A CRAFTY wife created a unique Christmas advent calendar for her scratch card-loving husband.
Katie Pollard decided to get creative this year and shunned the usual chocolate advent calendars to create a more thrilling surprise for her hubby Neil.
With the help of her 75-year-old mum Liz Hunt, Katie made the circular festive countdown by clipping 24 scratchcards around a wreath using pegs.
Neil, 39, was delighted by the thoughtful gesture but quickly got frustrated after not managing to win anything in the first week.
Fed-up of losing, he ripped all the cards off today and checked every one to see if there were any winnings at all for the month.
The couple from Bordon, East Hampshire were left in stitches after finding just one £1 and two £2 scratchcards in the mix.
Jeweller Katie shared her creation to social media on Saturday where it has become an instant hit.
She wrote: “My mum came up with this idea for me to do for my hubby’s advent. Looks so good.”
The post has received over 6,800 likes and thousands of comments from social media users praising the genius idea.
One said: “There’s got to be a winner out of all of them. What a fantastic idea, you’ll have to keep us updated.”
Another wrote: “This is brilliant. When did it become a thing that adults get advent calendars though? They used to just be paper things for kids.”
A third user commented: “The ones not facing the right direction is so triggering right now.”
Another said: “I did something similar for my son’s 30th, spent £30, he won £15!”
A fifth user added: “That looks amazing, bet he loves it.”
Speaking today, Katie said: “My mum had the idea and made the display thing for it, we brought the 24 scratch cards in one whole strip and put them on.
“It was for my hubby – he loves a scratch card, but by today (day seven) we had no wins and were getting a bit frustrated so I said lets just scratch them all and see what we get.
“He pulled them all off, half of them between me and half between him, only to find three winners! One £1 and two £2, we laughed so much.
“But really that’s pretty rubbish – it says one-in-four so really should have been more than three winners.
“We will definitely do it again next year but with random ones rather than all in one strip, we normally have more luck.
“We have loved the reaction on social media and we were so surprised – my mum was over the moon, it’s been a good laugh.
“And this is why no one gets me an advent calendar because I cant wait, I’m the type of person that gives gifts early because I get too excited.”
Advent calendars can be traced back to the 19th century when families would mark every day in December until Christmas Eve with a chalk line.
The calendars are now a staple of Christmas, evolving from having little doors which concealed a picture or a bible verse to some now offering gifts like alcohol, make-up or even cheese every day.
