So what did everyone have in their advent calendars today then?

[SnowMuchToBits]

We have just opened ours! As usual, ds and I are having our annual advent calendar competition. Same rules as usual - we have guessed beforehand what picture wewill get in each window. 1 point for something which we have guessed for another date. 2 points for the correct thing on the correct date.

So far ds has got off to a flying start as he guessed snowman and got..... a snowman! So it's two points to him. I guessed Christmas pudding and got......mince pies! No points to me I'm afraid, as I hadn't guessed mince pies.

Ds also has a Christmas in the Forest Playmobil calendar. He had a tree in that.

Mary!

it's the first time DS has had one he's only little and we got the velcro characters reusabe one

2 gingerbread persons. Male and female.

DS (7.5months)and i are not allowed to open ours till DH comes home this evening... (DH rules!)

will update tonight! (now sits staring at 3thorntons advents lined up on the mantelpiece...)

not gin!! (bit early for a G&T!!)

We have the felt tree one with little pockets which are too small for anything really so dd (2.5) got a message with a riddle to look for her first pressie which was "Father Christmas needs a wee" (storybook) We have read it four times already. On Saturday she will get the fluffy Christmas tree she's been stroking in the M&S catalogue and from then on a decoration each day.

We have a Playmobil one and got a Postbox.

dd1 got a picture of a donkey. dd2 got a picture of a star. ds1 lit the advent candle and ds2 blew it out!
No chocolate advents this year as they all get scoffed

dd got first half of a puzzle ball (Ravensburger horse puzzle ball advents calender thing).

dh and I don't use them for ourselves.

Playmobil. A very twiggy tree. Ds took some time to make sure it was placed in exactly the right place on the backdrop.

Lego ones (very excited to have non chocolate this year) DS1 got a snowman, DS2 got a man with what we've decided are cakes.

Were sent a lovely 3D advent calendar from DC2's godmother and got a donkey to start off our nativity scene. I'm going to guess that it's baby Jesus on 24th December.

don't think I have ever seen a 3d advents calender

Mollie, our tree was very twiggy too. Our Playmobil snowman has been brought out to join in the fun. He arrived carrying a kettle and mug for Norman the Foreman. I expect he will get added in to the advent calendar scene at some point......

We just got little chocolate trees in ours...

Are little choclates bad now?

chickflit ds and I have both guessed "Baby Jesus" for the 24th (in our picture advent calendars), and will be very disappointed if there is no Baby Jesus

I'm sure little chocolates are fine! But ds loves Playmobil more than chocolate!

no, chocolates are fine if your dc like them, so are little pictures, doesn't have to be a "gift-based" one. I first got my dd one with small chocolates but she didn't like the taste, so every morning, she'd run and open a window, take out the chocolate and run to throw it in the bin. Seemed kind of pointless so we had the playmobil ones after that. Now she has so much playmobil and didn't want another, she chose this one.

Playmobil pirate's advent calender: We got a palm tree.
In the traditional picture calender, a picture of a heart.

A candle! (very traditional calendar here)

Where does one purchase these calendars with stuff other than chocolates in?

LadyOfTheFlowers sounds like your kids have the same cheapo calendars as us!!

Note to self - find better calendars next year!

Kids have got cheapie supermarket, cartoon character calendars my sister bought them and were ridiculously happy to have a little Xmas-tree-shaped choccie each this morning.

Mine have homemade calendars with pictures I stole from found on the internet.

DS (15) had the Christmas Giraffe and DD (18) had an art deco poster of a lady in the snow. It's fun now they're older and I can be a bit tongue-in-cheek with the pictures. On the front of DS's there's a picture of santa attacking Frankenstein's monster with a sword and DD's has a picture of a very sinister-looking kitschy christmas elf.

Yours sounds great, Parsnips!

xmas smilies! How?