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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be mildly vexed that chocolate advent calendars are the norm these days?

212 replies

MoChan · 04/12/2009 13:34

I used to be so excited by my picture one and didn't need chocolate to make it interesting. My step daughter can barely believe they ever existed and clearly can't see the point if there's no chocolate.

OP posts:
Mincepiedermama · 04/12/2009 15:37

I think chocolate advent calendars are a Godsend - quite literally - for getting kids out of bed on these dark winter mornings for school.

My kids have a chocolate one each AND there's the one we got from church which has nice messages every day. They snaffle the chocolates sharpish, then remember about the other one and open the door. The messages are things like, 'Do something nice for someone today' and 'What are your memories of past Christmases' and they always really enjoy these. Actually the effects are less immediate and far more far reaching than the chocs.

However, I think if I didn't get them a chocolate calendar, they'd open the doors of the other one tinged with resentment that there's no chocolate in there.

justaboutisfatandtired · 04/12/2009 15:38

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justaboutisfatandtired · 04/12/2009 15:41

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purpleturtle · 04/12/2009 15:42

YABU - to be mildly vexed.
My mother has bought hideous calendars this year and I am seething .

GibbonInARibbon · 04/12/2009 15:43

Nothing like a bit of cardboard and plastic tat filled with poor quality chocolate to get DD excited.

heartofgold · 04/12/2009 15:50

yanbu. i do think that chocolate every day is a Bad Thing (so stone me), not to mention crap chocolate, and the only chocolate calendar i've ever seen didn't have any pictures, just a star behind each choc

delayed gratification is part of the exciting build up to xmas as a kid, if you're getting choc every morning where's the delay?

Botbot · 04/12/2009 15:53

Banned from my house too. DD (3) is the world's fussiest eater and if she knows there is chocolate in the house, she refuses to eat anything else. We have a nice non-chocolate one though, which she is really enjoying.

biscuitbear · 04/12/2009 16:39

Yanbu. I bought them last year but I couldn't really be bothered this year and they have not been missed at all. My mother tries really hard to find the old cheap type with glitter all over them and she posts them pretending they come from Father Christmas. DD1 is 6 and she totally believes this and she loves looking at the little pictures. So, choc ones unnecessary and unhealthy.

mellifluouscauliflower · 04/12/2009 16:49

Being very badly prepared I went to the shops on Dec 1st. It was £5.95 for a beautiful one without chocolate or 99p for a pretty hideous Ben 10 one with chocolate.

I reflected on my own childhood, tramelled by the strictures of middle class taste: no ITV, no curlywurlies, no shiny T Shirts, no Disneyland, no toys advertised on TV.

And you know what? I bought the Ben 10 one. When you are buying a gift, I reasoned, you should think of what the recipient wants, not yourself . Well that's what my mother taught me, anyway.

MamaVoo · 04/12/2009 17:03

YANBU. I want my son to be excited just by the picture, like I was and still am. It's nice to be easily pleased. Down with chocolate advent calenders!

NormaSknockers · 04/12/2009 17:06

YANBU OP - We don't buy the chocolate ones either. We have a fabric one with pockets that we put little things inside, some have daft little things in like pretty hairclips or a mini spinning top other pockets have a fudge bar in or a chocolate santa Much more fun having a range of different things in there IMO!

NormaSknockers · 04/12/2009 17:08

Actually - I don't remember ever having a chocolate advent calender, mine were always picture ones!

InMyLittleHead · 04/12/2009 17:09

Children prefer chocolate to little pictures - who would have thought it?

catastrojb · 04/12/2009 17:12

i will admit to making an advent garland with little buckets and ribbon (saw something like it in a well-known - and pricy - department store), and then filling with tiny chocolate bars...... was fully intending to get little gifts or something instead, but had a mind-blank when it came to ideas so went for mini green and blacks. 'tis lovely though.....

StAnne · 04/12/2009 17:15

No chocolate advent in this house. We have two advents one with traditional pictures & one that has cut out kids that make up a nativity play. But I'm not an ogre he had three jam jars of sweets from the church bazaar and has loved them. If you are going to eat chocolate why not have a lovely funsize milky way! Yummy. I'm saving for Disneyland DH won't be coming because he is Mr Bah Humbug.

MsDoctor · 04/12/2009 17:18

I don't mind chocolate advent calendars, but please let it be about Christmas. What has HSM or Ben Ten got to do with Christmas?

WillowFae · 04/12/2009 17:19

I bought mine chocolate ones. Why? I think part of it is that I never had them and would have loved them. I remember that some years my parents would even get out the old picture ones from previous years and fold the windows back down because they couldn't afford to buy new ones for all of us.

One year I will do a homemade one and put little treats in it. But I just don't seem to have the time

halfcut · 04/12/2009 17:21

Its a tiny bit of chocolate ...no biggy

sazzlesb · 04/12/2009 17:22

My twins are 4 and for the last 2 years they had a chocloate one each. I decided to go back to basics this year and replicate what I had as a kid - ie to share one with no chocolate with my siblings. To be honest, they are perfectly happy with it and get excited (as I did as a child) when it is their turn to open the door. Totally agree re the un-Christmassy nature of most of them - what is remotely festive about a picture of Bart Simpson?. I had to go to our local book shop to find one with any vague reference to the Nativity!

barbarianoftheuniverse · 04/12/2009 17:23

Last week I saw an advent calendar for dogs and it had dog's choc inside.
I also felt mildly vexed. Although I suppose dogs would not care for little pictures. But still.

NinthWave · 04/12/2009 17:33

My advent calendar has hair behind each door, to weave into a nice shirt

butadream · 04/12/2009 17:35

I would quite like a Green & Black's advent calendar if such a thing exists. With a nice picture behind each chocolate. Hate hate hate the horrible boring calendars with stale crap chocolate in.

halfcut · 04/12/2009 17:37

Ninthwave I lol'd

WillowFae · 04/12/2009 17:37

butadream: my 2 year old doesn't find her Hello Kitty one boring

Must admit we did go for M&S this year as the Tesco ones were the awful tasting Kinnerton ones.

AllarmBells · 04/12/2009 17:38

YANBU. I looked and looked for a choc-free one but had to settle for choc. In Lidl they have a selection of Continental ones with nice Christmassy pics.

We made a picture-only one out of stickers last year, it was great, but such a rat race to make. So this year we're being lazy with a bought one.

It may be "only a small piece of choc", hello, it's a small piece of choc x 30. DD does hers when she comes home from school so no choc at breakfast. We only remember about every other day, which takes some of the fun out of it. But once we broke the "no choc/cakes/biscuits/gingerbread men before lunch" we'd never get back - it is a hard-fought principle in our house!