Advent calendars for kids

[MsWalterMitty]

I picked up a couple of bog standard advent calendars today, with chocolate in and my dd8 asked if she could have a toy one. I said no as I think it’ll just be full of plastic crap.

But now I’m wondering if there’s anything also out there for kids that’s consumable but not chocs?

Have you guys seen anything?

You can get decent toy ones like lego or playmobil, not plastic crap. For an 8 year old you can probably get something like Bath bombs or stationery, or a different food like flavoured marshmallows or biscuits.

I've made my own Pokemon card one for the past two years using a box and mini envelopes. No plastic tat and he like the surprise of the card. Is there anything like that you could easily put together?

Otherwise, I've enjoyed the Harry Potter Lego one before

We've been given a Lego and a Playmobil one over the years. DS found them rather overwhelming, and it was too much on the lead up to Xmas. Once he'd opened the toys on Xmas day as well, there were just too many things to play with. The Lego was cute, a winter workshop. But it's never been used as a winter scene since (I know, it can be played with how they want).

Sadly at almost 10yo, he has grown out of Playmobil and it's been put away. Lego gets played with a bit, but not much, he forgets he has it.

So, we do small sweets, Minecraft blindbag on his birthday (it's in December), and little notes saying how much we love him. And notes from the dog

@elQuintoConyo

We've been given a Lego and a Playmobil one over the years. DS found them rather overwhelming, and it was too much on the lead up to Xmas. Once he'd opened the toys on Xmas day as well, there were just too many things to play with. The Lego was cute, a winter workshop. But it's never been used as a winter scene since (I know, it can be played with how they want).

Sadly at almost 10yo, he has grown out of Playmobil and it's been put away. Lego gets played with a bit, but not much, he forgets he has it.

So, we do small sweets, Minecraft blindbag on his birthday (it's in December), and little notes saying how much we love him. And notes from the dog

The notes are really cute!

Honestly, he just loves the notes. Really confidence building. Things like 'i love how kind your were to X when they fell', 'we're really proud of you in Y sport', 'the story you drew about ABC was wonderful' that kind of stuff.

And the dog ones are just daft: I sniffed your ear while you were asleep, you smelt of pizza (insert whatever we'd had for dinner).

Really easy to write and his face just lights up! Then he keeps them in a little box and reads them at random throughout the year.

@elQuintoConyo

Honestly, he just loves the notes. Really confidence building. Things like 'i love how kind your were to X when they fell', 'we're really proud of you in Y sport', 'the story you drew about ABC was wonderful' that kind of stuff.

And the dog ones are just daft: I sniffed your ear while you were asleep, you smelt of pizza (insert whatever we'd had for dinner).

Really easy to write and his face just lights up! Then he keeps them in a little box and reads them at random throughout the year.

This is amazing! 🥰 Thanks for sharing

I’ve seen jewellery ones in Aldi in the past, not checked this year though. You can also get stationary ones.

Over the last couple of years I’ve got my dds the Lego friends one (didn’t rate it much) Harry Potter Lego (this is very popular as we have a number of Harry Potter Lego sets) Star Wars Lego (again popular in our house), last year I got my 6yo make up mad dd a make up one, it was called W7 makeup blast. It wasn’t overly makeupy, lots of glitter pots, just right for her.

Tinc and smiggle do stationery ones

I do our own for dd with things like pens, hair accessories, post it notes, lip balm, bath bombs, socks, costume jewellery etc etc

When ds was younger he always liked the Lego ones

I'm going to sound ancient now (70s kid) but I honestly used to get pretty excited to open my advent calendar windows that had nothing but festive pictures behind them. There was just something so... Christmassy about it for me, at that age.

I know things have changed, and I sound like those old people who say all they got for Christmas was an orange and a pencil sharpener but I've actually bought one of those old-skool advent calendars for this Christmas, just for the nostalgia factor.

@OhPatti me too! I remember there were always two doors on Christmas Eve.
I'd like one for my kids.

We have this one:

www.bookdepository.com/Story-of-Christmas-Story-Books-and-Advent-Calendar-Mary-Packard/9780761152507?redirected=true&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=Base1&utm_source=UK&utm_content=Story-of-Christmas-Story-Books-and-Advent-Calendar&selectCurrency=GBP&w=AFC7AU9S6RBQJRA8V9Q7&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5oiMBhDtARIsAJi0qk3aFfcim02LX2rWXRSfSqiQ2OW2PJU9sAohKO2R62OIprEFI1ZtPqgaAvI1EALw_wcB

It's an advent calendar with a little book each day telling the nativity story which you can then hang on the tree.

They also do the Nutcracker story in the se format if you didn't want a religious calendar.

I did an activity advent calendar for mine last year and they LOVED it!

It was a mild PITA to come up with stuff for it in the first place but once I’d thought of sufficient simple, fun things to do, I padded it out with one or two days of a sweet from our house fairies, or a new hair bobbin.

Activities included picnic under the Christmas tree instead of dinner, movie night, putting on cosy PJs and driving round town to see Christmas lights, dressing up as princesses for a fancy dinner (parents included), making popcorn strings to hang out for the birds, baking cookies for their friends, toasting marshmallows, walk in the dark with torches. Loads of inspiration online.

@RedLemon

I did an activity advent calendar for mine last year and they LOVED it!

It was a mild PITA to come up with stuff for it in the first place but once I’d thought of sufficient simple, fun things to do, I padded it out with one or two days of a sweet from our house fairies, or a new hair bobbin.

Activities included picnic under the Christmas tree instead of dinner, movie night, putting on cosy PJs and driving round town to see Christmas lights, dressing up as princesses for a fancy dinner (parents included), making popcorn strings to hang out for the birds, baking cookies for their friends, toasting marshmallows, walk in the dark with torches. Loads of inspiration online.

This is fab!! Thanks

We've got the Our Generation one, only because she's really into OG at the moment and it was a steal in the summer for £11 instead of £30 otherwise it would've been a chocolate one, I'm not sure if she'll lose interest half way through. Most of them are plastic crap I agree. But I do like the Lego ones, I bought my brother (40s) the star wars one last year which was a big hit, he's got them all out on display.

My DD had the Crayola one last year and is having the Smiggle one this year. She is Art mad so all the art supplies were well used.

Our youngest was given a Peppa pig stationery one. We managed to find the same style one but frozen style for the eldest.

We’ve had Lego, playmobil, mini Thomas trains, paw patrol figures and all sorts over the years and you need to find somewhere for all the blasted bits. They both love stationery, so this is win win!

@OhPatti - Most years my 2 have a picture advent and they love them.

Meant to add...this year one has a stationery advent and the other a jelly bean one but I couldn't bare not to have a picture one so I bought a small one too!

Smiggle do one that might be good for that age. I have gone for Playmobil but my kids are younger.

@BlackLambAndGreyFalcon I've just ordered this one, thanks to your tip. It looks great!

[quote Liverbird77]@OhPatti me too! I remember there were always two doors on Christmas Eve.
I'd like one for my kids.[/quote]
Oh yes, the double door on Christmas Eve! That was so exciting! I may get myself a door one now!

[quote Liverbird77]@BlackLambAndGreyFalcon I've just ordered this one, thanks to your tip. It looks great![/quote]
Hope you like it! Ours is still going strong after 7 years and counting.

@OhPatti

I'm going to sound ancient now (70s kid) but I honestly used to get pretty excited to open my advent calendar windows that had nothing but festive pictures behind them. There was just something so... Christmassy about it for me, at that age.

I know things have changed, and I sound like those old people who say all they got for Christmas was an orange and a pencil sharpener but I've actually bought one of those old-skool advent calendars for this Christmas, just for the nostalgia factor.

Yes, me too! Some of those tiny pictures were just so magical. And they had glitter on too!

I've done notes ones for the dc - some notes are covers e.g. for aCosta coffee or Kindle, some notes are jokes, some are compliments to the kids - we love you , you're such a good friend - some are random acts of kindness, some are mindfulness things, some are things to do eg watch a Xmas film as a family, make gingerbread, etc.

The kids make advent calendars for their grandparents too, with festive jokes/memories/photos.

I’ve bough DS7 a smiggke one, he loves stationary and I’d be buying pencils and pans anyways. They are reduced to £15 today instead of £30.