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Ideas for a non-chocolate advent calendar for a three-year-old girl

30 replies

snoopinginstlye · 03/10/2026 14:05

Anyone ideas for a non chocolate advent calender for a 3 year old girl please ?

OP posts:
user1471446019 · 03/10/2026 14:10

A Disney princess storybook adventure calendar. We’ve reused ours in later years too.

Sunshineandgrapefruit · 03/10/2026 14:12

We have a wooden tree with 24 little decorations. Mine still love taking it in turns to put one on the tree every day of advent.

SaraHoliday · 03/10/2026 14:16

There's:

The ones that have 24 small books inside them. I think I've seen a 'Bluey' and a 'Princess' one at TKMaxx.

I've seen a 'Crayola' advent calendar; if you like making things together.

I've seen a 'Sticker Dolly Dressing' one online too. Everyone loves a sticker! ♥️

Or buy a wooden one now and fill it with things you know she'll love - and re-use it each year.

itsgettingweird · 03/10/2026 14:18

Over the years I’ve done all sorts.

I buy the little cellophane self seal packets. Or paper bags depending on size of daily gift.

choose a theme.

ive done

art and craft materials
lego bricks
hot wheels cars (then garage as an Xmas present )
mini story books/ story book set split up
hornby track gravel/grass in little packets. (Bulk buy and split)

depends how much you want to spend or what your plan is. I never felt I needed to top what I did year on year and would do bigger or smaller things depending on what he was getting for Xmas.

Namechangingregularly · 03/10/2026 14:28

Sunshineandgrapefruit · 03/10/2026 14:12

We have a wooden tree with 24 little decorations. Mine still love taking it in turns to put one on the tree every day of advent.

We have that! They absolutely love it.

also love Lego, and various toy calendars.

we have had a lot over the years and the least exciting are the chocolate ones. I much prefer the old fashioned beautiful windows and glitter pictures.

but the toys and other small gifts are fabulous

Strictonscreens · 03/10/2026 15:13

Namechangingregularly · 03/10/2026 14:28

We have that! They absolutely love it.

also love Lego, and various toy calendars.

we have had a lot over the years and the least exciting are the chocolate ones. I much prefer the old fashioned beautiful windows and glitter pictures.

but the toys and other small gifts are fabulous

We have the wooden tree too and it's the fave! Ours was about £10 in somewhere like home bargains though!!

They also love moving the snowman on our version of https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4584161288/family-advent-calendar-wooden-christmas?ls=a&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=wooden+christmas+countdown+calendar&ref=sc_gallery-1-7&pro=1&sts=1&plkey=EulptpXuy8O-gSclKH5kbB6PwW99%3ALT2748a6d19e4c8e58fa92b7e51d8d3b5f524b014b this one

Or I found these go down very well with little ones. Super easy to make, just cardboard and cotton wool!

Ideas for a non-chocolate advent calendar for a three-year-old girl
24Dogcuddler · 03/10/2026 16:07

Playmobil ones are lovely and can be used for years.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G7L4LXXW/ref=asc_df_B0G7L4LXXW?tag=pjuk-amazon.co.uk-email-21&linkCode=df0&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

TheBayHorse · 03/10/2026 16:09

We've always had traditional picture ones.

incognito1991 · 03/10/2026 16:12

Does she like peppa pig? I’m getting my 2 year old this one, it’s the characters and a few Christmas bits I thought it was rather cute

https://www.boots.com/peppa-pig-advent-calendar-10398203?affwin&utm_source=ShopForward+CSS-531573&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=css&utm_term=&utm_content=&sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=531573&awc=2041_1791040309_9055ceb9f90066b42f1267dd320347c0

Sprogonthetyne · 03/10/2026 17:09

Could be a good age to buy a cloth or other reusable one to refill every year, then you can just splt down a toy or multipack. Ours has has playdoh, mini dinosaur figures, pokemon cards, pieces of wooden train track & bits of jigsaw (make it first & split into bits that are next to each other). Though, if I'm entitled honest, the DC are happest when I put chocolate coins or starburst in it.

Cuwins · 03/10/2026 17:10

My daughter had the Happyland one last year when she was 3.5- absolutely loved it and we could keep the little figures to make Christmas scenes with in future years

Happymchappyface · 03/10/2026 17:12

Old school paper one with just pictures. My kids love those.

We also do a reverse advent calendar. We do a supermarket shop of 24 items for the local food bank.

Favouritefruits · 03/10/2026 17:13

Is it due to an allergy or do you just not want edibles? My son has a milk allergy so has a Haribo advent calendar instead. He’s also had a ‘toot toot’ cars one. My niece is desperate for the playmobil Christmas one.

IamChipmunk · 03/10/2026 17:15

Happyland or Playmobil.
My ds had a playmobil one at a a similar age we kept all the pieces and only got rid of them a year or two ago and ds and dd are 10 and 12.
dd wouldn't part with them!!

bt1234 · 03/10/2026 18:27

2 years ago we got a jojomamen one which was lovely
A lovely box with wooden xmassy figures in i we've reused it and will keep using it hopefully

BCBird · 03/10/2026 18:51

How about buying a felt one where u put stuff in the pockets. Could you print off some mini pictures that she could colour or even create a picture with 25 equal square, as she colours each one it is stuck on a board in order and eventually ends up making a big one. She vould have fun trying to work out what each piece is a picture of and also what the full picture will be.

Stompythedinosaur · 03/10/2026 21:59

The Melissa and Doug calendar, that's a tree with magnet decorations to stick on, is lovely. The dc still insist comes out each year and they're teens now!

TheRealSmurfette · 03/10/2026 22:14

An advent calendar

bears789 · 03/10/2026 22:24

Playdoh! Went down a treat with my 3 year old last year

Corgi2023 · 03/10/2026 22:52

We have the numberblocks one with books

dizzydizzydizzy · 03/10/2026 22:54

My DCs used to love the Playmobil advent calendars.

Cuwins · 03/10/2026 23:18

bears789 · 03/10/2026 22:24

Playdoh! Went down a treat with my 3 year old last year

Ohh my 4 year old would love that!

Rose785 · 07/10/2026 11:18

I also have a 3 y o. I got her a pocket advent and plan to fill it as follows
There's an Elf in Your Book
The Snowman tree decoration
Snowman Tonie
Christmas cup
Paint your own tree decorations
Bake & decorate Gingerbread men
Christmas bath bomb
Christmas colouring book
Frozen Lip Balm
Christmas suncatchers
The Snowdog toy
Snowman DVD (Christmas movie night!)
Make reindeer cornflake cakes
Santa notebook
Christmas stamps
The Grinch wind up toy
The grinch palm pal
Spongebob Xmas Stickers
Family walk to see christmas lights (put in light up spinning santa)
Christmas crafts
Write letter to santa
Christmas sticker book
Christmas bath bomb
Christmas hat