Advent calendar for a 3yo - what would you put in it?

[Thurlow]

I bought one of those fill-it-yourself calendars because I thought it would be nice to get out every year, and also because I don't quite fancy nearly 3yo having chocolate every day for a month (yes, yes, I'm sure that sounds anal to some but I'd rather keep a limit on it while she's too young to realise)

Anyway, now I can't think of anything to put in it except.... chocolate

Any suggestions? I don't want to spend very much and put real toys in it - though we could do the odd one or two over the month. I'll do chocolate coins for some of the days. But what else might be exciting?

Last year (DS was 3) we just raided the party bag section of a couple of big toy shops. He had random things like a stretchy lizard, glitter pen, squeezy ball. Pulled in in at about £1 per day which is quite expensive- but he LOVED it. The bits and bobs got played with quite a bit because they were 'special'.

This year we are buying the Lego advent calendar and decanting the bits into his advent calendar.

Free /cheap ones:
A trip to the park / play centre
A cuddle with mummy / daddy
Your choice for dinner
Sleepover at nanny's / grandad's / aunt etc
Day out with daddy

Obvious ones:
Crayons
Socks
Gloves
Ball
Figurine

I have a 3yo ds and this exact same problem. I've decided to write an activity for each day on a bit of paper and put it in each day. Some days will be really great activities like visiting the reindeer/father christmas and other days might just be making christmas cards/watching a christmas movie.

I will probably put a chocolate in every day as well though as I can imagine tantrums on the days without chocolate otherwise! And he doesn't get much chocolate the rest of the year so I don't mind indulging a bit at Christmas!

I did party bag type stuff last year, for my then 2 and a half year olds. For the bigger stuff, like a colouring book, I turned it into a treasure hunt.
Just by cutting a picture of something in the house, like a sofa or microwave, out of a catalogue, stuck that on a bit of card and put that in the little pocket. Obviously had to hide the thing for the day in the right location before they could open their advent present for the day. My twins loved it

Not so much an answer to what to put in there, but may help :)

Suggestion of present, finger puppets. Had a packet of 10 of amazon for a few pound, and covers quite a few days

How about melting crayons and putting them in numbered moulds so you have a corresponding number for each advent day
Or buy a lego/duplo set and separate into 25 pieces,groups. I'm probably going to get a Lego city set and do this for my son; similar to the lego advent calendars but a shed load cheaper.

For DD, nearly 2, I have little finger puppets, nice hair clips, wooden bead bracelets and toy animals.

For DS who is 4, also finger puppets, fake Lego minifigures, those stretchy animals you can buy and moshi monster type figures.

Thanks! I like the treasure hunt with pictures, she'll definitely get that. Will head to Wilkos and the pond shop and stock up on packs of little toys and pens and that, I hadn't thought of those. Interspersed with the odd chocolate or mini pack of Haribo too.

And now I've bought the damn thing I'll have to do this every year

I must be stingy, I put grapes, raisins and satsuma segments in ours last year!

Ive been stockpiling Playmobil figurines as dd is getting a dolls house with playmobil furniture, so Im going to alternate chocolate and playmobil figurines /animals.

The first year I did this, when Dd1 was 2, I found a load of plastic animals in a charity shop and put one in each day. Even if you bought them new it wouldn't be very expensive. Last year was more of a collection, we had finger puppets, stickers (a big sheet cut up), some party bag toys left over from their birthdays and a couple of xmas books that I wanted to give (for these, as they didn't fit in the calendar, I
wrapped them in tissue paper and had a piece of wool leading from the calendar to where they were hidden). This year I'm going to put printed off the Internet colouring sheets in some days, not sure what else yet.

Non chocolate ideas here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/Christmas/a2201758-Advent-calendar-ideas

I've got a one-off 20% off toy code for Mothercare/ELC that has to be used by tomorrow. Please PM me if you'd like it.

Also, last year, some kind Waitrose shopper posted when Green & Blacks mini choc bar sets were reduced to £2.99 from the more usual £5-6 price. Has anyone seem a similar offer yet please or can you keep your eyes peeled for us. Thanks!

Sorry, wrong thread!

Real money is very exciting for one day. 20p coin or similar.