This is it.
Today is December 1st, and it opens the official countdown before the end-of-year celebrations (with years spent in the Middle East I have officially forgotten that we are allowed to use the word "Christmas" around here).
I had already written an article last year onthe same topic - it has gotten more and more complicated to avoid already-made calendars this year and I felt obliged to actively surf between the various Legos, Playmobils, Kinder, Star Wars and other Paw Patrols options in the supermarkets.
In the spirit of avoiding useless shopping for the sake of finding 24 little surprises, I decided to go one step backward in my plans. With a fair share of laziness and lack of time, I have bought a pack of little chocolates that will be delivered each morning by Noel, the Christmas Bear, to be eaten as we open a good-old advent calendar with pictures only. Whoever wants to argue that the production of chocolate might be more damaging that the one of little plastic useless crap is more than welcome to share his/her rant here in the comments section. I am not going to argue and discuss the life-cycle of what goes in my kid's stomach* (not today at least), but I find it less bad than 24 Kinders after all.
I would like however to remind our readers that sharing experiences and good deeds will always be meaningful. To give you a local example, the Zug Bibliothek has prepared a set of daily activities for both children and parents, including reading sessions, festive decorations making, concerts...
*EDIT: this environmental guilt is always there, so I had to check the pack of chocolate i picked to learn more, and it is produced in Switzerland from Frey. Click here to check out their sustainability engagement regarding their production.