If you have re-useable advent calendars...

[lucysmam]

What's going in the pockets/drawers this year?

So far I have

Novelty pens
Hot chocolate sachets
Sheet face masks
Golden nuggets chewing gum
Hair bobbles
Mini sewing kit
False nails

I need a few more bits then I'll fill the rest with chocolate coins/things to do.

Any suggestions?

(My girls are 12 and dd2 will be very nearly 10 on Christmas day).

My DC are younger than yours but I put a few home made vouchers - stay up an hour later/choose our family film/treat bubble bath.

Just make sure you don't accidentally put choose a film on the same day for each child!

We just have a tiny chocolate each for ours. I think there'd be war if we did anything else! Anyway I wouldn't be willing to do little presents every day, that seems over the top to me. That stuff can all go in the stockings.

I have a reusable fabric advent calendar but there is mutiny in my house if there is anything but chocolate in the pockets. (2 x adults and a very nearly teenager 🤣)

How big are the pockets/drawers?

If they are big enough maybe a pack of playing cards and that evening is "card night" or dice and "board games night"

Lip salve - Vaseline do nice small tins

Blind bag/Lego mini figures

Mini soaps or bath bombs.

I still do free printable seasonal colouring pages and wordsearches/quizsheets for a few days for DD (13) - printed from the web.

A couple of days will have a note about an activity we will do later (making biscuits together, our annual "shopping and hot chocolate/cake" trip to town after school, or tickets to the cinema/a show that I've booked).

And lots of days are just a chocolate figure (I buy bags of Aldi/M&S figures early on so I have enough).

We only do chocolate but each Advent Sunday I do a small gift between £5-8 like a bath bomb, pen, blind bag, small book or DVD.

Our pockets are big enough for a large chocolate coin, Lindt mini teddy/Santa or similar

Just sweets, usually chocolate coins. Save the hair bobbles and nail files for stockings.

Just chocolate or a small haribo sized sweet in ours. It consists of small wooden drawers, so happily, that's all that would fit.

My 3 dc share the reusable advent calendar, they are 16/13/7 yrs, this year I'm putting £1 coin in each pocket with the odd £2 here and there, they will love it!

They each get a choc calendar from granny so the shared one is a bonus!

Christmas Earrings or clip-ons? Lip balms.

In ours there's a chocolate each and a carol/Christmas song for each day.

We have a nativity jigsaw in ours. 48 pieces in 24 pockets. The baby Jesus gets put in on 24th.

Christmas tree decorations in ours (re-used from previous years mostly with a few new ones each year. Sounds boring but the kids really like it)

Ooh I like the jigsaw idea

Jokes
Voucher for a "chore free" day ( they loved this)

I always get them food that they may normally not try

Christmas socks

Pyjamas in the last one

Ours is a mixture or chocolate and activities, trips. Just finalised this years plans.
Sunday 1st, school fete so £10 each to spend
Mon-Thursday chocolate
Friday 6th festive film night
Saturday 7th Elfingrove plus overnight in Glasgow
Sunday 8th Festive afternoon tea
Mon-Thursday chocolate
Friday 13th Festive film night
Saturday 14th pantomime
Sunday 15th Christmas market
Mom-Thursday chocolate
Friday 20th festive film night
Saturday 21st sledging with Santa
Sunday 22nd annual festive shindig at ours
Monday 23rd baking
Christmas Eve the elves bring treats so I get a day off [santa]

For dds age 8 and 6 I have:

Stickers
Small wind up toy
Rubbers shaped like animals
Fortune telling fish
Xmas hair bobbles
Nail polish
Perfume testers
Pokemon figures
Temp tattoos
Tiny notebook

I collect little things all year for the advent calendar.

I just ordered a gemstone pack designed for advent calendars

A chocolate in each drawer, and the odd note e.g “today we are putting the tree up”, “today we are going to see Santa”. I like the Christmas film night idea, I’m stealing that.

Just a chocolate coin in each of ours for most of the days. Usually something bigger on the advent Sundays / Xmas Eve. Last year did hot chocolate & marshmallow stirrers for the Sundays, which went down well.

Trying to strike a balance between making magic and not spending stupid amounts of money that bankrupts me for the rest of the year. (Anyone else think the ante seems to have been upped in recent years - Xmas pyjamas, bedding etc. It's a lot of financial pressure...)

Our advent calendar has pockets which hold the felt characters which Velcro on to the background to make a crib scene. Can just about manage to stuff a couple of choc coins in each pocket too. DC (who are 19 and 17) take it in turns to add the character to the scene...one has a December birthday and it has to be a decent character (not a tree or a lamb) in the pocket for his birthday. He was home very early in Dec from university last year, think this year he will have quite a few coins waiting for him!

Ours are adults now so it’s changed but
Christmas tree decorations.
Chocolates and sweets
Cinema tickets
Makeup for the girls
Small toiletries from Molten Brown or similar
Coins
Stickers for my daughter to use at work
Earrings or cufflinks

I tried a mix of choc/non-choc items and there was uproar on the non-choc days! So I'm not wasting effort on finding lovely hairbands/lipbalms etc. I've just bought a bag of chocolate coins.

Your advent calendar must be huge! Can you post a picture (with something next to it for scale)? Mine only fits three tiny chocolates. On Christmas eve I do leave a map for a treasure hunt.

Kenn Dodd - am loving the treasure hunt idea!

I’ve done the treasure hunt too. Leave a note which is a clue, leading to somewhere else in the house, have about 4 spots around the house. - making DC tear up and down stairs wildly before school is entertaining! At the end should be a slightly larger than usual present - craft kit, small LEGO kit, etc, not just a choc figure.

Be prepared though for a tornado bombing around and don’t do it on a morning you light be recovering from the night before!!