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?

It's all ridiculous. Posh advent calendars, Christmas Eve boxes jumpers, pjs etc it's not a holiday anymore, just an excuse to buy rubbish and tat at crazy prices.

And then the ruddy thing is 50% or 90% off from Boxing Day...

mine take it in turns on a Lindor one, and a traditional paper one. the paper one gets as high billing as the chocolate one, as they're a billion times prettier and more festive.

It would be so interesting to see how much the word 'tat' is used on here in November and December compared to the rest of the year 🤣🤣

@ABCeasyasdohrayme

It would be so interesting to see how much the word 'tat' is used on here in November and December compared to the rest of the year 🤣🤣

I don't know, there's quite a lot of valentines day and Halloween tat too.

I expect it correlates with sales of said tat in the shops.

@tallduckandhandsome

And then the ruddy thing is 50% or 90% off from Boxing Day...

Buy ahead for the following year...

I agree, DH bought me the L'Occitane one for this year, I do like and use their products, but I asked him to send it back because no one needs 24 tiny tubes of things that won't do the job required because the amounts are so small, so they are pretty much one use. I suggested if he wanted to get could get me a nice soap or shower gel from their that I will use every day in December

I've just got my daughter a 79p carrot one from aldi 😂 I hope she won't be too disappointed

@iloveayankeecandle

I've just got my daughter a 79p carrot one from aldi 😂 I hope she won't be too disappointed

I hope it doesn't have a carrot in each of the windows!

My mum made DS1 one when he was a baby. I made one for DS2 when he was a toddler. They are now in their mid 20s, and I still use them, but I have upgraded to Divine dark chocolate coins from Oxfam.
I bought a no 7 one for me a couple of years ago- some good stuff, but I still haven't opened a couple of items. My make up wearing opportunites have diminished since Covid.

DockOTheBay - my toddler would still love it lol

Yes! Bring back the nice old-fashioned ones with plenty of silver glitter; the excitement of a new picture every day and the Nativity at the end was quite enough in my day (so why have I spent over £60 on Hotel Chocolat ones for five children??)

We make an advent calendar out of kitchen roll tubes every year, either Father Christmas or Christmas Trees, and pop however many quality street there are children in them…the teens would be devastated if we stop, they still take over with the decorating of them! Being disappointed you don’t have the same as a friend is just part and parcel of growing up.

My sister and I took turns - I'm planning to do the same with my two!! I did one year of a happy land one then bought a refillable one!

@mam0918

Belladonna12 - in lots of countries Christmas day isn't about gifts at all.

Santa and the Christmas day gifts are mostly British/American and hard to know how the 24th became the 'main day' here.

I believe in many more countries Christmas is about Mass and feasting and they do actual gifts on Epiphany (such as Befana or Magi) than on Christmas (Epiphany is when Jesus was given gifts because it took the kings, wise men and everyone else 12 days to travel there).

I know. I'm not sure why you are telling me this as I was saying that there is no rule that presents have to be on christmas day.

Last year dc9 had a chocolate one, no joke got bounty 7 days in row lol! She hates chocolate generally anyway so not getting her this again.

As she's older now she asked for beauty type one- she's into nail art/ glitter / lip gloss etc. I got one that had miniature beauty bits aimed at tweens/ teens. It was £20 from Amazon. But it will be coming out of Xmas present budget. For us the build up to Xmas is so exciting and this just adds to it.

Belladonna12 - exactly you mentioned vaguely that it's not just for Christmas day and I agreed and backed it up with some info on how most cultures celebrate on an entirely different day to Christmas.

Several posters posted other things in between so I wanted the correct comments to link... who else am I meant to tag?

We lived abroad and came only late (early '70s) to the idea of chocolate filled advent calendars. My parents were bitterly disappointed that they did not in fact contain any chocolate and never bought them again.

They though the same about Easter Eggs.

Reader, I had found the hiding place on the top shelf of their wardrobes and very, very carefully opened them (advent calendars, Easter eggs, all fair game) and removed all chocolate fillings. Even my sister never knew.

In their later years, I 'fessed up to most of the things I had got up to, but never that one. They would never have believed that I could be so careful when I was usually so clumsy.

@FinallyHere

We lived abroad and came only late (early '70s) to the idea of chocolate filled advent calendars. My parents were bitterly disappointed that they did not in fact contain any chocolate and never bought them again.

They though the same about Easter Eggs.

Reader, I had found the hiding place on the top shelf of their wardrobes and very, very carefully opened them (advent calendars, Easter eggs, all fair game) and removed all chocolate fillings. Even my sister never knew.

In their later years, I 'fessed up to most of the things I had got up to, but never that one. They would never have believed that I could be so careful when I was usually so clumsy.

That’s hilarious!

@Lockheart
Absolutely! Cadbury’s have the same
Advent calendar design year after year. Can’t they just go through the advent calendar designs of the 90s? They would be a massive hit! They always had a special chocolate for 24th too! Now the pictures are so rubbish

There will always be goods available that are too expensive or you don't want to buy. The answer is mot to buy them!

I don't love the way some pp assume their way of doing christmas is the only way, though. Advent does not have to be "a quiet period of contemplation". I am happy with my family based, entirely secular christmas!

@Moraxella

I can’t find any traditional card picture (no chocolate) ones in the shops despite looking, has anyone got one they’ve seen?

Ebay and amazon have them. I bought one but it has a santa pic rather than a nativity pic for £2.90 but there is nativity pics too

I bought myself a picture one last year but it was too secular for me. I wanted nativity scenes and camels, instead I got snowflakes and stockings

I wish we could go back to the old days. The magic of sharing a picture one with my brother was so beautiful.

I don't like the idea of giving my DD a toy or book every day in the lead up to Christmas and at age 3 I don't want her to have chocolate every day either. We've got a traditional card advent calendar which I remember fondly from childhood. I planned to get her a chocolate one when she was a bit older.

As it so happened, her grandad has bought her a Peppa pig one, so she will have a chocolate one this year. He also got her a Christmas Eve box for her first Christmas which is another tradition I didn't want to start 😄

Completely agree. The meaning behind them is totally lost. That thread on beauty advent calendars was both alarming & worrying in equal measure. Everybody knows fine well what's in each of them - so there goes the surprise element - and they're all taking about them as though they're some kind of bulk buy deal, rather than an actual advent calendar! 🤦🏼‍♀️
"Well with the M&S one, you get X & Y and they're worth Z combined! Bargain!"