Santa's Mailbox

Sweet.  If you add a screen, you might want to display Nora's Santa Tracker on the 24th December when the countdown reaches 0 (or 1).  What about a message from Santa thanking for the mince pie/milk/whiskey/carrot etc and hoping they enjoy their presents. When I was around 7 years old the present I really, really wanted ended up totally sold out so my parents couldn't get hold of it.  Instead I got a letter from Santa telling me that the elves just ran out of time to make enough to go around this year and that he felt other children needed it more because they didn't get many presents.  I was totally made up: showed it to my aunts, uncles and grandparents.  Still remember that 51 years later!! 

Cool idea. Santa's acknowledgement letter could have some small swag gift to stretch out the exciting experience. A simple blinking indicator that there is a message from Santa would dress it up.

How about a flag on both sides of tbe mailbox ? . One red flag to put up when a letter to Santa is in the mailbox for pickup, and a second flag, maybe red and white striped when Santa left something in the mailbox for the kids, like leaving a small candy cane for them when a letter is picked up.

robogary said:

and a second flag, maybe red and white striped

Could perhaps replace that second flag with an Xmas tree that pops up and lights up. The tree lights could form part of the countdown sequence.

robogary said:

like leaving a small candy cane for them when a letter is picked up

Perhaps turn the mailbox into some form of an advent calendar to keep the interactivity going.

Andrew J said:

When I was around 7 years old the present I really, really wanted ended up totally sold out so my parents couldn't get hold of it.

Now are you sure that your parents didn't just make that story up in order to avoid having to listen to that ear-splittingly loud electronic ray gun toy from repeatedly going off from initial unboxing at 5am on Xmas morning until some time in the New Year when the batteries finally ran out ? 

I do recall though parents dreading their kids seeing TV adverts just before Xmas when what was about to become this year's favourite Xmas toy started appearing and the race was then on to find it in the shops.

No, definitely sold out.  It wasn't a noisy toy, something like this: Toy on youTube (new window)  Simpler times 

• That's a nice idea 

Thank you all for the cool ideas! They are still really young (<3 years and < 6 months) and I don't have much time so I think I'll keep it quite simple but would improve each year and update here. Who knows, they might even help me in the future.

That age is when you get the least sleep. Don't worry. It gets easier from here on. Mine are 12 and nearly 10 so a similar age gap to yours. They can get up in the morning at the weekend, make their own breakfast and entertain themselves. We're also starting to do some projects together.

You are lucky, by the time they are old enough to take care of themselves, they are usually more interested in sleeping in....