Those of you that aren't keen on edible advent calendars ....

[nappyaddict]

What do you think to the Playmobil ones that build up a Christmas scene?

I personally don't like the ones with food or little presents in them cos I think Christmas day should be about the feasting and the presents and having a small one every day sort of dilutes this.

But the Playmobil ones build up a Christmas play scene gradually and then you could reuse it year after year so after the first year it's used it doesn't really count as a present every day, it would be similar to those nativity scene ones.

i like them. i do not like the price tho! lol

I've thought about them & think they're great, but too much money for me.

haven't come across the christmas scene one but the ds's got a playmobile knights and police one and OMG the agony!

first there where 25 fiddly little boxes to put together then put the crapola in each one and then hang them by a slither of cardboard on each day. when ever they would be touched the whole thing fell apart like a house of cards.

and some things would take several days to put together so on one day you would have a bemused child looking at a prison cell camp bed (i kid ye not)

this year i have already bought them a good old fashioned cadburys and saving the £40 for something else.

p.s. i'm not a scrooge but it was the biggest annoying headache of the year and that is saying something

40 pound? They are 13.47 here

well 2 x£20 bought from an independant toy store...it was the first proper christmas and i was misty eyed and hormonal my eyes are clearer this time round!

And they wonder why no one goes to independants anymore. Even direct from Playmobil they are only 14.99

cheapest i have seen them is £15. which is a lot.

Is it really a lot if you're going to use it for 5-10+ years though? If you were to buy a Cabury's one every year for 10 years that would cost 20 quid (they are usually about 2 quid each)

Saying that the paper ones are 99p and you could also reuse those every year.

oh so would you re-use it each year then?
i hadn't thought of that. mine would get bored of it i think

I had a reusable one similar to this when I was younger. My brother had it in 1982 and it's still about somewhere in the loft but we haven't used it for a few years. Never got bored of it, it was just part of the tradition every year.

i had a lovely eric carle one last year - not cheap though and all bits lost despite best intentions

Was it this one

We have a string of little stockings fro m&s very cute and can be filled with any old sweeties year after year.[hgrn]

'good old fashioned cadbury'. Well, actually, when I were a nipper, we used to just get a cardboard one with little windows to open and a wee picture behind and that was quite enough of a thrill for us .

Tut tut Schroeder we are looking for non-edible and non-present alternatives. Didn't you read the title

I bought the Playmobil Dragon one. First year of these type of calendars and I'd been a bit nervous of the putting together from reading reviews.

IT IS ALREADY BOXED, NO PUTTING TOGETHER!!!

I even checked the back since I didn't believe it, and yes, all the toys are in their individual boxes and it is ready to go. Playmobil must have been reading their reviews.

There is a tiny bit of assembling we have to do on certain days. One day we have to put two pieces of a lance together and another day we have to affix the knight's armour. Also we have to put the two pieces of cardboard together for the backbround.

ha, when I was a kid we had a card one, the same one year in year out just with the doors refolded shut (and blu-tacked whe they didn't stay shut) , one, between the 2 of us, taking it in turns to open the doors.

Now however my parents buy each grandchild a choc calendar every year, despite the fact they have a lovely reusable fabric calendar with pockets, so each day the nativity story gets built up, velcroed into the stable. I intended to put choc coins i the pockets so DC had choc with the nativity story, butg I don't want them to have 2 lots of choc each every day. I object to the waste of the card and plastic calendars, and the complete opposite of my childhood!

Do you object to the card ones or the ones with plastic inside like Playmobil even if they get reused each year?

yeah alright,

when i was little i didn't get an advent calender as my parents were non indulgent types, are you telling me if got it wrong second time round with my 'good old fashioned cadbury'? ....next year i'll put the old cadbury one back on the wall and behind each little window will be a 'chore of the day' and they can give thanks for what they have

I don't think you can get it wrong exactly. Was just saying that in the long run what seems an expensive option perhaps isn't as expensive as you may think.

for 13.97 i don#t think you are getting the three kings?

that wasn't directed at you nappyaddict

someone moaning about cadburys ones

bah humbug

I was thinking of getting the Santa one.

oh i see, you mean the non nativity scene ones? well i am sufficiently curmudgeonly not even to allow them... if it's got santa on it the countdown is just to the consumeristtastic present fest, which is a bit of a grim lesson for a child imo.

lol at x-post. na don't, it's depressing.