It’s that time of year! The box that started it all is back! If you don’t know the story, in 2019, I was searching for an advent calendar that had non blended or non flavored teas and wasn’t finding any good options. I decided to create my own! I offered 15 boxes of a 12 day countdown and did not know what was about to be sparked. After getting good feedback, I realized that I had something good going and thought, why can’t there by countdowns at other time of the year? Since that first box, I’ve created boxes for valentine’s day, halloween and the seasons! Most recently, I’ve landed on the seasons because this allows me enough time between boxes to research, curate, source and prepare the boxes.

These boxes are certainly a labor of love as I complete all the above steps on my own, including wrapping each day for each box and writing a note that is sealed with a wax seal!

I enjoy creating all these boxes and I think they’re unique because of the way that I wrap them but also because I don’t think anyone else is doing this style of box at other times of the year.

The winter/advent box is special to me though and here’s why. Christmas has always been special to me, not for religious reasons though. While I’ve experienced many religions and attended service for them, I wouldn’t consider myself religious and this is not the tie that I have to Christmas.

As many families, we celebrated the more commercial aspects of Christmas. Being a child of immigrants though, Christmas was one of the times where I didn’t feel like a total outcast among my classmates. It was something we could share culturally. This was really important to me growing up when I was often confused as to why there weren’t other children like me in my classes or school

The other important aspect for me showed up as I got older. As my family fractured when I was younger and then I ended up with a “blended” family (I think that’s the term), the holidays, not just Christmas were a bit hectic. Usually it centered around who would spend which holiday with which parent/family and at what location. This was always stressful but when it came to christmas, I dove headfirst into the festivities as a way to cope and bring out joy at a time when I needed it. I love making gifts, buying gifts, decorating, baking, cooking and watching christmas movies. Over the years, our family has created several traditions around christmas that I hold very dear. Now, as an older adult, this time of year signifies joy. It doesn’t matter what else is going on, I can always count on the time leading up to christmas as a time to spend time nurturing myself and healing. I do this through this traditions that bring me joy. I don’t think I’ve ever expressed this in this way so I wanted to share.

With all that being said, I understand that not everyone celebrates either because it is not a symbol of joy or that their cultures or religions have different celebrations. Over the years, I’ve tried to make my box more inclusive so that everyone can enjoy it because at the end of the day, the thing that is most important to me, especially at this item of year is to spread joy.

I’m excited to share that the packaging this year will be a mostly penguin themed (I LOVE PENGUINS!) and a few other things in the box will be the winter window design that you’ve seen on the previews of my puzzles.

The penguin design started as an ornament design, which will hit the shop a little later. You will see a few variations on it depending on where it’s printed. The original design can be seen on the wrapping above. The penguin is surrounded by snow and holding a gaiwan and cup adorned with a fish!

Below you can see a preview of the box that the countdown will come in. I had to change the design to make sure it is printed well. A while back I switched from the white boxes to the kraft ones for a few reasons. The kraft boxes are a little more budget friendly and I’m not as concerned about not wrapping them which saves me a lot of time when I am packaging 50+ boxes by myself. The drawback is that colors are a bit tougher on kraft, the greens and oranges of my fall box were perfect but this was harder. Additionally, the printing company doesn’t use white ink so anything in your design that is white would be blank. To counter this, I too away the ice at the bottom of the design and turned the balls of snow into blue snowflakes!

I also did a variation of the box design below for the packaging tape that will decorate the box of the teaware in the box and the outside of the box to close it.

BOX DETAILS

Just like in previous years, this box has been a bit of a roller coaster. I’m not sure why but all the other seasonal boxes run pretty smooth. I always have issues with the winter countdown! I had an issue with a vendor that fell out of contact which forced me to find replacements and kind of mess up my budget. But then they got back to me with the tea on the way so I also had to spend for those. What this means is that I’ve shared a few previews of the countdown box in the newsletter but I’ve had to change a few things. Below are the details for the box that I don’t expect to change since I have the tea issue sorted out now.

Price: $75 (Retail: $170)
RELEASE DATE: October 11th at 11am est. This will be sort of like a pre-order because it will likely take me a few weeks to send out all the boxes.
13 days of items to open: I will be doing a QR code again so that I can write more about each tea and item. There, I will lay out an unboxing plan of when to start if you want to countdown to christmas or if you want to countdown to the first day of winter!
2 stationery items
1 brewing vessel
1 tea accessory
Around 150 grams of tea or 5.3 ounces. Samples range from 10grams to 28grams
- Typed of tea: 4 oolongs, 2 black, 1 green, 1 white, 1 pu’er. One tea is flavored but does not have other ingredients in it that would cause allergy. If you are concerned, please feel free to reach out before purchasing and I can give you more details about it.

SHIPPING

I have gone back and forth about this and have finally decided on what to do for shipping this year. This box will be heavier because of more items and also the teaware. Shipping in the us will be a flat $3 regardless of where you are located. Please note that for this box, shipping rates I will pay will be from $8.46 to $12.66 depending on location. I will also be trying something new for Canada as well where I will be charging a flat $15 shipping rate where the true shipping rate would be somewhere around $21. I hope that this will make the box more accessible!

Something new for this round is that this box must be purchased ALONE. No other items can be added to your order. If you want another item, you will need to place a separate order. This is because I am already going to be losing on shipping and there will be no room to add other items. Even if you want one pin, I need you place a separate order. If you put other items in the order, I will need to send it separate and I will send an invoice for additional shipping. Shipping really kills a business of my size and I try to make it fair without highly inflating my prices to give the illusion of free shipping. Please know that If I’m to survive as a business I will need to enforce things like this when I’ve been lax about it in the past.
I appreciate your support and understanding!