What to put in advent calenders

[DangerousMouse]

I have treated my 2 to a wooden advent calender this year, hope to get away from the sweets every day! What can I put in the drawers, they are only tiny? My DD should be fairly easy, she is 8 so hair clips, the odd 50p, rubber, any more ideas would be helpful. My DS is going to be 23 months, he's much harder.. Quite a few will have chocolate buttons in I guess as he is too young for the little toys, anyone got any ideas for him?

[iloveholidays]

There have been other threads on here about this, although can't remember what they were... sorry not very helpful!!

But, suggestions I think were playmobil figures, animal figures, choc, sweets, activities - i.e. on a bit of paper saying something they can do that day, hair clips, christmas tree decs, pair of knickers/socks if they fit, rubbers/sharpeners, other character figures (peppa, hello kitty), magnets, balloons, small balls or marbles.

Hope this helps - I'll let you know if I think of any of the others which were suggested.

[3duracellbunnies]

I'm thinking about puttiing lego mini figures in, a bit at a time. The three of them have to take it in turns to open it (and have a choc one for other days). I thought I could get secondhand ones for the early days and they each build a different mini fig, then towards the end I might get a santa one and they can build it together. Not sure I'm organised enough to think of something christmassy to do every day, and dh would moan if he was told when to buy the tree.

Could you put some chalks in, baby crayons, mini rubber ducks?

[ShabbyChit]

watching with interest as I have bought a wooden one too and looking for ideas! I like the bit of paper with an activity on.
EG. go swimming/cinema/park etc hadn't thought of putting coins in either!

(TBH I was struggling to think of things other than chocolate buttons as the little drawers in mine are really tiny!)

[IsItMeOr]

We did an activity calendar for DS last year when he was 2.9, and it worked well. We didn't actually put the activities in until the morning though, so we could adapt according to the weather.

Some of the things we did:

Buy Cat a christmas present
Collect and decorate Christmas tree
Christmas colouring book
Do 5 star jumps
Go shopping for a tree decoration
Learn a christmas song
Make and hang up paper snowflakes
Make ice cream sundaes
Make/Write Christmas Cards
Make glittery tree decorations using cookie cutters as templates to draw round on card. Cover in glue, add glitter and thread on a red ribbon to hang
Make paper chains
Post Christmas Cards
spend the afternoon in hamleys playing with all the toys that are on display
Wrap presents

[oreocrumbs]

DD will be 2.3, I have so far got some shiney pound coins, hair clips, rings, chocolate and am thinking of doing a few small presents like a 99p book, or a ball etc, and will put a token in the slot and hide the present somewhere.

Will also do activities, but will keep them out untill a suitable day and then stick them in the night before, otherwise I will end up making promises I can't keep!

My activities will include going to see santa, perhaps the pantomime, making christmas cards, puting the decorations up, sledging (if we get any snow), trip to the park. So they are mainly things I will be doing anyway with DD in the run up to christmas. When she gets older I will be more creative but she still won't 'get' what is going on so, I will make life easy while I can!

[MildlyMonica]

try this post and go to the entry from KatyMac

[girlywhirly]

I think someone helpfully suggested on another thread, only fill the pockets/drawers on the advent calendar day by day. This stops the DC pinching extra chocs from the days ahead! But it can also mean arranging to do an activity with as little as one days' notice, like getting the tree, or not doing an outdoor activity if the weather is really bad... and so on.

[RetroMaggie]

We've got the playmobil nativity and three wise men set ... A piece (or peices is small bits ) appears each day and dd builds the nativity scene. Was well received last year.