Picture or chocolate advent calendars?

[hillbilly]

DCs have always had picture advent calendars but have started asking for chocolate ones. Am I mean to stick with picture ones? Ideally I would get the wooden ones with drawers and have a little gift in each but tbh I hate clutter and the thought of them each having 24 bits of nothing prior to Christmas days makes me feel ill. My sister does a quiz with a question every day and then at the end there is an anagram made up from the first letter of each answer. Maybe we could have choc calendars and the quiz?

Any other good ideas?

Just remembered, Waterstones had lots of picture ones too.

We get our picture one in a religious shop (I insist the picture one must be a nativity picture), but as I don't live in the UK, it's whereabouts are no use to anybody.

It's my aim to have one advent calendar per child in this house but it never seems to happen. Partly my own fault I will admit. In previous years my DM has also bought one each for me and DP but I have at least managed to persuade her not to do that. SIL has also bought calendars for the DCs but thankfully I think she hasn't this year. It just gets a bit bonkers trying to open all these doors before school!

In the past I have bought the Usborne colouring in advent calendars and they seem to have down well. They also liked pop-up ones in previous years.

DD has a wooden house and DS has a wooden train with doors which I fill every year. This year I have also bought DD the Frozen cosmetics calendar and DS the Lego Star Wars one. But then DM has just given them a fabric one made by a friend of hers which am going to fill with pieces of paper with activities on each day. She has also bought them chocolate calendars each despite me explaining that they have the wooden ones which I fill with sweets. I had bought them a picture one each which I saw and liked in Libertys but I think I might keep them for another year and DM also bought us a picture one which am going to keep for another year. So, all in all, total advent calendar overload .

Bobs I've seen lovely picture ones in John Lewis

Picture ones here. We get them in our local independent bookshop. They do lots and lots of beautiful ones, mostly German.

This year I also have one my lovely, lovely friend bought for me. It's a tea calendar. Has a different Christmas themed tea for each day. Lots of ginger and cinnamon and spices and

Oxfam had some lovely picture ones last year. They had a really sweet woodland scene and creatures on the one I got.

Aways picture ones in this house. Paperchase and waterstones sell them, not cheap though, usually a fiver.

They sometimes have coco pops for breakfast though, I'm not that precious over chocolate!

Isn't having a bit of cheap chocolate in the morning an essential part of Christmas, though?

Yes I got paper ones at a local card shop too. Alternatively I could get material ones with little pockets and pop a naice choc in each