Baby stocking fillers and advent calendar - are there such things?

[sizeofalentil]

I'm not sure if I'm being a bit try-hard, but to be honest, if you're on the Christmas board in September you're probably as bad as me!

I've never been keen on Christmas but this year will have a 1-year-old. And a dh who loves Christmas.

Baby is a PFB (first baby in the family / our friendship circle) with a terrible birthday (very close to Christmas) so want to make Christmas special for her each year, starting this year.

Does anyone have any ideas for stocking stuffers or advent calendars please? Don't want to make my own advent calendar this year, but will in future.

I don't want to include books, clothes, hair bows, cutlery etc. as she'll get a tonne of them from friends and family. Her big main presents are going to be a second-hand little tikes playhouse, a toy kitchen and things like that from gumtree and charity shops.

Links to actual products as well as suggestions welcome. Any tips welcome tbh.

For her stocking I would go for little bath toys, pack of chunky crayons, bubbles and then practical bits like socks, new toothbrush etc at that age she will be just as excited by those things!

Really, don't go too overboard. At this age my DS was so overwhelmed by having too many presents that we had to put most of them away and open them over a few days.

Musical instruments? Aldi have some sets just now with maracas etc. Also survival blanket, sensory light and sensory balls from amazon. I also got a Wooden book and toy from Sainsbury's that was a horse head with a long neck (sorry, terrible description) and it squeaks when the neck is held

They do toot toot driver advents but I wouldn’t go to mad as your dc is still very young. Once you start it’s hard to stop.

Organix do a selection box which i used to get for mine til they objected to no chocolate!

This might be helpful thetoptoys.blogspot.com/2018/09/stocking-fillers-for-babys-first.html#more

DD was born very close to Christmas too. I can't remember her first stocking (I know I had a "1st Christmas" Bib and a nappy bag sized sudocreme on hand, just in case I needed a "newborn stocking" ).

I do know that on her actual first Christmas, I bought a small but hardbacked version of Twas the Night Before Christmas - which has been the bedtime story every single Christmas Eve since (even last year when DD was about to turn 12)!

And a Waterford crystal decoration with the year of her birth - as a special piece for us (and probably an heirloom for her own tree in about 50 years time).

I would go with small but practical things. Bath toys - squirters or stacking cups etc. A "big girls' cutlery set" (if she doesn't already have one) - Lidl sometimes do nice metal sets. A Lush festive bath bomb or bubbles. Maybe a small stuffed toy santa or reindeer.

I do the "something you want, something you need, something to eat and something to read" poem for stockings - so there's always a book, some fruit and sweets.

Wants are usually toys or fun stuff. Maybe little jigsaws or a car or food/pots for a kitchen set.
Needs are something useful but still fun usually - so toothbrush is usually handy, nice socks, (character underwear if you normally buy plain in later years) etc.

And it's always handy to add things that get used up over the years - crayons (moving into pencils, erasers, felt tips, paint...over the years), craft materials (colouring books, or just paper, card, beads, stickers, glue....again, it can evolve as DC develops)
Developmental games are good too - shape sorter games, threading lace books, up to logic games that make DCs work on problem solving (traffic jam, and the like) as they get older

I do remember that DD got a little wheeled cart filled with building blocks as part of that first Christmas presents, a flashing lights shape sorting toy, and a doll (that got completely ignored as she was more into cars and building things and mud rather than dolls and dressing up).

I know some Duplo is good from 1year or 18 months, but I think it was Christmas 2 before DD got any (and she loved Duplo and Lego right up until last year).

I know you said you won't have a fabric advent calendar this year, but for next year, our experience might be useful. DD's fabric advent calendar has always had a chocolate every morning in December (done the night before - DD could never, even now, be trusted with more than 1!). But it also allowed me to put in colouring sheets (free printables from websites like Santa Update, Activity Village or DLTK in particular, but there are loads) or festive activity sheets (shape recognition, writing, maths problems, word searches, mazes etc) some days - the complexity increasing as she got older.
Other days, I put in a tiny "pocket money" toy, or maybe a note about what we would do later (maybe hang a DVD to the pocket with a clothespeg for a carpet picnic later, or some money for her Christmas shopping trip, that kind of thing), and as she got older and could read, I sometimes did a treasure hunt around the house to find maybe a small lego set (£3 type) or something equally small somewhere other than the calendar - maybe 2-4 clues, having to go different places upstairs and downstairs.

And in terms of making the birthday special, we always had a separate celebration of her birthday - a cake was bought in M&S on 24th when DD came into my office with me and we'd meet DH afterwards. DD got to pick what she wanted. And then, on Boxing Day, she gets a separate birthday present and card from us, we do a cake and candles, and if there are family around, we have a party.

Some people will always do a joint Christmas/Birthday present. Some people will always do separate. And some people will do different things different years (maybe depending on the gift they find or whether they will see us on either day, or not).

Last year DGS was 10 months old and loved his galaxy advent calendar, very quickly got used to the idea of chocolate every day.

Honestly I wouldn't go overboard but if you wanted an advent calendar ELC do a happyland one which is very sweet. Or usbourne sellers often do a book advent so you could read a new story each night then keep to read each year.

Stocking - happyland people, musical instruments, groan tube, new cup, books/toys that attach to buggy, chunky crayons, wind up toy, purse with old cards/gift cards, small teddy (I buy my dds a beanie boo every year), soft photo album (was my dds favourite when she was little), sensory things - light up toys/different feeling things/pot of homemade playdough.

DS1 was about to turn 1 on his first Christmas. I bought wooden instruments and made a stocking up of those.

Dd will be 6 months at Christmas. Her stocking will contains stuff like socks & tights (the things that people tend not to buy), holztiger wooden animals, some nice bowls/plates etc of her own.

What about food for the kitchen. Big Jigs (www.bigjigstoys.co.uk/shop-by-category/pretend-play/wooden-play-food) do a good range, you could get the fabric ones from Ikea and Aldi/Lidl tend to do wooden sets just before Christmas and they are the right size for stockings (I'm planning on filling ds's stocking with a bundle).

A photo book with extended family members in it? I'm currently making one for dd with help from ds. Each double page will have a photo of the person on one side then the word and a photo of ds doing the BSL sign on the other.

My little girl will be 18 months old this Christmas, so just a bit older but I think some of my list might still apply! 🎄

For this years stocking I've bought her:

• Bath time squirty foam
• Bath crayons
• Soft Frozen ball
• Mini Frozen handbag
• Magic baby bottle (to go with the baby doll we've gotten her as a main present)
• Wooden princess puzzle
• Couple of Disney tsum tsum plushes
• Cbeebies Christmas DVD

Thank you everyone for your suggestions!

It's not so much that I wanted to go OTT on this, it's more that I genuinely had no idea where to start. TBH, she's still a little potato and will have no idea what's going on. Also, she has loads of stuff now - even a foil blanket!! - so there's nothing she needs, per say, and I'd rather not flood the house with toys while there is no need.

I've bought a few bits suggested up thread but might also invest in a plastic ladle and fish slice for her from Wilko's kitchen department, as my versions are the best toys in the world.

These ideas are so lovely - thank you so much again. Massively appreciate this (worried first message seemed short and ungrateful after all the effort you all went to. Trying to type with moody teething baby hanging off boobs and hips)

Melissa & Doug do a magnetic Christmas tree where you put a new bauble on each day. I think a one year old would enjoy that.

We bought dd a pandora bracelet and we got a charm for her christening, first Christmas and her first birthday. I hope to add to it for other firsts and give it to her when she is older

Buy very little for them when they are young, because you run out of ideas/space when they are older!

I'd either a playhouse or kitchen and save the other one for next year.

Stockings ar for small things and mostly things they need like socks or toothbrushes and some treats.

People went mad at my ekdest's 1st Christmas and now I have three kids and more toys than I can count. We regularly have to charity shop lots of stuff to make room for inevitable birthday presents x

I would just get an advent calendar with pictures. My children loved them at that age and were genuinely full of wonder at opening the windows and seeing the pictures behind them.