My grandson, Leo, is seven and lives in Denver. I live in Tulsa. That's about 900 miles, which is a long way for a grandmother.

So every year, I mail his Christmas presents in a box the week after Thanksgiving, and every year, I worry they'll feel like a package from far away, opened in five minutes on Christmas morning and then over.

Last year, I wanted to send something that would last all of December. Something that would make him think of me every single day, not just once.

The Trouble With Advent Calendars

My first thought was an advent calendar. Leo had one the year before, a chocolate one from the grocery store.

His mother told me how that went. On December 1st he was thrilled. He opened door number one, ate the chocolate in about two seconds and asked if he could open door number two. By the middle of the month, he'd stopped caring which door was next. And on Christmas morning, the calendar was an empty cardboard tray in the recycling bin.

That's the thing about most advent calendars. Every day, the box gets emptier. Every day's surprise is over almost as soon as it starts. Nothing builds on what came before, and by the end, there's nothing left.

I wanted one that worked the other way around.

An Advent Calendar That Adds Up

I found it while shopping for stocking stuffers: the Graddi™ Squish & Count Advent Calendar.

It's a festive advent calendar box with 24 numbered doors, one for each day from December 1st to the 24th. Behind each door is a mini squishy toy, a little surprise to squeeze, play with and keep. They're an assortment of holiday-inspired characters, bright colors and different squeeze-toy shapes and textures, so every day is something new.

And here's the part that sold me. Nothing gets eaten. Nothing gets used up. Every day, one more toy joins the ones from the days before.

Every day you open a door, the collection gets one bigger instead of the box getting one emptier.

I mailed it to Denver the next morning, with a note: "Open one door every day. Show Grandma on our call."

Day by Day

We've had a video call every evening at six since Leo was born. Last December, the calls had a new first item.

Day 1. Leo held up a little squishy snowman to the camera and squeezed it. "It's squishy, Grandma." He put it on his windowsill. One.

Day 7. "Look how many!" He tilted the phone toward the windowsill so I could see. Seven little characters in a row, in all different colors. He'd started arranging them, smallest to biggest.

Day 12. Halfway. By now it was a crowd. He'd named several of them. He spent most of our call introducing them to me, one by one, and what each one "did". The reindeer was apparently in charge.

Day 18. His mother told me he'd started opening the door before breakfast, then running back to check the windowsill before school, to see them all together.

Day 24. Christmas Eve. He opened the last door, held up the twenty-fourth toy, set it down and turned the phone around slowly, so I could see the whole collection lined up across the windowsill.

"That's all of them, Grandma. I have the whole set."

After Christmas

The calendar box went into the recycling on the 26th, like every calendar box. The toys didn't.

Two months later, half of them were still on the windowsill. A few had moved to his desk, where his mother says he squeezes them while doing homework. One goes in his backpack, and apparently it's a big hit at recess.

That's the difference I was hoping for. A chocolate calendar gives you twenty-four seconds of fun. This gave Leo twenty-four days of opening something new, and a collection he still plays with after the holidays are over.

How It Works

One door a day. Starting December 1st, open the numbered door for that day to reveal a mini squishy toy.

Squeeze, play, keep. Each one is a little fidget toy made for squeezing and pressing. Play with it, then add it to the growing collection.

The collection grows. Yesterday's toys don't disappear. They're still there when today's door opens. One on day one, seven by day seven, a little crowd by day twelve, the complete set of 24 by Christmas Eve.

What's included: one Christmas advent calendar box with 24 numbered compartments, and 24 assorted mini squishy and fidget toys