Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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:

DrCoconut · 04/09/2018 09:32

We didn't even get a new picture one each year, DM closed the doors and reused it.

UnaOfStormhold · 04/09/2018 09:46

We had the lego one for DS last year and the pieces are still being played with almost every day. They'd be ridiculously expensive just for December but the amount of pleasure he has had from them makes me feel they're actually reasonable value. So it looks like we'll be getting another this year, in place of a Christmas day gift. And definitely I'd rather get that than encourage him to eat chocolate every day!

PlainVanilla · 04/09/2018 10:32

May I remind everyone that there are those of us old enough to remember when Advent Calendars did not even have chocolate in them!
Why not try going "retro" and anticipating?

BarbarianMum · 04/09/2018 10:38

We have a chocolate one and a lottery so everyone gets 6 chocolates in the run up to Christmas #tightarse. Just because companies encourage all this "must have" shit doesn't mean you have to buy into it, or that your kids will mind if you don't. Ime what kids like are the traditions you create as a family.

DioneTheDiabolist · 04/09/2018 10:46

Back in my day, we didn't have Advent calendars. Not chocolate ones. Not even picture ones! We just had to look through people's windows on the way to school to see if they'd put their tree up yet.

PrimalLass · 04/09/2018 10:51

Meh. I find December very stressful so buy myself a beauty one. DD will get a Ciate one as she's obsessed with nail polish and I bought it for £8 in TK Maxx.

JosieJasper · 04/09/2018 11:54

I’m clearly a mean Mummy My two just get picture ones as I feel the chocolate ones are unnecessary. Don’t really want them starting the day with chocolate anyway, but that’s just my opinion/decision for my kids. If you want a chocolate one rather than toy one, then get the chocolate one.

Seafoodeatit · 04/09/2018 18:21

We get the eldest a Lego one because he loves it and it just gets added to his usual lego box after christmas. His lego calendar is almost half the price of the chocolate one as they don't sell them in the UK. Each to their own, we don't buy nearly as much presents as other people do so like to have the advent calendars as a special treat.

Seafoodeatit · 04/09/2018 18:22

Also - are we the only ones that keep them out of reach - the chocolate isn't eaten in the morning!

MaggieAndHopey · 04/09/2018 18:26

Fuck. I probably am not the only one to say this (to save my sanity, I have not read the whole thread) but I really can't believe people are thinking and talking about advent calendars at the beginning of SEPTEMBER people! It's the beginning of SEPTEMBER! I just... I dunno. This sort of thing is making me really start to dislike Christmas, and I used to be such a fan.

colditz · 04/09/2018 19:33

What? It's totally enough

Just because this spoilt nonsense is available doesn't mean it's required.

postcardsfrom · 04/09/2018 19:45

YABU - £2 choc one’s are the norm, plastic tat ones the exception. My kids, like most I suspect, are perfectly happy with chocolate...

Nevergiveup1980 · 04/09/2018 19:51

£2!! I just buy a £1 one

Starlings27 · 04/09/2018 19:53

You’d hate us! DS has a wooden advent truck with 24 little drawers. Some days there is a little toy in the drawers, sometimes chocolate, sometimes a balloon... and DP and I take turns opening a traditional card advent calendar with wee pictures behind each door.

BrendasUmbrella · 05/09/2018 12:37

Things change. I remember as a kid being excited to open a new door on the calendar and see that days picture. My dc expected chocolate. I now expect 25 days of skincare and makeup minis!

HoppingPavlova · 05/09/2018 13:21

We always got LEGO advents for ours. They loved it! So much so that even as teen/young adult they expect it. Some years I wonder whether I will still be getting LEGO advents when they are 30yo.

BlooperReel · 05/09/2018 13:26

Mine both love the chocolate ones, they have had playmobil ones, but all the bits get lost so I fucked that off and chocolate ones were much more exciting because they were allowed to eat chocolate in the morning

tillytrotter1 · 05/09/2018 17:15

We used to have to bring chocolate advent calendars over from Germany when we lived there and they weren't available here, going back almost 40 years here. The best ones had a small liqueur for every day!
If parents subscribe to this nonsense where a £2 chocolate calendar isn't 'enough' then they deserve all the problems they get. Tell them about Hobson's choice, on that and many other things.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9