Handmade giftwrap

I’ve been absent this last week but for a good reason – we had family vaccination and celebrated 2 birthdays! We usually celebrate their birthdays at the seaside where a single grocery store carries no paper whatsoever, no notebooks, not even copy paper, let alone wrapping paper. You can only dream of a craft store here – it’s remote so you can buy about 10 basic cooking ingredients here (and they are priced 10x :D) but that’s it :D. So my DIY watercolour collage paper came to the rescue.

Eco-friendly gift wrap made from recycled brown paper and natural materials.

I always wrap their presents at home beforehand – this has the added benefit that the recipients can’t accidentally see what’s inside the gift while I pack and unpack;). I usually use simple brown paper because it takes traveling the best and is the most versatile to decorate later on (and I can draw on it or use it in collage afterward ;). It’s also recycled, recyclable and inexpensive (as well as biodegradable) which is also nice:).

You can add just a small little bird from black paper with some white ornaments and the gift becomes so much more precious – my kiddo always keeps these ornaments.

I wrap the gifts but I don’t decorate them at home. If I was to add anything on top before the travel the little decorations would get smushed and peeled off or the gifts would take up much more space – none of that is acceptable when we travel with 3 kids;). So I wrap the gifts in brown paper, put them in a suitcase and that’s it.

The big bird is painted on some plain paper and decorated with the simplest black pen and the legs are the strings that hold the paper. You don’t need much to make a gift feel special.

But plain brown paper wouldn’t cut it for the gift wrap, right? We have to decorate it a bit – especially for the kiddo;) She loves birds so I decided to go with the bird theme.

Collage is so much fun but it can be intimidating at first. So start slow – with one simple bird on a gift wrap – it is sure to bring a smile to someone’s face:).

If you’ve seen my last video on watercolour exercises I made quite a few collage papers I could use to play around. So I did. I cut out primitive birds from this painted copy paper, from an old book no one needs and added some natural material found on the floor (literally:D), some doodles with a black and white pen, and a string from a big bag of flour that we carried with us and that was it.

This bird was cut from a bookpage and the rest are seaside gatherings. The string was unraveled from the top of a flour bag – look around for the little treasures in your surrounding – there are so many!

The reason I’m writing this is to encourage you to see things differently – little things on the floor can be beautiful ornaments, a plain brown paper can be the best background to play with, and gift wrapping can be fun and very inexpensive – tailored to the recipient and made from solely recycled and natural materials – and it will still look good! You don’t need to sacrifice the beauty and joy of kids’ unwrapping gifts if you don’t want to buy fancy and often unrecyclable papers;) – gift wrap is often plastic coated.

Love is in the hair… quite literally, hihi;). Not my original idea but I really like it and so did she:). You could also make a postcard like this or a teacher’s gift.

The last gift was a scrunchie and I found this gift wrap idea on Pinterest (where else;) – so I just painted a girl on a piece of card from pasta (yes, we eat A LOT of pasta, I always have cards from boxes of pasta – Barilla has nice white or recycled brown inside – very useful bytheway:). And she was so happy! This was all literally made from scraps – we don’t need that much to be happy – not even teenagers;). Everyone says teens just want money but my teens said they would be so disappointed if they got money from me. They are strange creatures and prefer old pasta boxes and scraps of fabric I guess :D. Maybe you have some strange creatures in your life – who knows – try it with a brown paper bag and some natural materials;).

Birthday Coupons

Just a quick idea for anybody celebrating birthday soon. We always like to give coupons for different things in our family – something that the recipient would enjoy. It could be anything from playtime with older sister to different chores (either something that a recipient usually does or something extra because kids know I’d like to have our apartment a bit cleaner :D). For my birthday a little while ago I also got the coupon for making ginger and lemon tea (from scratch) and some coupons for a massage but the best one was for “un-quarrelling”. Kids gave me a coupon that I can use when the quarrel and I don’t have the time or energy to moderate and they will resolve it themselves;). What a cool gift, wouldn’t you say?

Have you ever given or received a personalized coupon as a gift?

What kind of a coupon would you like to get? I really like these kind of gifts (we give each other other stuff, too but these are cute and we actually use them:).

Summer souvenirs

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Most of us like summer – the weather is nice, we can spend most of our free time outdoors, schools are closed and we usually take at least some vacation during the summer months – at least people with school-aged kids. Since summer is equated with so many great things like holidays, vacation, free time, sea and parties, naturally, we want to preserve some of those feelings – so we buy, gather and make souvenirs.

Some stands are really nice and I am no purist – a necklace or a knickknack here and there can be a nice memory – but if your space is getting crowded and you don’t enjoy them anymore, here are some alternatives:)

Of course, you all know the little kitchy stands scattered in the coastal towns, full of cheap jewellery and dust keepers. They can be fun and definitely have their place in our summer memories but so often they are filled with plastic knick-knacks that you might not love enough to share your shelf with;). So I’d like to present to you some very eco-friendly ways to keep your summer memories in a bit more useful and sustainable way:).

I gave my kids these little jars and it was the best gift ever! They were so happy to be able to keep their little memories in a tiny cute glass jar:)

The first idea is these mini glass jars that you can fill with tiny shells, stones or sea glass. They look amazing, they are very inexpensive and kids love them! You can use them as a talisman, decoration or even a pendant on a necklace (but you have to glue the lid on in that case – and screw an eye pin into the cork).

These little stones are great for baking – they retain heat and don’t damage the pie dough.

The next idea is for all of you cooking mamas and grannies out there! Every baker knows that to make a good pie, you first need to bake the shell – weighted. So if you want to keep your dough from making large bubbles you’d normally put a piece of parchment paper over the dough in the pan and pour some rice over it. But something is even better than rice as it retains heat better and can be used over and over again – tiny little stones from the beach. I use mine for 20 years already and they work great! I keep them in a metal jar (recycled) and they are always ready to use. Just let them cool first before you put them away so that water won’t condense on them – otherwise, they could start to mould. If you let them cool first, that never happens – nothing grows on dry rocks:).
I have even given them as a gift with a baking pan and a recipe for a good apple pie – recipients were delighted:)

A travel journal is the best way to preserve memories – good for your soul (because of art), good for the environment (it’s not plastic;), good for your kids (because they get to read about their childhood), good for you (because you reflect on your days:)

And the last idea is a travel journal that I have already sang praise to here in July (here are the posts: Travel journal, Travel journal flipthrough, What to write about in your travel journal, What to draw/sketch in your travel journal and What else to include in your travel journal). But it’s a really great way to preserve memories, to catch all those little moments and to make the most of every day:). And it’s small enough so it won’t take too much space on your shelf:). If you get tired of it, however, the paper is recyclable and compostable:).

Mini art journal

Last week I published a class on how to make a cute little sketchbook out of recycled materials – and if you’ve missed it – here is the free link to the class (it’s on Skillshare but with this link you can access it for free – because – you are my people:). If you have 45 minutes, check it out – some people said they really loved it (people not-related to me;)).

A very quick tutorial on how to make a mini art journal.

But if you don’t have 45 minutes and just want the gist of it or maybe just need to scratch the creative urge with a quick 5 minute craft, this mini version is just for you! As somebody said – if you don’t have 10 minutes, you don’t have a life;). The tutorial is only 5 minutes long so you have the other 5 for making it or for just chilling out – it is almost summer, after all;).

Mini art journals are practical and cute – everybody loves mini things, right?

What you’ll need – i.e. materials:
– a piece of paper – the longer, the better;); mine was a bit heavier drawing paper 120 lb (200 gsm), 60 cm long (cca 24”)
– coloured or patterned cardboard – it could be recycled – mine was from an old tissue box
– a ruler (if you use rotatory cutter metal ruler is the best)
– scissors or a rotatory cutter
– a pencil
– a cutlery knife, a skewer or a bone folder
– glue for paper (stick glue, PVA, craft glue, whatever;)
*optional: corner rounder or a coin

Mini art journals are quick and easy to make and so cute!

Instructions:
1. Cut a stripe of paper down the length of the paper – I like to use the width of the ruler as my guide but you can choose the size of your little booklet. Mine was 6 cm (2 1/3 in) wide.
2. Place the ruler perpendicular and score the same width with a bone folder, a cutlery knife or a skewer.
3. Repeat the scoring by placing the ruler against the previous score as you go – you will get square pages. If you want other dimensions or ratio, you can of course adapt the measurements – just make sure that all the pages have the same width.
4. Measure the pages and cut the two covers from the coloured/patterned cardboard a little bit bigger than the pages – they should stick out at least a few mm (1/8”). This will secure the pages from any abuse later on.
5. Glue on the covers.
6. Enjoy your new little art journal or give it to a friend!

Concertina art journal

I’ve seen different expressions used for this type of booklet: concertina book, accordion book and Laporello book and as far as I can tell they all mean the same – this zig-zag folded booklet that needs no stitching.

I love the simplicity of this concertina booklet – it’s art that kids could do but it looks really cute.

When I was little I never understood the benefit of these books – they seem to fly out and why would you want to have a book that can just literally unfold itself? It didn’t seem practical – and I’m a practical girl;). But… I’ve only read books at that time… I didn’t paint in them (my parent’s would’ve killed me if I had :D). I have since come to realise there are many benefits to concertina sketchbooks / art journals. They might not be suitable for novels but they are perfect for making art!

Even trying out a material or basic art exercises can look nice in an accordion book.

Why? I’m glad you asked;) Because:

• you can work on the next page before the one before is dry – and just keep going until half of your book is full if you are in a grove. I don’t particularly like to wait so I appreciate that a lot;)
• you can make several-page long art – you are not limited on a two-page spread
• you can make a story that travels from one page to the next
• this is perfect for storyboarding
• it’s a good way for trying out your book illustrations – do they work together and is a character unintentionally changing on the pages etc… so you can correct it
• it can look really lovely all laid out on a mantlepiece or windowsill
• it’s really easy to make – even kids can do it without your help (tested many times;)
• doesn’t need any special bookbinding supplies, no needles, pokey tools, nothing fancy – just cardboard, paper and glue:)
• it can largely be made out of recycled materials, leftotver scraps of paper etc.
• makes unique, practical and lovely gift when customized to recipient’s taste
• it’s fun! Kids can use it as a toy (if you let them;)
• it makes cute videos of your finished artwork if you want to share that

I’ve made several of them and keep reaching for them and keep making the same design because it’s so practical for painting! The “no need to wait for page to dry to be able to paint the next page” is big in my book!

So I hope I’ve convinced you to give an accordion book or concertina book a try:). If you don’t know how to go about it, I have a surprise for you coming up tomorrow so stay tuned!

Santa

Baby bearers
There are many gift bearers around the world as we have already discussed at the beginning of December and yesterday. As I see it there are 2 types of gift bearers: one is an old man (sometimes an old woman) and the other is a baby/child. Baby Jesus brings gifts in Latin America and Hungary. In Germany, kids write to Christkindu that is not baby Jesus but an angel child.

Angel child ornament that we made for granny a few years ago – this one made by my eldest.

The north – home of Santa Claus
The main star for the USA is definitely Santa Claus. Although some think he lives in the North Pole, Finland claims it’s the real home of Santa with their Santa Park at Roveniemi. Greenlanders disagree and kids from all over the world send letters to ginormous red mailbox in capital Nuuk (Santa Claus, 2412 Nuuk, Greenland). And Canadians are sure he lives in Canada…
In Norway, they have Julenissen that is very similar to the normal Santa and in Denmark Julemanden is their Santa that could do nothing without his nissen (elves). In Sweden, the gnome/elf Tomte (also called Jultomten) himself comes and leaves presents. And in some parts of Sweden and Finland, the Christmas goat is the one who brings gifts (that’s why they make goat decorations out of straw and it’s a popular Christmas symbol in Scandinavia). In Iceland, 13 Yule Lads bring sweets to good kids 13 days before Christmas and leave rotten potatoes for the naughty ones.

A grumpy tomte in my bullet journal – no wonder he’s tired in busy December!

Grandpa Frost
In ex-Soviet-Union countries and those influenced by it, Grandpa Frost is the main gift bearer (although some countries, like ours, have more good men;). But he is by far my favourite! There are many reasons why but the main one is – he loves all children – the good, the bad and the ugly;). He doesn’t care if you were good or not, he loves you anyway. He looks and is happy to see kids behave but he is not preachy and will give real gifts to all kids – no coal or stick.

My all-time favourite – grandpa Frost – he loves and gives gifts to all children.

Father Christmas, three Kings, etc…
Then there are versions of the two: Papa Noel, Babo Natale and Father Christmas, etc… There’s a list of all the bearers by country on Wikipedia! And if you want to read how Santa Claus is called in different parts of the world, there’s another list here.
There are many countries, where the gift-giving happens on the 6th of January – the orthodox Christmas. In Mexico and Spain and some parts of Latin America, the three Kings/wise man (Magi) bring the gifts and in Italy, it’s an old witch La Befana who brings most gifts – although they have Babo Natale as well. And sometimes Father Christmas comes on the 6th…

Unusual traditions:
When I was researching for this article, I found a custom from a part of Serbia I have never heard of – although we used to be the same country… It is really not known here and is only practised in the suburbs of one little part. On each Sunday before Christmas someone is tied and has to give gifts to the rest of the family to be freed: first kids give gifts to parents, then mother to kids and then father to kids.
In Japan, Christmas became a sort of Valentine’s day – who knew?
In Lousiana, people make a trail of bonfires along the Mississippi to help Santa find them!

Santa and baby Jesus – the most popular gift bearers…

Then, there are little tweaks (often climate-related;)) to Santa/grandpa that are quite fun: in Kenya, Santa comes on a Jeep, a bike or a camel instead of reindeer (that would be highly unpractical there;). South Americans leave grass and water for the camels of the three kings instead of cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer in the north.
In Brazille, Papai Noel wears a red silk getup because the official uniform would be unbearable there;). The tradition of Secret Santa or Amigo Secreto is also very popular there – friends give each other gifts all throughout the month and identify themselves on Christmas. Similarly, in Phillippine, Monito Monita is the secret Santa.

DIY improvisations are the best!
When I was little and my dad was an engineer in a factory, our Grandpa Frost came on a fork-lift lorry and that is one of my best childhood memories. My mom worked as a journalist at the main newspaper so their celebrations were always professionally made in the puppet theatre, with a show beforehand and real actors and all… but I remember the DIY grandpa Frost on a lorry, cartoons and home-baked goods from moms of factory workers much more and it was by far the best official celebration ever!
When I worked as a researcher at the Institute of biology, we had the same kind DIY celebrations and my kids loved it! Grandpa came with animals – they were not the cute animals, though: no rabbits or cats – he came with turtles, spiders, bugs, etc… Yep, biologists are weird;) But kids loved that! It goes to show you, kids really can see with the heart!

Gift tag

I loooove giving gifts. Everybody knows that:D. I always enjoyed finding (and even more making) the perfect gift for a loved one. So I agree, the content matters. A lot. But still, a nicely wrapped gift is so much more magical! My daughters tell me to always wrap presents for their friends because the unwrapping gives them so much more pleasure than receiving a gift bag! *Although gift tags can also be used on a gift bag if you’re pressed for time:).

Yes, content matters. But so does the presentation:)

What’s it all about
Gift tags (also called gift labels or present tags and even swing tags) are small (usually decorated) pieces of cards with the name of the gift recipient on the front or the backside. They can be bought or handmade and are usually rectangular (-ish) or round (-ish) in shape but can be much more intricate, with lacy holes etc. The standard sizes are 3 to 5 inches by 2,5 inches (7,5 to 12,5 cm by 2,5 cm) but they can really be any size – usually according to the size of the present.

Here, large die-cut comic-book-style letters were used instead of gift tags.

Where it originates from
I haven’t found any clear origin story but the art of gift wrapping started in the 2nd Century BC China and from there spread over to Japan where it became a form of art in the 14th century. Furoshiki is wrapping gifts with fabric in a very aesthetically pleasing and usually minimalistic way. In the USA tissue paper was used and then from that gift-wrapping paper was born. And somehow gift tags got tagged along…

You wouldn’t guess there are more than 100 gifts with gift tags in this picture, would you?:)

How to complicate your life – ie make your own gift tags
One year our Grandpa Frost and his elves made more than 100 gift tags!!! Yep, I counted them and I can’t remember the exact number but they were well over 100! I know, that’s a lot of presents – but in our defence, I must add that there are 5 members in this family and usually Grandpa Frost brings presents for grandpa as well… Our kids are not that needy (they always write to Grandpa Frost 3 wishes for gifts and one of them is usually a surprise or a book) but our tree is usually quite full of gifts, nevertheless. So yea, 100 gift tags, quite a task for the elves! No wonder they put themselves on them! Some had die-cut elves, some stamped elves or other winter scenery, some were snowmen made from punches, some were just hand cut.

A tutorial showing you how to make these cute little gnome tags is waiting for you on my YT channel.

I recreated them this year for my yt channel because I thought someone else might want to try – so if you want to see how they are made head over here:). They are made with just the basic office/ household supplies and recycled cardboard so that really anybody could do it and that wouldn’t stress moms or elves over the world with more things to buy and take care of. Maybe there are some elves somewhere who would love to make something like that during the long winter nights, who knows;).

There’s a lot of little gifts underneath our tree so that means a lot of gift tags:)

If you make them, I’d love to see them or know how it went:). Comment down below and/or on the youtube video or tag me on social @very.arty.fairy and/or use #veryartyfairy. If you have no time for this, I hope you enjoy the reading, the pictures or the video:).
Happy holidays!

Cookies

There is no Christmas without cookies! Everybody knows that! We all bake cookies here and as far as I can tell, this tradition is pretty universal – where Christmas is celebrated, cookies are a part of it. In China, however, they make their own “fortune cookies“, for their (Chinese) New Year (more on that on the 1st of February, they are a special kind of cookies). So cookies are everywhere!

Sweet December… All kinds of cookies, all kinds of sweets…

This tradition originates in Medieval Europe and every country now has its own list of cookies that people usually bake at this time. In Germany Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars) and Springerli are a must, in Scandinavia pepparkakor (gingersnap cookies), in Belgium speculoos, in our little country Linzer cookies, vanilla crescents, spritz cookies and chocolate crackle cookies are very popular,… And of course gingerbread cookies – but we’ll discuss them later as gingerbread is our prompt for the 22nd of December. Another classic is “thumbprint” cookies that have many many names and are delicious! Stained glass cookies are not common here but they are a Christmas staple in Germany and USA. Some of the cookies originate in Roman times – like Pizzelle that is still an Italian Christmas classic and their relative Krumkake that are found on Norwegian festive tables.

Thumbprint cookies and chocolate crackle cookies from two grannies…

Baking sugar cookies with royal icing is the golden standard of chaos with kids and can create wonderful memories and very messy kitchen and frantic mothers (usually all at once:D). In parents circles it is considered brave to bake cookies with small children and if somebody doesn’t know why so, I urge them to try ;).

A small token of appreciation is usually very warmly received – it’s just a few candies, a bag of hot chocolate and cookies.

The gift of cookies and wine is very traditional here as in many other countries. Teachers get them, friends get them, granmas bring them… It is a simple nice way to make someone’s day nicer. Do you give or get cookies?

Log

When I first read about this tradition years ago – on some mommy blog – where her family moved to Spain I thought she was kidding. I went to research it and lo and behold – this tradition really exists! It is so wacky that it would really be a shame if I didn’t mention it!

Just a simple illustration of Caga Tio (you can watch how it’s painted on my IG)

In Spain, in Catalonia – to be exact, there is a custom of taking care of a log that excretes presents in return at Christmas. I am not kidding! I told you it was wacky :D.

A little wooden log is brought in on the 8th of December – the day of the immaculate conception – which is also the beginning of the Christmas celebrations in Catalonia. First, they decorate the log with a hat (traditionally with a barretina or often a sock) and paint it the face, then they take good care of it every day until Christmas – they cover it with a blanket in the evening and they feed it with chestnuts, dried fruits, nuts and similar so it fattens up.

We had snow today so I thought I’d share it with you;)

It is called “Tio de Nadal” (meaning Christmas log) or by its nickname “Caga Tio” (which could be translated as “shit log”) and often has sprightly legs. At Christmas, they spank it while singing christmas songs so he poops presents, sweets and garlic, onion or a herring. The presents that appear underneath the blanket are usually sweets (like turron) and small toys. In the end, they throw it into the fire to keep themselves warm. Poor little log!

Tio de Nadal illustration

Nowadays, Tio is sometimes made as a pinata and in modern homes he is not lit on fire when there are no fireplaces. Did you know this tradition already? Would your kids enjoy decorating a log? We don’t need to be in Catalonia to have some fun, right?;)

Sock

^{5 minutes reading – grab a cup or snack and enjoy}
In german-speaking countries and also in our little country, it is the custom that a sock, a shoe or a boot is left out on the 5th for St. Nicolaus (whom we call Miklavž) to fill during the night with dried fruits, nuts and citruses. He usually brings socks or mittens or other small gifts as well. For some families, (in general, the more religious ones), St. Nicolaus is the main gift bearer and gives the most gifts (or is the only one who brings gifts in some cases).

Christmas or St. Nicolaus stockings, filled with citruses, salt dough Black Petes and gifts

In some parts of Europe, the custom is to put shoes or boots at the front door or beside the bed or by the chimney. Sometimes kids fill the shoes with gifts for St. Nicolaus and his helpers (with drawings, carrots, cookies etc). In other parts, a glass of milk and cookies are left out for him to eat when he comes. We didn’t have that tradition but kids invented it on their own – they always leave something for any gift bearer – including tooth fairy (that is actually a tooth mouse in our country) – and they have quite lengthy correspondence in letters with her…

Kids wake up early to see what St. Nicolaus brought them.

The Krampus (our “parkelj” or Black Pete) was in the past believed to steal naughty children but from what I’ve heard in our places he usually just gave a stick or coal to them. Nowadays, I think he retired – I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone getting any of those gifts in his/her sock – I guess our children are very well behaved in the last 40 years:).

My first daughter’s sock – her decorations include: a giraffe (her favourite animal when she was a toddler), a squirrel (her sign in preschool), a bullet journal, swimming crawl (when she learned that), handstand, a snowman (when she was a baby, couldn’t speak and saw her first snow), etc…

Man can already see where Santa’s tradition of filling the socks originated. But Santa has his own quirks – his socks are red and white and usually hang by the fireplace or at the foot of a child’s bed. There are numerous wonderfully decorated socks out there!

The alpha male’s decorations: fish, crab and a net (work projects), tomato (when he was gardening a lot and got special seeds for tomato and grew sooo much), a hockey stick, a bumblebee (his PhD), a basketball (his sport for 30 years)

However, we love our simple but LARGE socks with felt cuff and made from fleece, that is stretchy enough to hold loads of gifts! The thing kids love most about them is a little family tradition I have read about on Martha Stewart years ago and adapted it to suit us. Every member of the family has his/her own sock and every year a new decoration is added to the cuff. They get to choose what the decoration would be – something that marked their year. I then make a little symbol of that – usually from felt but it could be another material included and then I sew or glue it on their sock. This goes for our (parents’) socks as well:). It is always fun to mull over what was the most significant in that particular year…

My middle-child’s sock: elf (because she loves elves since I can remember), a lion (her favourite animal), horse (because she wants one and loves them), a penguin from when she was a baby, couldn’t speak and loved a toypenguin I once got from my ex years ago (luckily my alpha male is not feeling threatened by toys I got from other boys – our kids love them, haha;)

By the way, a warning in case you want to introduce this tradition – I started with decorations way too big – I didn’t really think this would be so popular for so long! But kids still say that’s their favourite part of this holiday so… I guess we’ll have to decorate the sock part as well in a few years:D.

My little boy’s sock when he was really young: as a baby, he used to like to watch cars go by but later he never played with cars like a normal boy. However, he always loved fish and sea animals in general and even chose “orca” as his 3rd bd party theme.

And he was in the “caterpillars” group in preschool:)

We tie our socks to the fence in front of their bedrooms or to our bed – because it is the easiest to tie around. In our country, St. Nicolaus always brings citrus fruit, usually mandarines, but could be oranges as well, nuts (could be in shells or not) and dried fruits. In our home, he brings all that and some other small gifts like hair ties, hot glue gun insets, stamps, colouring pencils, pens, socks or mittens etc…

Gifts from St. Nicolaus: a decorated bag, full of nuts and dried fruits, mandarines, a notebook (or perhaps a bullet journal?), a small figurine, pencils, chapstick, washi tape, glue and stamps…

A sweet dough “parkelj” is a must in our family and is also often given elsewhere (and kids usually get them for snacks at school on the 6th).

A home-baked sweet dough “parkelj” is a must in our socks! Their eyes are from raisins and his tongue from almond or dried persimmon or apricot (in bakeries they just put a red coloured paper for the tongue but we prefer it all edible:)

Ours are always home-baked so the whole house smells deliciously in the morning. Our elves also bring small versions of “parkelj” into the advent calendar truck on the 6th and they usually hide and eat some of them as well.

Our hiding elves are eating their mini versions of “parkelj”…

When there are too many gifts, St. Nicolaus leaves these on a cutting board underneath the socks

If you want to paint this with me, click here

By-by, see you tomorrow!