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

[Ricekrispie22]

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?

No chocolate here. My two dc are now 14 and 16, and take it in turns to open one with pictures. It gets very competitive as we all try to guess the picture - we all love it, and wouldn't want cheap rubbish chocolate.

Do what suits your family, and try not to add to the glut of sugar and plastic rubbish, it's a good lesson for your kids.

And stop caring about what daft people on FB are doing. Also, I work I a priMary school and hate it when 6/7 year old kids in my class co e in and by 8am have had lots of chocolate............ not good.

Did anyone used to get an advent candle? Me and my siblings used to get one every year (to share). We had it in our bedroom and used to burn it on the window sill We used to gather round it with our recorders and play carols. I promise you this was the UK in the 80s, not an Amish family in the 50s

These days my kids have a lovely hand made one made by my mum. We put chocolates in it. I also get an advent candle but there is no way I’m allowing my kids to burn it by themselves upstairs!

No need to visit Vienna or order online, decent card shops sell stunning traditional advent calendars. They're usually about a tenner or even more if they're big and have a ribbon etc but I love them.

I buy them for my mum, sister etc as an advent present.

I can give specific recommends in Edinburgh.

morris

And garden centres with Christmas displays tend to have them

Or at least the ones ive visited do

I think, for me, that getting dcs paper advent calendars is a way of getting them to appreciate that not everything about Christmas is chocolate and/or presents or toys or plastic. They are modern kids, we live in modern times so of course they have current toys/technology etc (this generation of kids under 10 have never not known technology & gadgets) but the paper advents are a link with the past and simpler times. It’s a balance. We’ve done commercial showy Christmas events with a fancy Santa and also very basic Santa in a local shopping centre like I did as a child. We buy in decorations, but they make lots of paper chains too and my dcs absolutely love making orange pomanders with the red ribbon and cloves, even my Ds.

I had the same picture one every year as child. My dc are 18 and 16 but 2 years ago I bought dd a make-up one and Ds a Lego one - they were both horrified and said where's the chocolate? I think Ds opened the first 2 days on the Lego one (I appreciate he's was 14 but still thought he'd love it) didn't build the gifts and it's still kicking about unopened somewhere, bloody kids!

A chocolate one here too - last year it did seem that all my DC friends had playmobil etc ... but it’s just over done. We don’t do Xmas eve boxes either but must confess to Christmas PJ’s.
I hear MN moaning as it’s only Sept and the chat is about Xmas but the supermarkets have got Xmas stuff in already x

errr I never buy one with anything in it - it's a picture thing.

We just have a £2 chocolate one. (£1 in the pound shop!) My mum used to say the same about chocolate calendars, weren't pictures enough etc.

Every year I think I will buy one of those naice trains and put recycled toys in them and every year I get whatever chocolate one is on the first shelf I see on 30th Nov.

mavis we had a (shared) advent candle in the 80s too!

Overheard in a local cut-price store today. Woman to man: 'I'll get him a bike and you've got to get him a laptop.' Man: 'Why? A bike's f--ing loads! We'll get him a bike between us.' Woman: 'You'll get him a laptop and I'll get him a bike. It's Christmas, that's why.'
No answer to that, is there?

Last year I gave my kids normal chocolate ones but my 96yr old Nan had only been widowed for 2 months so I wrapped her up 25 little gifts so she had something to open every day..... she loved it!! I am a bit worried she will be expecting it this year too!!!

Not everyone who does Christmas Eve boxes etc spends a fortune and fills them with extra gifts. I made one for DS (2) and it gets filled with little bits and pieces for us to spend Christmas Eve doing together as a family. Last years had some bits of craft stuff to make Christmas Decorations (all bought on sale the previous new year so cost pennies), some Christmas cookie cutters which belonged to me as a child, and went back in the box and will come out every year for us to make gingerbread (something I did myself as a child every Christmas with my Nana), some home made bird friendlyreindeer dust, and some chocolate coins to have while we watched Miracle on 34th Street (another family tradition) that I can remember off the top of my head. Ours is geared towards quality family time rather than spending more money. Very few pictures make it to Facebook, and the ones that do are on a secret group which is the only place we post pictures of our DC. Not everyone who does these things is trying to compete/keep up with the Jonses or is spending a fortune. Surely it's each to their own how they 'do' Christmas.

I don’t get what’s with Dec advent ones that cost £50 (even if we know they are all reduced to £25 on the 1st of Dec) with 12 windows. I understand the 12 days of advent finishing in Jan but not why expensive ones are purchased to count down every other day to Christmas!

I haven't got time to read the thread properly yet. Has anyone mentioned that John Lewis did Easter advent calendars last year?

I got my DD a book advent let year. I am going to do the same this year. They are more than £2 but my DM usually buys my DD one anyway.

I've stopped sending choc or tat advent stuff.
I buy these for a large range of ages of family and friends and I've had more feedback on them than I ever have for large presents.
They are suitable for all age ranges and everyone I've sent them to absolutely adores them. They last forever, so you can go back and re-do activities and change some items and play the games over and over again.
This year's isn't ready yet, have a peek at the demo for last year.
www.jacquielawson.com/advent

I have a wooden one with little boxes that I re-use each year. No way I'd put plastic tat in it! Sweets, small polished stones, coins etc

I never had the chocolate ones as a child I had a picture one.
When DC1 had her first Christmas I bought a playmobil advent calendar. She and later her 3 brothers have opened it every year for 17 years. They argue about who will get it when they are all grown up.
I really don't see the problem.

I buy a religious 1 for myself which I really love to do and get from local church. my 2 boys get a chocolate 1 each. I remember how my ex got given 10 choc calenders each year. he was 23 when we first met....

“the elf is a smug faced little bastard”

😂

I'm guilty of this. Well I was last year.

I bought my youngest a smiggle one and eldest a soap and glory
And I treated myself to the m&s one.

Not sure if I would do it again but they were nice. Especially the m&s one!

I also get new pjs and a lush bubble bar for Christmas eve for them. I don't put them.in a box though and I certainly don't do the creepy elf on a shelf.

Bore off, it’s September. Why am I even encouraging this thread by contributing to it?

You are all unreasonable for talking about advent calendars at the beginning of September!!!