3 year old's advent ideas: non-chocolate, very cheap, small!

[LivingOnAPrayerYes]

Thinking of getting one of those Advent calendars that you can put something small into a little box or pouch for each day. Don't really want it to be sweets or chocolate (will probably do a few that are, but would rather not all of them). Happy for items to be repeated so I can by multi-packs of things to keep the costs down.

But thinking of 24 things is a bit beyond me right now!

Any ideas?

So far I've though of:
Party poppers (loved them at a party we went to- supervised obviously)
Cress seeds, or something we can plant now and he can actually see grow
Small cars...
... And I'm out!

Help please!

Tat tat tat tat. All goes into landfill

At least once sweet or chocolate a day is eaten.

Merry Christmas 🎅yes I know I sound like Scrooge there.

We have an advent calendar with activities (I made little envelopes out of Christmas wrapping paper). My kids are teenagers and refuse to let us stop doing it, although at least a lot of the activities are things we'd do anyway (things like make paper chains, paper snowflakes, decorate the tree, Xmas films, write Christmas cards, get a gift for local charity, school christmas shows, christmas jumper day at school etc). So go with a paper advent calendar, you get some really lovely ones these days.

My DD is 4 and this is where I'm up to. I have included chocolate some days though 🤷‍♀️

Mini rubber duck soap on rope - sainsburys
3 x mini jigsaws - eBay
Chocolate gonk - Aldi
Little lights for balance bike wheels
Christmas socks - eBay
5 x Xmas finger puppets - eBay
Xmas temporary tattoos - eBay
Xmas mini mouse hair clips - eBay
Xmas hair bobbles - eBay
Hot chocolate kit - homemade
Christmas poems - not sure which ones yet
Cookie cutter - to make together on that day
Letter writing kit for Father Christmas - homemade
stickers and stamps
Christmas yo-yo - Asda
Bath bomb

Thanks to others posters for ideas too.

Oh yes and

Christmas card making craft activity for that day

And paper chain making activity

Buy a set of something like playmobil or lego, and put a few pieces in each day? It's cheaper than the proper playmo/lego advent calendars and you get usable stuff.

Bauble for tree
Spinning wooden snowman toy from
Last year's that she will have forgotten

Sorry, this seems to have become my checklist

The works have a craft advent calendar for £10 tiny packs of Pom poms one day googly eyes the next kind of thing.

Agree with the picture advent calendars. You can get them from WHSmith, John Lewis, or lots of churches and cathedrals. My DC have always taken turns on a chocolate one and a picture one. There are some really pretty ones out there - this year we are getting an Angela Harding one, where the little pictures revealed form part of the background snowscape.

She says cheap- that’ll add up to a lot

This is a good idea

I would definitely go for a picture calendar. They have no expectation of a gift calendar at that age, most of the tiny gifts suggested are plastic heavy and will only be played with for a few minutes, then you are left with 24 pieces of tat.

We had an advent calendar we used all the way through kids childhood. Ok, it has a religious theme, but we weren’t particularly religous and that’s sort of point of xmas

it was a big book like structure, with a tiny mini book for each day telling the advent story. One of e would remove book and we’d read with their bedtime story, then they’d hand the mini book (it had a cord) on the little artificial Xmas tree I bought specifically to hang the books on. I think it was a dorling kingsley publication at time. Wasn’t cheap to buy- but was reused for years (till bedtime story time stopped) and became a family tradition. I still used to hang them on the tree long after story time stopped.

I don’t get the presents or choc advent calendars - it’s just so unnecessary to spend money like this.

another choice would be a bunch of candles - again traditional advent. They can light each evening and have on table at tea time . You could buy a selection of colours or scents.

Ha, found it online
www.wob.com/en-gb/books/mary-packard/story-of-christmas-story-books-advent-calendar/9780761152507?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4OybBhCzARIsAIcfn9k2oWRy1uEoUXxx5YNBGnYFfsRY1Fy0rqIk1sXGVqLw3ZRiP9XG-FMaAnFVEALw_wcB#NPB9780761152507

Egg chalks? That's six days covered!

Picture advent calendars. My dc love them. They’re tweens now and have always had them. There’s just no need for new stuff every day, no matter how small the items. It just feeds into this awful consumerist, disposable culture we’ve got ourselves into.

@Newlifestartingatlast every shop selling that book only shows the one photo. Can you send a picture of your one because I'm struggling to understand it. What size are the books and where are they?!

I've used that one at work before, the big "book" is made of sturdy card and the little books press into slots inside. I'm trying to visualise how big they are - they are different shapes and sizes but they are no bigger than about 4 inches tall.

So here’s some screen shots from Amazon. The smallest mini books ( most this size) are about 5-6 cm tall I’d say, then the central one on Xmas eve is I’d say 10cm or so. There are a few slim tall ones or shorter fat ones. They’re the size of Xmas tree decorations

Can’t measure as it’s in attic as my kids are now 25+ so only come out when decorations go up.

Here’s Amazon link with additional pictures
www.amazon.ca/Story-Christmas-Book-Advent-Calendar/dp/0761152504

the pictures in books are slightly different than mine…seem to be less detailed, more simple and brighter colours …mind you I bought mine 27 years ago 🤣🤣

I like the idea of the task/challenge/event cards. Especially those where a child has to ‘talk’ about. Verbal communication and language is so important and generally ( not saying your child) low as children start school.

I also love the idea that these include giving to someone else - a visit, a food bank donation etc.

I would try and leave the tasks quite broad, print them on card and know that I can put them all away, mix them up and pop them back in next year.

Having to buy 24 little bits of things every year and especially as they get older will be so hard! Don’t set yourself up for more stress. 😉