chocolate advent calendars epitomize everything that is wrong with the world today

[emkana]

bit OTT non?

Aww shucks .

Is that Ebay thing for real??!!

How so pointydog?

nappy addict mentioned whether a nativity scene made a diffeerence and som eother posters mentioned the 'true meaning' of christmas.

I'm way behind posts and just being confusing, though.

aww i wish i'd got this now. never seen one before.

Tinky Winky? Libby needs to get with the programme, Teletubbies is sooo 90s!!

Lmao at this thread. wtf is the world coming to? 24 tiny chocolates will cause the apolcolypse!?!

Well we are truely fooked in this house then, the bloody dog has one too

I read her book about being a "bad" mother". She was so proud of being such a good "bad" mother it hurt.
She's full of shit. IMO.
I can't believe anyone feels the need to justify what sort of advent calendar they have and why.
21 sleeps till Santa everyone.....

not read whole thread but how does a divine cho calendar with the christmas story progressively told each day and info about families benefitting from fair trade chocolate rate?

it's very good bribe material for getting the girls to bed the night before .

telegraph article so smug ott and patronising it makes me want to go and get the most hideous bratz calander I can find. am reasonably sure it won;t turn my children into a hazard to society.

mi snap!

I am baffled by this. My children have a lego advent calendar. How perverted would Libby find that? With bits of lego in. Not even relatively harmless cheap confectionary.It is making them happy. They are not piggish or dull-witted chidren, particularly.

There is a lot of class hatred in that stupid article...

I thought the Playmobil one was quite nice for a child being raised in an at least vaguely Christian household, because surely the idea is that you re-use the thing every year and it becomes part of your Christmas decorations? Bet if it had cost £300 and been full of hand-painted wooden bits to make up a nativity crib scene all the boden-butts on here would be creaming over it.

It's just the idea of anyone bidding so much for it now that we're nearly a week into Advent. But I suppose if it's intended for use every year (which is pretty obvious now I think about it) it's not so strange. But it can't cost that much new can it?

i don't think i would pay more than £10 for one so i hope they really aren't worth £30+!!

Wow, that's one of the battiest articles I've ever read
I refuse to take the side of someone who refers to children as brats and little horrors

I didn't do the advent calendar for my kids this year (too lazy busy), but we have a sweet little one which you fill yourself and hang-up...I'm going to go to the shops today specially to get loads of chocolatey treats for it. And that doesn't make my lovely - and well-mannered damn it! - children brats or little horrors.

My ds has a Thomas The Tank Engine chocolate one and a glittery picture-only religious one. He opens both enthusiastically. I truly don't believe that chocolate advent calendars do any harm.

We even have chocolate decorations on our tree. Is there any hope for my children?!

only read first and last page of thread so apologies if i've missed anything crucial, but whatever libby purves is trying to say would come across a lot clearer if she took her head out of her arse.

I am now beginning to think it's not the actual chocolate I object to (anti choc person here) but the non-Christmassy bit, ie my most hatred ever of inappropriate advent calendars (no doubt they have got much worse since then) being the Match of the Day advent calendar my DS1 (now 20) wanted when he was little.

But now feel slightly mean and guilty that I didn't ever let him have it.

Do you think I have ruined his life?

Still agree with Libby though.

Chocolate advent calendars are a pet hate of mine. 3 reasons

I hate that christmas, to me a religious or family festival, should be introduced by Hannah Montana or the like. What have they got to do with it? Just seems like more advertising.

I like the idea of my kids taking turns with the advent calendar, yet that seems harsh/difficult with chocolate.

I think it is good for children to be able to enjoy the things for what they are - this is also why I dislike play areas in libraries etc. Call me a miserable git if you like, but I feel uneasy about the idea of my kids growing up expecting permanent entertainment etc, and not being able to simply enjoy things. - somehow seems like a less happy existance.

Neither of these are exclusively, or inextricably, linked to chocolate advent calendars, they are just one unimportant but highly visible example, (is that not what epitomise means?- not sure) which is why they are a pet hate of mine.

AND shock-horror I spent £30 (ouch)of my meagre wage on a lovely advent calendar some years ago which I don't think works out excessive as it is a toy, a christmas decoration, a story-board and serves 2 kids for, hopefully 5-10 years. Oh, and my kids absolutely adore it. poor deprived children!

that said, I have no intention of forcing my kids to be the only ones in thier class etc to not have a chocolate calendar. So would probably get one if it ever became a really big issue for my kids. I don't think they are the cause of all evil! would just rather avoid them if possible.

your libraries have play areas?? Or do you mean one of those tables like this

Completely agree with OP.

What is wrong with a nice traditional advent calendar - when I was little I was so excited to see the picture each day and to be getting nearer to christmas by opening more windows. My DCs have traditional calendars and love them too.

chocolate calendars have nothing to do with Christmas.

I think it is completely different to have chocs on the tree or chocs in the stocking..the chocs eaten on Xmas day are a one off treat..the other chocs on the tree are something to be enjoyed when friends come round.

I think there is a stand to be made here:

NO to more than 24 windows

No to branded ones, simpsons, ben 10, whatever

No, in fact, to anything but nativity ones

but - er - can't get too hung up about the chocolate

• I make my two share the chocolate - how does that rate?