Well folks, December is upon us once again, and you know I can’t write anything non Christmas related this month! Haha I do love Christmas. So this month I wanted to share with you a little virtual advent calendar I made for some friends.
It sounds a little strange and perverse, if not perverted, but I have a friend who has always been somewhat fascinated by animal appendages! The weirder the more wonderful. So last year in her advent calendar; which was just a cheap shop bought wooden reusable light up thing with wee drawers she could pull out, I placed a $1 scratchie card folded up with little elastics to make it look like a little present, and underneath that I stuck a QR code to the bottom of the drawer.
I set each QR code with a free online tool to a photo I made on my phone, which I just screen shot from the internet and added text to. So for example, the first text my friend ever sent me, before we were even really friends and I kind of only knew her in a professional context, was an echidna penis. Google it. Very weird! Haha So that obviously had to be in drawer number one with a little caption about that being the first text of our friendship.
https://www.qr-code-generator.com/
I went on to find a 2 pronged one, for number 2 and just kind of found funny ways to relate to the number in the advent card as the calendar progressed. Just silly fun. Obviously a niche market for this kind of thing but you could use anything from pictures of you both together, your top 25 memories together, favourite foods, whatever your friend is into.
Discussing this with some different friends at our pre-Christmas dinner catch up, they were rolling in stitches laughing at the idea and insisted I send it to them too. Not having time to do the whole advent calendar, I just went totally virtual on this occasion and set a reminder in my phone to send them the daily picture which I had in my phone from making it anyway, and sent it to our little group chat for a giggle. They loved it.
I had another friend who really loved music, so for 25 days I sent her a Christmas song, with a little text about the meaning of the song in relation to our friendship (although I had to be creative there, sometimes just the song is enough.
https://open.spotify.com/
You could easily use Gif’s, meme’s, photo’s, music, funny cat videos, inspirational quotes, cute Christmas food ideas or recipes and so many more.
My friend made one for me, with trivia and riddles, she wrapped 25 little gifts for me, each one like a chocolate and a purse sized toiletry, such as tweezers or purse pack perfume or lip gloss or lip balm, nail file etc… all inexpensive. She labelled them 1 to 25 and I had to solve the riddle before I was allowed to open the gift.
You could easily use this idea, or a virtual idea to do maybe a truth or dare version, maybe doing alternate days for truth and dare. Truths could help you get to know them and could be anything from “what is your favourite colour” to “tell me something about you nobody else knows?” Dares could range from easy, for example “send me a picture of you with a toe in your mouth” or more embarrassing like “take an ugly selfie and make it your profile picture for 24 hours.”
The options for fun here are limitless and are as vast as your imagination. Just remember it is meant to be fun, so don’t stress over it too much, it’s ok if it is silly and imperfect, and it is ok if it is meaningful and sentimental. Whatever fits your friendship works for you.
I have heard of the idea of doing an escape room type of one, which I definitely want to try. You don’t open the numbers in order except for the first one, then each one leads to a riddle which tells you which number to open the following day. It can include small keys, mini scissors locked with suitcase locks, or codes and all sorts of cool things, but I haven’t figured out the logistics of the whole idea of one of these yet and put it to the test. I do plan to do this but as I am away on an international cruise from next week until right before Christmas a more virtual approach will have to do this year. Another bonus! I can easily do this while I am away on holiday to keep the Christmas spirit rolling even though I am not there. If anybody tries this and has success before me, please get in touch with ideas and suggestions or instructions!
What I really love about doing it virtually is that you can include friends from near and far this way. You can create group chats and do it as a group, each taking turns to create something, or you can do as many individual ones as you like without too much effort. All you have to do is think of something your friend likes, google and save the 25 images or links and send one a day!
For instructions click link below
https://www.kapwing.com/resources/make-your-own-digital-christmas-advent-calendar/
It tells your friend you are thinking of them and wishing them well over the holiday season and sending them smiles from wherever you are!
Have fun folks. Let me know your ideas!
❤ Love,
Your Best Friend ForNever
xx
