Yay! Advent Calendars Are My Favorite Bribery During The Holiday Season!

A lot of you parents will probably be awakened by your children all excited because today is the first day of December, which mean only 25 more days of wish list revisions until Christmas. As soon as my kids were old enough to enjoy them, I have always purchased advent calendars to help them count down the days until Christmas, as a nice tradition to get them in the holiday spirit, and because it’s nice to be able to have new bribery to make them be on their best behavior.

My children are perfect, gorgeous little angels, possessed with impeccable manners and they never utter a harsh word, or forget to make their beds, or leave plates of toast with butter smeared on it that the cat will happily eat and then puke up later on my perfectly mopped floors. OK, yeah, yeah, my kids are pretty good overall but they are kids, prone to calling each other “jerk face” over a misplaced video game controller or forgetting to put their socks in their hamper or making the face ‘o disgust when confronted with eating cauliflower. But when they get their advent calendars, I notice they all try and be on their very best behavior , because “zomg, this Christmas thing is fast approaching and if we act like little creeps we won’t be able to open the door with the correct date on it to see what new surprise we get!”

Back 900 years ago when I was little, the only sorts of advent calendars available were either filled with cheap, waxy “chocolate” in holiday shapes behind each door, or my favorite, the type of calendars that had these little pictures (usually sprinkled with glitter) that depicted adorable little holiday scenes that I would stare at for what seemed like hours, until I got to open the 24th which usually had a picture of Santa Claus on it. These nostalgic old school advent calendars for kids are sort of passe now, because the types of advent calendars available these days are crazy complicated and filled with toys!

I purchased my own kids Playmobil advent calendars, which were pricey but I had a discount code and I knew they would be played with after the holidays were over. There are Lego ones, Lego Star Wars ones, Polly Pocket, Littlest Pet Shop, Rescue Heroes and even ones that kids have to make themselves. On Pinterest, there are all sorts of tutorials on how to make gorgeous homemade ones, for you crafty types. I sort of wish I had made one for my husband and me, filled with tiny bottles of bourbon and Advil.

It can be argued that kids should always be well-behaved and parents shouldn’t bribe them to be good, but my own children have been happily sitting side by side playing with the first toys they have received from their calendars, and my son just leaned over and kissed his little sister on her forehead. I’m seriously considering an advent calendar for kids for Easter.

(photo: amazon)