Advent calendar without chocolate

[perpetualworrier]

Last year we had a Father Christmas template (on paper) with numbers 1-24 on his beard. DC's stuck a cotton wool ball on the appropriate number each day and by 25th he had a lovely bushy beard.

I was hoping to do something similar this year, ie. cheap and without chocs, but am stuck for ideas. Anyone?

outline of christmas tree with new decoration to stick on every day - star on top on the last day.
I once did one where the decorations were in little numbered paper envelopes on the tree so it never looked bare.
The decs need only be stickers / paper shapes / tin foil balls threaded on thread etc, not actual decorations.

Last year there was a thread about a good one and I ended up making one myself (can't search at the moment for some reason)

Behind each window is a consequence - depending on the age of your dcs - e.g. sing Jingle Bells, name 3 christmas things beginning with 'C', do an impression of FC, that sort of thing.

My dds thought it was great - for my teenagers I had some hard ones like sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas backwards and how many things altogether did my true love send?

templates here for father christmas bead and tree ideas

beard

i have seen in some baby/ child catalogue a wooden one with little drawers which you can fill as you wish and can be used year after year, will try and find link

I know you don't want chocolate, so bear with me here, but catalogue people Chocoholics have some gorgeous re-usable advent calenders you can fill yourself. My personal fave is the wooden musical xmas tree!

Great, thanks for all your ideas, I might use more than one.

There's one using toilet rolls on Chippy's link, that could hold the forfeits in Hamster's idea.

I love the tree one too - so simple, but I didn't think of it!

my friend gets the most fantastic and huge glittery advent calenders from a local garden centre ,they make the choc filled ones look pathetic . Might be worth a try as alot of garden centres put on a bit of a show at christmas .oh when i say huge ,think a metre tall

I have a calendar with little pouches in (easy to make) and in each one there is a clue to where I have hidden something (very simple clues as the dcs are 3 and 4). You could hide a piece of a 24 piece christmas jigsaw each day. They really love the clues and I did too as a child (in fact until about 18!).

I bought the Lego one. Figure it will get used again.

GooseyLoosey, I love the 24 pice jigsaw idea! - any suggestions where I can purchase a 24 piece xmas jigsaw? my googling skills have failed me! Ta for the idea!

can't quite make our haw many pieces this has.

ok, typing gone to pot, must be time for me to go to bed. I meant (hopefully obviously)
can't quite make out how many pieces this has

thanks chasingsquirrels, doesn't look like 24 piece - but according to this other site it is!

www.woodentoys-uk.co.uk/New_Items_wooden_toys_uk.html

hmmm looking at it again i don't think you could add a piece a day cos bits hold each other in....back to drawing board!

Spotted Lego Advent Calendars selling in Asda for £10 this morning - I resisted since I have a fabric one from last year that I will be refilling with a mixture of choc and vintage Playmobil.