AIBU to buy my children traditional picture advent calendars?

[MissPB]

I have always bought my children (ages 3 & 6) "traditional" advent calenders. I had them up to being a teenager and have very fond memories of them.

Eldest has cottoned on to the chocolate calendars now because her school friends have them. She hasn't asked for one yet but I wonder if she will this year.

AIBU to keep buying the old-style calendars so that they enjoy the simple pleasure of the count-down to Christmas and wondering what picture they will get?

Is it one you can reuse EBD

I buy a family one (children take it in turns) which is always 'lovely'. My mum buys the boys chocolate festive Ben10 ones.

I am making my own delux advent calendar this year, instead of all chocolate (there will be some Lindt balls in there somewhere) I'm using all the samples I've collected from various boots chemist's... 24 will be a smple size of my fave perfume that I can't afford/justify buying for myself.

By the way, there's TWENTY FOUR days in Advent surely? It has always annoyed me that modern advent calendars have the 25th on them. No No NO.

Ebd that is stunning and have been looking for one can I ask how big the boxes are ? Though ideally I want gingerbread house wooden advebt calendar

We put 24 Christmas activities in the drawers of ours with chocolate coins last year. Some of them the DCs just weren't interested in and it was a bit of a palaver as some of them were date specific you had to move them around the night before if plans changed, or you had to do one before you could do another, or some of them needed to be at weekends. Don't leave it till the 30 Nov to start thinking of them is my advice. I am hoping it will be a bit easier this year. There was a good thread last year with poster's lists of activities for inspiration.

It is reusable puds. You can buy a refill bag of treats every year from F&M if you want to, however, we have just got the wooden house, we didn't get the F&M fillers as DS wouldn't appreciate them I would have.

catapult the boxes are slightly different sizes. They are all 3inches deep, and the doors are either 2.5x2.5inches or 2.5x3inches.

Teapotqueen, thank you, thank you, thank you!
I've been looking for this everywhere.
I got one about 4 years ago in Tesco and loved it, even my DM approved. It has biblical stories, pictures and chocolate! Plus the profit went to the third world. I'm off to Oxfam this week.

I prefer the traditional kind but I know my dc love the chocolate (which is teeny and makes them feel very naughty). So we have both. And a fabric one too. I may be making up for my mother's sniffiness about advent calendars when I was small.

Ooh-and I really would love a playmobil or Lego one. But can't really justify it.

Well yesterday I MADE ONE. A grown up on. Yes, beat that. I am now planning on filling with Leonidas/Nauhaus and wondering if we really have to eat between now and December 1 in order to afford this.

I've always had traditional ones and think they are lovely. Phoenix cards always have some nice ones.

I like mine to have a Christmas image - rather than Hello Kitty or Bart Simpson - I have Fairtrade Choc ones - with an nice religious picture

i get the traditional ones for the DDs (5 and 2)
dd1 is year one, and I am dreading the day she cottons on to the fact that everyone else has a chocolate one.
although we always seem to go overboard on stollen, mince pies and lebkuchen from 1st Dec so I don't think they're missing out.

We have a wooden nativity scene that builds up over advent. Each piece has a number on it so each day you rootle through the box to find the right piece. Day 1 is the stable back drop.

< soppy story alert >

When DH and I first met we lived 110 miles apart and only saw each other at the weekends. After 2.5 years of this I handed in my notice and moved to where he lived. I moved in in the September. In the November he was told he was being sent abroad for an unspecified period of time to fix a broken engine. We were unsure if he would be back for Christmas. The weekend before he was due to leave we saw the nativity scene in a shop and loved it so we bought it. He flew out on 1st December. Before he left we put up the stable. Every night he would ring me, I would rootle through the box to find the next piece, describe it to him and put it in the place it should be. He flew back on December 23rd as they decided to let them all come home for Christmas.

My DCs love putting the calender together and we talk about the above soppy story....

They also have traditional advent calenders and I also have a traditional one in my teaching space at work. So far DCs haven't asked for a chocolate one. If they do I will fnd a way round it. With decent chocolate!

Dd3 loved her picture calendar and we have a little set with a wall hanging of the nativity. It has people that you velcro on one by one - she adores that.

YANBU. There's enough chocolate in our house at Christmas as it is.

I bought DS a traditional one today at Paperchase - cost £4.50, but I think he'll like (repeatedly) opening the flaps. PuffPants - it's got a (rather cutesy) nativity scene with glitter on it.

I always get normal ones. They get enough chocolate over the course of a month withoiut adding to it.

Neverput-this is something of a tangent from your lovely story, but I love the word rootle Never heard it before but will be using it now!

I think my kids would disown me if they didnt get their daily dose of chocolate.

I'm treating myself to the Thorntons continental one.