The Advent Calendars for this year are done and the kids opened Day #1 this evening after they came home from school!
You can see the various Advent Calendar boxes in the photo to the left, and the various coupons in the photo to the right that went into selected slots on our homemade Advent Calendar boxes.
Both of Bobby’s Advent Calendars have the familiar framework, of one box per day, numbered so show which window to open. For example, #1 on day #1. For whatever reason, Katie’s didn’t come like this, in fact there were no numbers on them at all. As a result, I took the contents out and put them into our individual personalized boxes. I kept both of these boxes though, in case Katie wanted to put them back into these boxes one by one. I discussed the various boxes in this post, so let’s talk about the coupons.
As you can tell in the photo to the right, there are seven coupons. Here’s an explanation of each of them.
- Katie has expressed a desire to go to “Triple O’s Burgers”, which is the fast food establishment inside the “On The Run” gas station. The sign and lighting do look welcoming, so I created a coupon for this. I ripped this coupon in half and put one half in Bobby’s Day #24 slot and the other half in Katie’s Day #24 slot. They can decide if they want to eat there alone, have a take out, or have their mother and myself join them. Once they open the slot, it’s their coupon and they can do with it as they choose.
- The other day I saw that Benino’s has the Comox Valley-opoly game, the one that I tried to purchase but is out of production. I created a coupon for Katie and Bobby to go there and play this game and enjoy a gelato as they do. As with the “Triple O’s Burgers” coupon, they can decide to who goes. This coupon was ripped in half, and went into the kid’s Day #12 slot.
- Next up was the White Spot restaurant coupon. Same format as the previous two in that it was split down the middle. Each half went into Day #18 slots. This was an opportunity for the kids to recreate their Victoria dinner experience. Of course the don’t have to have the burger or spaghetti like they did in Victoria, but they seemed to both like them on our trip to Victoria in August.
- In terms of individual coupons, there is a Starbucks in Nanaimo that is attached to a Chapters bookstore. I thought Katie might light to drive down there one day, grab a drink, and see if any journals tickled her fancy. It’s a one hour drive, but we sometimes go on three hour drives, so not a big deal. An individual coupon for Bobby consists of purchasing fishing lures and going back to Maple Lake, this time “armed to the teeth” with fishing weapons to “pull in the big one. The orange bate we had last time didn’t seem to work, but fish beware on our next outing. These two coupons went into Day #5.
- The last pair of coupons on the list are Doordash coupons, which went into Day #1. Katie has expressed an interest in having Doordash, so this gives her the opportunity. I thought Bobby might like one as well for local pizza perhaps? Doordash can have rather sketchy reviews, but the kids have never tried it before, and it’s good to try out new experiences now and then.
- Not shown in the photo is the four Mcdonald’s coupon books that I purchased. They coupon books entitle you to free cheeseburgers, fries, turnovers, and ice cream. I took them apart and put one coupon for one item into the various slots through the month.
Oh, and the calendars are not done… Since there are 24 days till Christmas, we can put other items into upcoming days if we choose. For example, this evening I found some international candy bars I thought the kids might like, so I will put them into various upcoming slots as well.
The whole concept of the Advent Calendars is a way to prolong the magic of Christmas. It’s an evolving thing, and the hope is that the kids might want to take this concept and try it out on their own kids one day. Since the concept is evolving, I’m thinking that next year I will have Katie help choose & stuff Bobby’s Advent Calendar and Bobby Katie’s. I mentioned this to them this evening, so hopefully they will keep their ears attuned to potential Advent Calendar gifts for 2026!