Re DSD's advent calendar?

[PoesyCherish]

DP and I have a cloth advent calendar which we fill with chocolate. We only bought it last year and weren't sure how it was going to go so we bought DSD a separate calendar, just one of the branded chocolate ones. She ended up only eating about 4 chocs and leaving the rest until way past Advent. I think she finally finished it early Feb.

This year we're avoiding chocolate as DP and I are both on diets. Would we BU to use the cloth advent calendar but only put chocs in the days we have DSD?

I don't know if it makes any difference but she's almost 7.

I’d just buy one of the cheap £ ones with her favourite character on, and chuck the rest if she’s bored of it by mid-Jan.

It’s not something that needs overthinking IMO.

Sorry I should have said she doesn't really eat sweets so sadly things like Haribo packets are out.

I'm going to pop to Home bargains (and the like) this afternoon and see if I can find anything suitable. The pockets according to Google are 6x6 cm so any further suggestions of things that would fit would be much appreciated. Last year we could just about fit in two Cadbury heroes chocs.

Buy a pack of 4 hair clips, pack of four hair bobbles- slip them, that’s 8 days, and so on. And maybe a little chocolate for the days she is with you. I think you are over thinking this a bit- but in a nice way!

No self control ☹️

Its a bit joyless to part fill a calendar. Surely one of the pluses of having a split family could be a few extra treats. I'do a mix of chocolates and little decorations she could keep (not just tat) and maybe put the chocolate in the days she's with you so you can't eat it.

How about getting a tiny tree and putting small decorations in lots of the pockets so she gets to enjoy it as a work in progress no matter when she's there.

The first day could have a set of battery lights, they often come in strings of 12 in small boxes. If you buy a pack of 6 choc decorations she may even keep them on the tree.

I make my sister an advent calendar - albeit she's a bit older at 26...

I add a wee lip balm, tiny tree hanging decorations, a tea light, nail varnish, a little magnet, a £1 face mask, hair bobbles, pack of chewing gum, a pocket mirror, stamps to send christmas cards, a scratchcard, a little pack of flower seeds, a keyring, a fee sample of perfume, a balloon and some ferrero rocher because they're wrapped and don't melt onto the fabric of the advent calendar. There's lots you can add without chocolate. It costs about £50 but her reactions make it worth the money and effort

Could you get her non edible gifts for the advent calender this year and then maybe add a chocolate/sweet only on the days she is at your house? That way she gets a chocolate on the days she's with you but she can "binge" the missed days of her advent calender in one go as they aren't edible items.

At advent my DD gets an advent calender at both mine and her dad's houses. Her dad and I have a good relationship and we agree that she gets one chocolate calender and one non-chocolate calender each year. We alternate which parent does which one each year.

Recently there have been lots of toy/non-chocolate calenders on the market so it has got easier to buy one premade but in the past I just used to go to Home bargains/B&M/Poundland etc and get lots of little trinkets - hair clips, funky tree ornaments, bath fizzers, minifigures, novelty pencils, lipbalms etc - to fill her advent calender with and I'd put the occasional note in a weekend day with an activity - decorate the tree, build the gingerbread house, visit to Santa's grotto etc.

This year she has a lindt advent calender at her dad's house (shes with me the first week of December so when she goes to her dad she'll have the current week's chocolates and she is allowed to have the previous weeks chocs whenever she likes as a treat) and a Harry Potter jewellery advent calender at my house. The HP calender is a charm bracelet that she builds up over the month so when she comes to my house she can just open all the days she has missed to build up her bracelet in one sitting rather than every single day.