golden Rule. It does you no good to create something so beautiful, so thoughtful, if the person receiving it isn’t going to enjoy it. So make sure you do your homework. Excitement looks different for everybody, so the best Advent calendars will be unique.
What you create, for example, is highly dependent on the age of the recipient. If you’re making one for your grandma, a little more sophistication might be called for. You four-year-old nephew? You can likely get away with a simple one.
That’s certainly how it was with my first Advent calendar. This was the version many of us are familiar with: the rings. Every night before bed I’d grab scissors and lop off another one. As a kindergartener, that in itself was an accomplishment. Here I was, unable to think about anything but Christmas, and I was able to accept just one day at a time.
My imagination ran wild with these rings. Each one I cut was one more day of North Pole preparations. What was Santa doing? What were his elves up to? Was my gift already prepared and packed up?
2) Avoid being sentimental at all costs
An Advent calendar is more about the experience, and less about the message. Making one as an adult puts you back in middle school. You have to play it cool. Your friends, your family, that secret crush at work –under no circumstances can they know just how much you like them. Make it, give it to them, and let the dice fall where they may.
And if you’re giving one to a kid? Now is not the time to tell them how much you love them. Your kids already know that. What they’re after is the sugar. Which brings me to my next point…
3) Go heavy on whichever snacks they prefer
Hot take here: an Advent calendar isn’t really an Advent calendar if it doesn’t include something to eat. It’s cool that you love me. It’s even better that you love me enough to make me something so heartfelt.
But if it doesn’t have something to snack on? Don’t bother.
I love chocolate and just about anything sweet. Maybe I’m just a fat man in a (somewhat) skinny body. But the coolest Advent calendars I see usually add a few calories to each one of your days. Nothing better than looking like Santa Clause himself!
4) Give them something that they’ll actually love
If you’re going big, of course, it helps for the Advent calendar to include something else. This should be something useful, or at the very least somehow related to something they like.
Here is a highly scientific way of judging the value of an Advent calendar:
Just ask my German ex-girlfriend about the one she made me. The relationship was still new, and so were my German skills. For the first 24 days of December, I got a piece of chocolate along with a new German phrase written on a piece of paper.
By Christmas I was a few pounds heavier, and probably a few IQ points smarter. Janina knew I loved chocolate, and she also saw me trying to learn her language. That Advent calendar gave me both.
I don’t know if this was love, but it must be close to it.
5) Be kind
Christmas is great, but it comes at the end of the year. That makes it a time that’s especially prone to comparisons and slightly depressing realizations. That most of those resolutions failed. That your year didn’t quite go the way you were planning.
The last month of the year can be a sober reminder that the first 11 weren’t so great.
But with a sweet ass Advent calendar? That starts to matter much less. All you really care about is that somebody thinks you’re cool enough to give you something 24 days in a row. If you’re making an Advent calendar for someone, take it as a chance to encourage them.
6) Build anticipation if you can
Crafting an Advent calendar in a way that allows anticipation to build may just be one of life’s greatest skills. It’s not easy. But if you’re going to focus on one thing in the creation process, this might be it.
Just think about how the holiday season was as a kid:
- Long nights spent thinking about Santa
- Trying to skip out on homework so you can build your wish list
- Insanity due to the excitement on Christmas Eve
And now compare it with how you feel as an adult:
- Long nights spent thinking how you’re going to afford all these gifts
- Trying to skip out on any lame office party you’re expected to go to
- Also insanity, but probably because of conversations with your crazy aunt
Somewhere between childhood and becoming an adult, the magic dies. You know Santa isn’t real. You know how much this stuff actually costs. You know all these businesses that claim to be spreading the cheer are just after your money.
Between you as a kid and you now, a gap inevitably appears. It’s a gap that stings a little – but it’s also a gap that a well-done Advent calendar can bridge.
In a very real way, an Advent calendar brings the magic back. What is each day going to bring? With a calendar hanging on your wall, this is a question you are confronted with every morning.
We get older and time starts to speed up. But an Advent calendar? It doesn’t give a shit about your adult problems – it’s going to slow things down with a little bit of goodness every day.
7) If you’re lucky enough to get one, be damn sure you always have it on you
Making an Advent calendar places most of the responsibility on the giver. You need to make a cool one. You need to get it done on time. You need to deliver it by December 1st, and you always risk that they don’t actually like it. It’s worth the stress, of course. Still – stressful it is.
But once it’s out of your hands? That’s when the pressure is on whoever you gave it to. And if you are that person? Congratulations – you have 24 days of happiness ahead of you.
Just make sure you don’t miss one. Legend has it that if you skip or forget a day, Krampus pays you a visit in the middle of the night.
Don’t know Krampus? You can either live in blissful ignorance…or you can click this link.
8) Do whatever you must to encourage moments of pretentiousness
Remember the “Be kind” rule? Well, one of the best ways to do that is to make it easy for the receiver of the calendar to be insufferable. Maybe an analogy helps you understand what I mean.
Having a really nice, high quality Advent calendar is like wearing an expensive coat your friends can’t afford. You feel smug. Perhaps a bit superior. People walk into your apartment and you see them raise their eyebrows in surprise. The urge to pat them on the shoulder is almost irresistible.
At this moment, there’s only one thing you want to tell them (most likely in a whisper):
Better luck next year.
In this case, “pretentious” basically just means “really good.” There are a couple of ways to ensure this quality: colorful strings to hang the Advent calendar with, fancy perfume samples each day, the most expensive chocolate you can find.
Life can suck. Let somebody feel like a classy Mr. Peanut for a couple of weeks, and they’ll be eternally grateful.
9) Leave a present at the end
Nobody wants to be that jerk that just made somebody wait for 24 days…for nothing. Yes, it’s amazing that they got an Advent calendar in the first place. But if you include a present at the end, all those little bags are actually building towards something. This is essential for kids. For adults, it’s just as important – but in a different way.
When you’re young and people ask you what you want for Christmas, your answer is immediate. You’ve already circled 50 things in some magazine, and you earnestly tell your parents about the 10,000 dollars worth of loot you’re expecting.
But if you’re any older than 20? If somebody at that age actually has an answer, you probably think exactly what I do:
What an asshole.
Let’s be honest: society doesn’t look kindly on adults that desire stuff. At a certain point, world peace and the health of your family take the place of that oh-so-underrated pleasure of wanting something.
But if you give the right gift to them after you’ve already delivered 24 days in a row? Not only are you their new favorite person, but you’ve given them permission to be a kid again.
And what’s better than that?
10) Don’t forget the booze
Making an Advent calendar can take awhile. And if you leave it until the last minute, it can also be stressful.
Depending on what exactly you’re preparing, you might have a long night ahead of you. Best to have something to take the edge off. I prefer Guinness, but in the spirit of Christmas, might as well make it a brandy with eggnog.
Conclusion
I’ll finish with what I think an Advent calendar is really all about:
Making somebody you like feel special.
It’s really as simple as that. With an Advent calendar you wake up every morning and there is a mini present waiting to be unwrapped. Is there a better way to start your day?
Creating one allows you to grab a moment. It’s a way of slowing down December and making people (in the best way possible) wait for Christmas. A way of taking that feeling all around you, that feeling of comfort and warmth, and making it stay awhile.
Make one for someone you love, and watch what happens when you give it to them. It’s the closest you’ll ever feel to a superhero.
Is an Advent calendar going to fix all of their problems? Not likely. But 24 straight days of smiles?
Well…
That’s a pretty good place to start.
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