Bloody advent calendars

[Silverswirl]

When I was little we had card advent calendars that had a picture from the nativity under each door or maybe angels, Holly, a bell, xmas tree etc.
Then when my kids first got advent calendars it was the chocolate ones where a small piece of chocolate was moulded into something. Fine. Cost around £1 Its something they really enjoy each morning and builds the excitement to Christmas Day.
For the last few years it’s been the hero / celebration ones as they saw them in the shop and really wanted one. Ok.. I was a bit 🤨 as they cost £5 each and I have 3 kids but knowing how much they enjoy them we’ve had those for the past few years.
I usually ask the kids if they have a preference on which one they like (ie heroes/ Reece’s / Malteasers etc) or if they want a surprise.
This year I asked my DD age 12. She said that 2 of her friends (I know one is wealthy) are getting the body shop one for £50! WTH? I said no, it’s a chocolate one as usual and does she have a preference and she said Heroes then but sounded disappointed.
So now the large chocolate ones are not good enough?
Why must things just get bigger and bigger all the time? I mean come on, who needs 24 tubes of plastic filled with a tiny bit of cream or similar. Really? Do we need to be having 24 samples of stuff?l and spending £50+ on an advent calendar?
Consumerism is on a runaway train and I just don’t think anything will stop it ever?

My kids get standard £1 chocolate ones as we did as kids.

Family keep threatening to buy those fill your own ones for my kids and I don't want the chore of sourcing 24 tiny cheap gifts to fill it. I love budgets and number counts etc... but the tiny 1-inch by 1-inch size issue I can't be bothered with at all it is just too ridiculously constricting.

We do our own 12 days but it alcohol for adults (like miniatures, a canned cocktail, a bottle of ale etc... of say coffee and pop for non-drinkers) and for the kids it's just something sweet, planning to buy those biscuits selections and they can have a different biscuit each day this year lol.

@EdenFlower

They don't need it- it's easy to say no!

We have a wooden refillable one- it has characters of the nativity to get out each day and add to the manger and room for a small chocolate too! Best thing I ever bought- I'm hoping it will become a family heirloom and dd will use it for her own children (in the distant future).

Edenflower, where did you get that? It’s lovely!

@TroysMammy

I bought my sister a beautiful wooden advent calendar when she became a Mum and put some little notes in it, e.g. Decorate the Christmas tree, watch a Christmas film, sing a Christmas carol, see the Christmas lights, write Christmas cards. She prefers the cheap chocolate ones that she then chucks in landfill!

I think the sentiment behind this is lovely, but essentially it's a list of 24 Christmas-related chores for your sister.

They do it to drive trial but I think the jury is out on how many full price purchases they miss out on after an advent calendar. If you've got 24 bits from body shop it'll be a while until you go there again.

That's true, I wonder if they can calculate how many people switch to their products after an advent calendar?
I specifically bought M&S ones a few years ago because I wanted to try new stuff and it was a very cost-effective way of doing it. However I don't use the stuff all the time (you get a decent size too) so about 2 years later I started buying the full-size things... So I am on paper a very slow 'convert' but I wouldn't have bought e.g. the Eyeko liquid liner if it wasn't in the calendar!
OTOH I tried some stuff that's always being praised and didn't get on with it so it's saved me buying something I won't go on to use!

Oh and predictably one of my favourite things in the calendar is now discontinued... The only 'lipstick' type thing I'm likely to wear!

@LittleGwyneth

I plan to do a relatively extravagant Christmas, but Advent calendars are going to be paper ones with pictures. What's the point of a point of little presents, followed by even more presents? And the waste is off the clock. If you're a believer, Advent is about reflection. And if you're not, it should at least be about building up for Christmas, not getting more stuff before Christmas.

There is no rule that presents should be on Chistmas day itself. Why "should" it be a certain way. People can do what they want. It is nobody elses business.

I agree, chocolate ones only here and an advent candle. Better to save beauty products, Lego, whatever for the actual Christmas presents IMO.

I agree but I’m a total hypocrite because despite the fact I duly fill the beautiful, handmade, reusable advent calendar my mil made for us every year with celebrations which the children take in turn to open (everyone fights for the Malteaser days) I also buy them a toy calendar. This year they have a Schleich calendar each. In previous years we’ve had various playmobil and Lego calendars. To be fair they are toys I’d buy anyway and the dc do play with the contents A LOT throughout the year so I suppose I justify it to myself that way. I do resent the expense though and I probably only started it because all of their friends get them too. Last year I treated myself to the Holland and Barrett beauty advent calendar and it was actually lovely to have a little surprise every day and I used nearly everything in it so it ended up as good value (think it was £40?) I might have bought one again this year but it was sold out before I had a chance. They’re obviously popular.

DPs aunt bought the lego/paw patrol toy ones 2 years i a row for our kids they both got fed up with a random piece every day but loved having a £1.50 chocolate one so the next year I tactfully told her not to waste her money. It was such a waste and getting a surprise toy every day dulled build up for xmas because they had 24 surprises before hand.

As an aside asda have cadbury calanders for £1.25 just now 🙂

I agree, OP. A lot of those beauty advent calendars are a bit of a con. Thing is, I might not have any use for half of the beauty products, but there's NO chocolate I wouldn't eat

I have resolutely refused to buy the Lego calendars for my DC as they already have enough Lego to build an extension onto our house ... and furnish it!

Loved a picture one. The chocolate ones also used to have a nice picture. Now they can’t even be bothered to do a nice Christmasy front. 24 chocolates you can get anywhere.

I agree about the gift ones although 24 mini bottles of wine to try sounds fabulous. And Lego/play mobile nativity were brilliant.

Fill your own can be equally as bad. We have an unevenly weighted Father Christmas that falls over every year without fail. And the drawers aren’t big enough for anything other than a chocolate ball.

You can get ones for your pets too now.....consumerism gone bonkers and has been for several years.

I had hoped covid may make people change their priorities come the Christmas madness, but sadly not.......

I agree to an extent but for us it actually is part of their present.

DH was newly gluten free last year and drinking cider (and sick of it) as we were trying to eliminate what made him feel bad. So I ordered a gf beer case and you have never seen a man so excited each day to see what gf offerings there were!

I used to love the advent calendars with that pictures, but now they cost more than the ones with chocolate in.

compromise? Say they can have a choc one for free but anything more fancy and it becomes an early christmas present and that means less on their list

I get the Bonne Maman preserves one. Love it.

Yanbu op! My 3 year old has a lovely little felt advent calendar with pockets and I'm going to soak it up for as long as I can. I dread the year he suddenly gets bored with it and wants something bigger and better.

Yep. I used to roll my eyes at people bemoaning the commercialism of Christmas. Love me a bit of consumerism, as much as the next person. But between advent calendars, Christmas Eve boxes, new PJs every year and now Dec 1st boxes (wtf!?) it has officially gone too far. I've already ordered the cardboard advent calendars for me and DP (if I want crappy chocolate I can buy more for less in the regular packets) and once DD is old enough to care she is going to be in for some major disappointments (sorry kid)

We have a reusable one which is wooden and you can fit 3 or 4 chocolates per drawer which is exactly what I do.

You could buy a tub of Heroes chocolate and fill it yourself. Mine both get to open the drawer and take out their chocolate. I do this because I had the picture advent calendars as a child.

@BoredZelda

Advent calendars are supposed to be about the nativity.

I always wonder if people who claim what one part of a religion is “supposed to be” follow all the other “supposed to be” things about the religion too.

Yes indeed. Lots of people are all about the birth of Jesus, attend midnight mass etc, but don’t go near a church for the remainder of the year, despite their religion telling them it should be a weekly event, still eat meat on Fridays etc. They do enjoy preaching to the rest of us though, who are consistent in being Athiest or Agnositic!

@Dochas121

We had a small Christmas tree that sat on a base which had boxes with all the advent numbers on. We would take it in turns opening it and hanging whatever ornament was inside on the tree - think nutcracker, toy doll, Santa, rocking horse etc. By the 24th the tree was fully decorated. It sat in the middle of the kitchen table. We also shared one of those cheap chocolate ones.

What a lovely idea!

I buy the playmobil/lego/stationery ones. They're madly expensive but I count them as Christmas presents and factor them into my budget. They're always something that they're interested in, and the toys inside get kept and played with all year.

I prefer them over the daily chocolate.

£50 is properly ridiculous though.

@Etherealhedgehog

Yep. I used to roll my eyes at people bemoaning the commercialism of Christmas. Love me a bit of consumerism, as much as the next person. But between advent calendars, Christmas Eve boxes, new PJs every year and now Dec 1st boxes (wtf!?) it has officially gone too far. I've already ordered the cardboard advent calendars for me and DP (if I want crappy chocolate I can buy more for less in the regular packets) and once DD is old enough to care she is going to be in for some major disappointments (sorry kid)

Dec 1st boxes? What fresh hell is this?

I bought the numbered paper bags from IKEA and have used them for the last 5 years. We string them up in the hallway and fill them wiht chocolate coins or other shapes from those little net bags of chocolagte footballs/reindeer/whatever. Each Saturday has a slip of paper with a Christmas film on it for us to watch that night.

THey change the design of the bags every year - this is the current offering (although it's much more this year than I paid!)
www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/vinter-2021-gift-bag-mixed-patterns-multicolour-30499502/

I bought my daughters a wooden refillable advent calendar each the year and they have 25 Christmas hair clips/ hair bobbles each that we fill them with on November 30. They don’t know which one is in which drawer and they always get excited to find out and wear them all day in their hair. Some of them are silly, some pretty. It’s just a bit of fun really. When they’re a bit older, I quite like the idea of doing the advent charm bracelets if they’re up for them - although maybe they’ll want to keep the hair accessories just for fun ha!

We had one where each day was a little cardboard shop or house to make and you put them on a board to make up a village. Number 1 was a Christmas tree and number 24 was the church. We loved it and did it every year until it fell apart