Answering questions about the Advent Calendar

My friend LINDA asked me how I did it with the little surprises for all the kids in our beautiful Advent trees.
That's how we do it: Each of the kids has their own little tree. It just started out that way, because we only had 2 the first year we did it (actually, Alex was born, but he was a baby and could have cared less at that point ;-)) ), and so we added more as our family grew. You could also split it up between kids, so if you have three kids, you could make one little tree with the bags divided into three colors, and the kids take turns. Honestly, I would probably opt for that route NOW, but I did not know we were going to have five kids THEN :-)). The nice thing about having one for each child though, is, that some day, they can take it with them and keep it as one of their very own childhood memories.
We only do 24 bags, because "our" little family Christmas is always on the 24th of December. That's the tradition I grew up with, and it works well with our other family get-togethers during the holidays.
The big question is, what in all the world to I put in all those 120 bags?????
Let me tell you - not THAT much! If I would have to put a Dollar amount on it, I would say, I spend maybe $10 - $15 at the most per Child. It takes the place of Christmas stockings, as we don't do that. About half the bags have a piece of Candy or Gum in it, the other other little trinkets, like a balloon, themed bandaids,a hairclip for the girls, stickers, beads, the small playdoh containers, matchbox cars etc. This year I bought one of those block puzzles (I wanted to get Nina one anyway), and I split it up between the kids. Same goes for small little Lego sets. I LOVE the dollar section at Target, where I picked up a pair of socks for Nina, bracelets, Lip gloss and little games. Really, it's nothing huge, and I definitely don't go broke over it. I pick up things throughout the year, and the biggest thing is wrapping them up *sigh*. This year, my live-in angel aka "Big Anja" did it all for me. The "fanciest" item this year was the personalized stamps we got for all the kids while we were in China.
As with everything else, I believe it's the suprise factor and most of all the anticipation that they like the best.
The tradition.
The predictability.
The spirit of Christmas.