Stuff for reusable advent calendar

[NeverHadANickname]

Does anyone have any ideas for what to put in a reusable advent calendar? I have a wooden one with little doors that I do for my (will then be) 4 year old, but suggestions for all types and ages would be good!

Individual chocolates/sweets like celebrations or similar
Balloon
Bath crayons
Toy cars
Small spinning top
Jokes
Fold up a colouring page/maze/dot to dot/spot the difference or whatever from the internet or a puzzle book for them to do
Small bracelet
Party whistle / blower
Hair clips
Temporary tattoos
Stickers , cut up sheets if necessary
Hot chocolate sachet/stick
Mini stationery erasers/pencils etc
Worry dolls, but just use them as mini dolls
Small stones to decorate

These are the work of the devil! Seem like such a great idea when you buy them first, and then every year you spend hours and hours trying to think up ideas. And if you succeed, you only raise everyone’s expectations for the coming year.

But since you asked

As toddlers I got away with a random collection of bobbins, feathers, rubbers, shiny stones, an acorn and odd bits and bobs.

Lidl did a promotion with these weird little jelly textured figures to collect. I was very half hearted when they were the big thing in school that year, but I picked up a bag of them in the charity shop and they were a huge hit.

Another couple of years, I sourced bags of small figurines ( one was moshi monsters) for cheap on eBay.

I did one for dh with his favourite sweets one year too.

But they really are hard to work with - not even big enough for a nail varnish or eyeshadow.

Small button/pin badge
Keyring fobs
Magnets
Finger puppets
Recipe for cakes/biscuits/smores to make later that day
Voucher/promise note for swimming/soft play/Santa train/McDonald's/park/ice skating etc
Chocolate coins
Actual coins to go and buy something with for them or someone else
24 acts of kindness tasks

Why do you have to "one up" them each year?

I just had very similar stuff on repeat for DS. Like 5-6 days would be a joke on a piece of paper, 5-6 days would be sweets or chocolate coins etc, another 5-6 would be activities like colouring pages and then the other stuff would just be little toys I'd found or badges or mini erasers etc occasionally I might put something like a £5 note in to be used for whatever he wanted - sometimes that was a hot chocolate, sometimes he bought a small toy or a book or something

At that age I used to do chocolate coins, mini lovehearts, those pez sweets to go in the dispensers, lego mini figures, those horrible little pots of slime/putty that kids love and parents hate 😬, craft stuff like googly eyes, tattoos, novelty erasers, kids nail polish from Claire’s, lip balms. My kids loved me to make vouchers for a movie night that said they could have hot chocolate, sweets and their duvets on their sofa. I always used to put a £5 note in one of the drawers. If I wanted to give them something that wouldn’t fit in the drawers, I’d hide it somewhere and write a clue and put it in the draw for them to tell them wear to look.

My kids are much older now, make them most of these years.

I’d hide it somewhere and write a clue and put it in the draw for them to tell them wear to look.
That's so clever !

I have been doing something similar for my DC since they were little. (It's a train in their case.)

I put a small note in the drawer, telling I love them, I'm proud of them etc. Then a small gift on the top.

Depending on child it could be a pencil, or a toy car, or a pretty hair clip, bath bomb or bath toy etc.

When they were younger, max spend was a £1 per gift. I get them throughout the year and hide them so it spreads the cost. I probably spend a little more now they are older and not as excited by a toy car or fun pen or pencil.

I also alternated between the DC, so one had odd days and the other even.

I also alternated gifts, so one time it was a gift, the next time a small chocolate. So in total they had 6 gifts and 6 chocolates each.

One thing I wished I done from the start was to date the notes including the year.

If your DC keeps the notes, it's nice to remember which order they got them in. It's sweet if they keep them all in a little tin (which could also be a gift).

I have fun looking for gifts throughout the year.

Dice and counters to use with a board game
A locket
Hair ribbon
A sea shell
Christmas brooch
Thimble
Christmas sprinkles to make fairy bread

I do this. I do a sweet or chocolate every other day which cuts down on thinking. DD is 16 so chocolate liqueurs last year but that might be a bit much for a four year old.

If it’s the hobbycraft ones the drawers are so tiny that all that will fit is chocolate, hairclips, stickers, temporary tattoos, mini jigsaws already in pieces (take a look on eBay for ‘Christmas party bag fillers’). Basically
I did get the tiniest ever gingerbread man cookie cutter from eBay that fits in ours for a Christmas baking day.
I leave notes now to ‘go and find a package in a red bag’ or whatever (I’ve got some of the Amazon fabric gift bags I keep for this) for things like Christmas socks, little craft kits, Christmas gliders for a competition.

Buy a small lego set and give him a few pieces a day with instructions which will be cheaper than getting an official lego one. Intersperse with a small chocolate or sweet if the kit is not big enough for all the days.

God I’m boring in comparison. I buy a bag of Lindt truffles in the Amazon Black Friday deals and use them.

We have characters for a little nativity scene, so they get re-used each year and we don't have to keep thinking of something new!

little batteries for anything which needs it

I save things through the year - party bag toys that are forgotten about, little things from the front of magazines, left over stickers you can cut out of activity books, that sort of thing.

Then I add some stuff I buy - finger puppets work well, as do tiny plastic animal or dinosaur figures, anything you can buy in a big pack and split up.

Sometimes, if there's something bigger that I would have bought anyway (like a Christmas jumper when there's a Christmas jumper day at school) I make it the day's gift, and inside the calendar I put a clue to where it is hidden.

We used to do the wooden box with chocolate for each day, then DH came up with the idea of buying some Lego & then splitting it between 25 days for the DC. They loved it!

Now it’s DH who gets a Lego calendar

We use chocolate raisins. DS still loves them at 9. Sometimes I put in a little chocolate ball or coin. Extra on Christmas Eve.
But then I'm a bit mean

When mine were little and I was keen, I got the playmobil nativity set and put little pieces behind each door.
A few years I put in little notes, mainly just stating the obvious ("Christmas party at school today!" "3 more sleeps!") Which they did enjoy.
Now I wallop a chocolate coin behind each door!

Do you put them all in at the start? I am not sure I as a child wouldn't have looked!

Also which one did you get? I am looking to get something this year

Whe little I did DIY lego (nightmare, don't do it) with little Christmas sets off ebay. More successful lego has been mini figs, dinosaurs etc. Usually the not quite authentic ones from China. Have done Christmas stampers, mini bath bombs, pin badges and other stuff like that. Buying a bulk box and then alternating with a sweet or chocolate.

Now I've mostly given up as they are all older so they just get sweets and nuts.

I've done a Lego set broken down between the drawers year before last.

One year I did loads of Thomas minis which he was obsessed with.

Last year I bought little stationery bits from shein like Christmas washi tape, snowflake hole punch, Christmas stampers etc and he used them to decorate his class Christmas cards. I also got a set of christmasaurus yoto cards which covered 3 days. It's a bit expensive and only works if you have a yoto player but DS is still listening to them now in the middle of summer so money well spent.

No idea what I'm going to do this year so watching with interest.

What about little Christmas decorations that can be used every year? You could do a theme like characters or snowpeople etc.

My suggestion is don't, save yourself the trouble and help the environment.

And I'm not a bah humbug only want, need, wear, read 'wont somebody think of the poor people' type either.

The problem with DIY advent calendars is they are too small to fit anything worth while (for a child) in and not be repetitively dull.

You will find yourself repeating the same party bag fillers like temporary tattoos, bouncy balls and erasers that no one needs 24 of or having to repeat year in and year out. Even 'nicer' brands like lego you don't need 24 little plastic figures (that they churn out at alarming rates) that will still end in a landfill.

You could fill it with sweets or jokes/riddles I suppose its harmless but filling it with sweets is no better than £1 chocolate ones (still got package, and its less exciting to find 1 starburst or M&M a day than a shaped nativity chocolate) and are you really going to spend the next 10+ years thinking up 240+ jokes/riddles.

I know some people doing the giving task thing but really who wants the joy of a chore and if your made to do something its not actually charitable.

filling it with sweets is no better than £1 chocolate ones

Well, you can get nicer sweets. The chocolate in those £1 chocolate ones is usually horrible.