Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel sad that a £2 chocolate advent calendar is no longer enough?

218 replies

Ricekrispie22 · 02/09/2018 07:47

There are so many toy based advent calendars around these days and I feel they're just getting bigger and bigger. thetoptoys.blogspot.com/2018/09/toy-based-advent-calendars-sequel.html#more
I much preferred it when you could just get them a good old Cadbury choc calendar and that was enough. It's not like I need any more plastic tat in my house. Is it just me?

OP posts:
Womaningreen · 02/09/2018 11:02

@CarrieCakes80

"I hate folk who moan about the commercialism...can you not ignore it?? lol. "

well I try. But it's everywhere. and then it makes me sad to see so much waste and the stress on the environment. there's a lot of charity shops where I live - about 2 months after xmas they have signs up saying "we can't take any more stuff".

it's just a total waste and drain on every resource available.

Morethanthisprovincallife · 02/09/2018 11:02

gettinglikny

Plenty of posters would tell you all they for at Xmas was a piece of wood and whittling toy and it was magical and I imagine in some household it would be.

Presents were not dm forte to be honest.

But creating an amazing atmosphere was her forte.
Decorating, smells, music etc, baking...

Anything that makes it different to normal day will make it special.

AlpacaPicnic · 02/09/2018 11:08

Hang on... back up a few pages... what's wrong with having a Christmas duvet cover? I have one that gets put on my bed on December 1st every year. I treat it like a decoration. As I do with the Christmas cushions in the front room and my Christmas teatowels oven gloves and themed teapot

The competitive under-christmassers are as bad as the competetive under-birthdayers - it won't be long before someone comes along and says that all they got to mark the festive season was a kick in the pants with a red boot and they were grateful for it!

stargirl1701 · 02/09/2018 11:09

The paper ones with glitter are bad for the environment too. Plastic glitter is a micro contaminant.

HighwayDragon1 · 02/09/2018 11:10

I'm nearly 30 and had a felt calendar filled with toys and chocolate bars, I also always had a Christmas Eve present/treat/box so really the only thing new to me is the elf.

ilovesooty · 02/09/2018 11:15

My sister and I shared a paper one as children
Don't remember any glitter on it.

Peachsnowpop · 02/09/2018 11:18

And whilst we're at it elf on the shelf Christmas boxes and changing all the cushions and duvet covers to Christmas themed ones can piss off too

oh god YYYYYYY - and the crazy of present toppers, fancy paper/wrappings and the need to co-ordinate gift wrappings/colors/theme.. I loved the old fashioned multicoloured paper which was a great mismatch under the tree.

Bring back the 80s ! Garish tinsel; picture advents; cheap wrapping paper and as always says no elf on the shelf, xmas themed duvets/PJs/cushion covers or xmas eve boxes

LaurieMarlow · 02/09/2018 11:20

it won't be long before someone comes along and says that all they got to mark the festive season was a kick in the pants with a red boot and they were grateful for it!

Grin
LaurieMarlow · 02/09/2018 11:22

Elf on the Shelf isn't particularly commercial though, provided you don't buy an official elf (which no one I know has done).

Ours cost 5 euro and will be used year after year.

Birdsgottafly · 02/09/2018 11:47

""Open a toy a day before you open a shitload on the 25th?""

The thing is to plan what you are getting, so it isn't adding anything, it blends in. Last year I got my GD a Vtech one, it built a Christmas scene in with her other Vtech stuff. This year it will be Playmobile, but possibly the Dragon one.

"Are all the people that buy them doing it for religious reasons or just because everyone else does/commercial like all the other Christmas stuff?"

Can we keep religion out of Christmas Grin. It's a massive Cultural celebration that's been going on for quite a while.

Peachsnowpop, I did Xmas Eve gift bag in the 80's. It had whatever Disney DVD was released for Christmas and the matching PJ's. My DH worked ridiculously long hours, away from home, but was guaranteed to be home for Xmas Eve.So not extra, just got it a day early.

AlpacaPicnic, Matalan have Christmas Shower Curtains in stock, now, there online Christmas Leaflet was released last week..

I buy my Christmas bedding and other bits in the Sales, during March, when they've gone down to next to nothing. It makes no sense to be running around in December trying to fit everything in, when it is also Flu/Chest infection etc season.

We don't don't do stocking fillers, which mostly ends up in Landfill, or the Secret Santa etc.

I don't know why a Chocolate Calendar is seen as so good. If it's Cadbury's, they have been proven to use Child labour and Child/Adult Slave Labour. They don't pay Tax. They don't support the Small Farmers. There products have been found to contain uncertified Dairy. It's doing badly on many areas, animal welfare, protection of rainforests etc.

Then there is Nestle.

We shouldn't be paying only £2 for Chocolate.

There was a time when Chocolate wasn't traditional. When it first came out, it was a drink, usually with alcohol and not for children.

ontheearth · 02/09/2018 12:11

We had a beautiful advent calendar where you scrolled out a paragraph of an advent story each day. E.g. one day was about the bears' mum baking Christmas cookies, one was about the little bears doing their nativity play etc. By the time we had to get rid of it my mum must have had it for about twenty years and it was literally taped together every few centimetres. It was gorgeous and every year I try and find one similar and have never seen one.

Chocolala · 02/09/2018 12:11

We have a couple of the German picture ones that I iron the doors shut on and store for another year every January. They get rotated so it’s not the same every year.

I don’t buy the chocolate ones because they are unhealthily and environmentally unfriendly tat (those black plastic inserts can’t be recycled and it’s also single use plastic).

Toy advent calendars will never get a look in here.

LaurieMarlow · 02/09/2018 12:14

TBH, I'd prefer the DC to open a small toy everyday that they'll enjoy and has longevity (for instance lego/playmobile) than expect a daily chocolate before breakfast.

LeftRightCentre · 02/09/2018 12:18

I don't like chocolate. Roll on M&S beauty advent calendar! I buy beauty/special interest ones for my kids every year.

CatchingACold · 02/09/2018 12:20

op, I did Xmas Eve gift bag in the 80's. It had whatever Disney DVD was released for Christmas and the matching PJ's

DVD in the 80s ! No way.

TeacupTattoo · 02/09/2018 12:31

My kids get the picture Advent calendars still, we also have an advent candle. Compared to many I suppose we are quite frugal with our mid-winter celebrations but we still enjoy them. I also still do tinsel and garish wrapping paperSmile

Neshoma · 02/09/2018 12:37

But once you have bought the xmas duvet, the xmas jumper, the xmas hamper ........how do you top it the next year?

My teen DDs have had a few beauty calendars, but they seem to be the same every year. We can't afford the really expensive ones so I may not even do an advent calendar this year.

Birdsgottafly · 02/09/2018 12:44

""But once you have bought the xmas duvet, the xmas jumper, the xmas hamper ........how do you top it the next year?""

Why do you have to top it?

I have all of those things, they still need renewing.

I do new things each Christmas, a different Christmas Market, a different theater to see a play/panto etc.I do different Winter planting in my Garden. Just because you do all of the stuff that goes with Christmas, doesn't mean that it's your only focus.

Birdsgottafly · 02/09/2018 12:46

CatchingACold, sorry Video. I'm that out of practice of typing Video.

YouAndMeAreGoingToFallOut · 02/09/2018 12:49

We have one like this that builds a Nativity scene. We've had it for years now. My 18 month old (as she was at the time) DD loved it last year and I'm hoping she will enjoy it again this year. I'm not keen on the disposable nature of these very elaborate ones now - so much waste.

To feel sad that a £2 chocolate advent calendar is no longer enough?
Neshoma · 02/09/2018 12:49

How about an Ingham family christmas?

To feel sad that a £2 chocolate advent calendar is no longer enough?
AjasLipstick · 02/09/2018 12:55

Ew to the Ingham's Christmas wrapping.

Does anyone else hate that fad of choosing one design per child? It looks AWFUL! So unfestive!

HopeGarden · 02/09/2018 13:41

My goodness there’s a lot of presents in that photo!

That’s another modern trend I don’t like, photos on social media with children next to (usually) mountains of presents.

HowCanThisBeRight · 02/09/2018 13:44

My DS always had the choc one. Except one yr I got a lego one for a fiver.. But I wrapped it as a gift and said it was kind of an early present. He loved it. But never asked for one..

TroysMammy · 02/09/2018 13:53

I never had an Advent calendar as a child.

When my sister had a child I bought a wooden one to start a tradition. I put little notes in it like "decorate the tree", "Visit Santa", "Make a Christmas card" etc etc. It's never used. My sister buys a chocolate filled one that her daughter has at breakfast time. "But it's Christmas".