What sort of advent calendar do you do for DC?

[HollySizer]

I have a DD aged 2.

I can’t decide whether to buy a felt hanging advent calendar to fill myself each year (perhaps a little chocolate and a small gift) or whether to just stick with the £2 cadburys advent calendars we had growing up! I also have lots of Christmas books and like the idea of wrapping them all up for her to open one each evening for her bedtime story.

What does everyone else do for young DC?

Don't you keep them? It would be lovely to have the same one each year and embellish it a bit more.

That was definitely the plan when we started, and I imagine if you buy the expensive ones they would last. But they are quite flimsy and by the time the drawers have been pulled in and out a few times they have had it. I am sure it’s not the most environmentally friendly Christmas activity, but it is something I really enjoy doing every year. In any event they always end up very embellished so not sure whether there would be much room for further Annual updates.

We have a felt hanging advent calender for our now 3 yr old. although last year she was such a nightmare climbing onto things to grab the treats and screaming when we wouldn’t let her have the whole thing I’m missing it this year. She fell over several times trying to get to it so I’m being a grinch!

We have some wooden animals that make up a Christmas/winter scene on the mantelpiece so DS gets a little chocolate and one of those to unwrap. He knows the scene now but not which animal it will be each day!

We have a felt one, do you do have to remember to fill it every evening. We do a slip of paper with a Christmas joke each day and most days a little chocolate. If there was something on at school or nursery like a Christmas dinner I'd put in some Christmas hair clips or similar to wear that day

I don't tend to do 'stuff' everyday as they get lots of bits in their stockings. I have sometimes bought some cheap play mobile Christmas bits on eBay and put that in some of the days too

At two I'd stick with a chocolate one. Once they get the idea in a couple of years then consider more expensive ones.

Some of the best ones I've done for DS is a medium sized lego set divided into 24 bags and instructions printed.

We usually do a choc or sweet one last few years they've had Lego or book ones as well.
I did a pocket one once but never again so much hassle for two children, they had the same or similar on each day, they were 2 and 4 at the time
I included:
Packet mini gingerbread
Packet mini party rings
Packet mini Maryland cookies
Packet millions sweets
Packet iced gems
Snowman marshmallows
Glow sticks
Finger puppets
Lego/duplo figure
Blindbags
Novelty growing flannel
Sensory squishy ball
Sachet hot chocolate
Bracelet/ wristband
Xmas teddy
Mini Notepad and pencils
Novelty pencil with pencil sharpener and eraser
Multicolour pen
Scented stickers

At that age, I would get a refillable one. I used to buy a Duplo set or similar (which would otherwise have been a Christmas present), and divide it to fill maybe 8 pockets. I’d then put chocolate in maybe another 8 and then a mix of things in the others, eg a note to look for a present and unwrap their Christmas jumper, or a (non-breakable) ornament for the tree.

Once mine got to 5 or so, they were very firmly on Team Chocolate but you can get away with surprises before then!

I do very, very similar to @OperationalSupport – a wooden advent calendar with little drawers, some of which have little notes with a Christmas activity or to go look in X location for a larger item (day 1 is always new pyjamas for us), and then other days are filled with the little Aldi Christmas character chocolates. Other than the chocolates, it's basically all stuff they would have had or done anyhow, so it adds to the excitement for relatively little work.

This is my family advent calendar, name changed since
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/chat/4411663-Need-help-with-Little-rhymes-for-advent-calendar

it gets harder and more expensive to fill every year 😂

I do a sock calendar for my son. I either buy him some new socks or use a mix of his and my existing socks. I have badges for the outside and I do a mix of sweets, stationary and a theme. Last year was micro machines and the year before hot wheels. I like the lack of plastic, the socks get reused, when I have bought calendars there are always some disappointing doors. It also works out the same price or less plus my son loves it.

We’ve done the felt Christmas trees, these are great with just putting chocolates in. It gets very expensive if you start adding other bits, we did this one year and it got so ridiculously expensive, especially as you have more children.

We do the cheap chocolate advent calendars, my DDs usually pick theirs, peppa pig, barbie etc… Last year was the first time DD 11 had a Cadbury one as she’s gotten too old for the character ones. I love letting them pick their own. It’s hard walking through shops with lots of calendars around Christmas so I thought why not just let them choose their own, it absolutely stops the asking.

We did toy ones sporadically when they were little buy have stuck to it for the last few years. These come on 1st December.

Hits for toddler
Toot Toot - great for toddlers
Peppa Pig - we did multiple of these and they work well with peppa place sets

We did book ones once but we have so many books it wasn’t worth it after the one year.

When they are older there are heaps of choices.

We do the Christmas elf’s and they also bring stuff throughout December. Our DDs may come down stairs to the elf’s reading a new Christmas book, new activity book, wearing Christmas headbands, scrunchies, glasses… It’s not every day, but they tend to do inside with things like party day at school/nursery.

We did cheap shop-bought chocolate ones at that age. A chocolate every day is special and exciting on its own at 2yo, without needing further work thrown in my direction. The run up to Xmas is always manic (and gets even crazier once they are school age IME), so I'm all for things that save time and mental load. Others may be more organised, but a calendar that required daily filling would gift me weeks of "OH SHIT, THE CALENDAR...!" just as I started to close my eyes and drift off.
Last year, at 7 & 9yo, we deviated from chocolate for the first time and gave them Lego calendars, but only because I had found them half price near Xmas the year before and stashed them in the loft! This year, they'll be getting a semi-precious stones calendar (DD1) and a Tom Gates calendar (DD2), again bought on sale at a fraction of their usual cost last December.

Also, think through the family tradition you are setting and make sure you will still enjoy it/be able to adapt to older ages over the next 16+yrs... We never started elf on the shelf or Xmas eve boxes for this reason, and I'm very glad we didn't. Friends with those traditions have moaned about them for years now, looking for an exit strategy. They were very happy during Covid times, when they could stick the elf into a Mason jar for 10 days self-isolation 😂

I used to do just a generic cheap chocolate one that I let dc choose. however now we have dc2 and they have a dairy and soy allergy, and they dont like the taste of free from chocolate. So we now do the pocket ones and I put in a chocolate coin or small lolly/sweet/harino for dc1, and then usually some sort of small sweet for dc2 (haribo strawberry)

I also do 1 or 2 surprise blind bag type toys each (on the same day as each other obviously so there is no arguments!) as they love them, and then sometimes a Christmas dvd or two spread out throughout the month (on a weekend day)

we don’t do books because we have them coming out of our ears already!

I have a wooden advent calendar with little doors that I fill with treats. Glacé cherries, fudge, marzipan dates … hopefully it’s always a surprise. That said, DD also gets a contemporary chocolate advent calendar from a relative.

Said relative was dismayed when 1-year-old DD got prunes in her advent calendar and said they looked like poos. DD then refused to try them. Yes, said relative is my DM.

We have a wooden one. Last year (DD was 3) I ordered a job lot of Peppa Pig characters and scenery. The big bits had to go beside the calendar. We did it at night before she went to bed so it was a surprise in the morning. This year, we've got things like hair bows, temporary tattoos, stickers, stick-on earrings, scented pens, kiddie nail varnish, pots of sequins for her craft corner, and random things we've come across in charity shops. If you have a Tonie Box, new characters would be a good choice.

We do the books as well, but not new ones every year, we have a big bag of Christmas books that come down from the attic with the decorations, and pick out one every night of December.

I love doing the Xmas Eve boxes every year. It's always PJs, cosy socks, a book, a cuddly toy, a hot chocolate sachet (last year I made the reindeer cone ones with marshmallows and choc chips) reindeer food and a carrot (for Rudolph!). We go out and scatter the reindeer food and then snuggle up with hot chocolates and read the new book together as a family before putting out the treats for Santa. I like making them up so much that last year I made one for my hubby too 😂I swapped out the cuddly toy for mini bottles of rum.

We have calendars with pockets, I just put wrapped sweets or chocolate coins in. Still going strong into the late teens!

We have cereal ones... the individual portion boxes. Started years ago as kelloggs did it, but just do my own now in a sock type bag. I have teens now, they still love it and ask for it each year!

I always did the cadburys chocolate or reeces ones as they got older.

When it comes to Christmas my philosophy always was that the gift giving on the 25th December was plenty and that 1st dec / Xmas eve etc boxes were all too much.

We did lots of Christmas activities like picking out a decoration, Carol service , Santa visit etc. I just felt it should be pared back from the insane consumerism

I started a pocket one last year for my now 3yo, it had a mixture of toys and experiences. Many of the toys I'll re-use this year, they were the wooden Lanka Kade Christmas figures, a felt Christmas tree, and a homemade "feed the reindeer" game and a Christmas tree pairs game. I'll keep reusing those until she's grown out of them.

The experiences included going to get the tree, decorating the tree, going to look at lights (just on people's houses, not a paid for trail). I did some home experiences like play dough so for that I just put a play dough cutter in the pocket to kind of represent what we'd be doing that day.
I also put in a "clue" to find a Christmas book wrapped up in her book box, again I'll reuse these each year.

This year I've already bought three craft things from Baker Ross; some foam stamps so she can help make some wrapping paper, paper chains and some beads and elastic to make some bracelets for her to give to her cousins/friends.

I'm hoping it stays quite low cost for a few years, I'm certainly not intending to buy loads of new stuff each year to fill it!

I bought a large blank wooden calendar with drawers, shaped like a tree, and painted and decorated it myself. I loved it and was so pleased to start a new tradition (my kids were 5 and 3). That first year was brilliant fun filling it and coming up with ideas, but every year since I've liked doing it less and less to the point that it became a total pain.
With two young kids it was fun and cheap ish. Then they got older and child 3 came along and it became a very expensive chore. I actually added up what I had spent a few years ago and it was £108 just to fill those drawers. As I was expecting child 4 I decided it had to stop and since then I've just bought a tub of celebrations and choc coins and chucked them in the drawers. I've also always got them a playmobil or Lego advent calendar as well, so the cost was ridiculous, especially as the older two moved on to wanting very expensive funko/cosmetic calendars as they grew past the toy age.
So my advice would be don't start the tradition unless you have considered how it would work in the future! Also I honestly think it was just too much stuff and it actually took away from the main joy of Christmas.

I’m pushing 40, and I was fortunate enough to have received the most beautiful fabric calendar as a child that my great aunt filled with the most incredible, thoughtful gifts (think it was quite unusual at the time), so although it is a lot of work to replicate it for my children, I know they will look back with fond memories.

Like others, I find the best thing to do is buy a multi set of something & split it up (e.g. a pack of mini Squishamallows), and I do put “special chocolates” in some of the days.

Similar to Coffeesnob11 (LOVE your socks!) we have 25 felt socks I made when I was pregnant and nesting. Each big enough to fit a couple of mars bars. I put in a chocolate coin/chips chip/celebration, a cracker joke from the internet and a note about how wonderful he is - being kind to animals, doing his best at school, how his smile lights up a room etc. he loves it! He's kept the notes and glued them into a book so he can read over them when he's glum.
I sometimes go on Thoughts of Dog on twitter and steal comments to pass off as our dog 😆

We don't do December 1st or Christmas Eve boxes. But we're in Spain, so do a Caga Tio on 24th, stockings Christmas morning then tree gifs.

Each of mine has their own wooden one that I pop a sweet in every year.