If you don’t want your kids guzzling sugar at 7am throughout most of December then why not try an alternative to the traditional chocolate calendar. There are lots of options out there and kids will get a lot more joy from little personalised gifts that will last. On the plus side a lot of the calendars are now reduced!
Check out these cute little gift boxes from Ikea. You could fill them with little presents or messages and they come with numbered stickers. Kids will love the cute little animals. Excellent price.
Advent activities calendar – £19
As each activity card is opened, it can either be hung back on the garland, or displayed using the enclosed picture stand – a different one per day on the run up to Christmas! You can either write your activities on the cards, or they can print out 24 activity suggestions for you (check out suggestions in the link).
Penguin advent stickers for diy advent calendar crafts – £4.50
Use these cute penguin stickers to make your own DIY advent calendar. You can add them on to envelopes for tokens for advent gifts or little notes, to boxes or jars, or to individually wrapped gifts.
Personalised colour in advent calendar poster – £14
A life size personalised colour in Christmas tree advent poster. What is not to love about this! A creative activity to keep the little ones busy in the lead up to the big day. You can also personalise the poster, see link for details.
24 Sleeps advent book – £14.95
24 Sleeps ‘til Christmas is a festive activity book, packed with puzzles to complete, carols to sing, doodles to draw, and lots more. This A3 activity book is spiral-bound, and can be read as a book or hung up on the wall via its hanger. On every page, there’s a fun fact about Christmas.
This fun advent calendar features no sweet treats but 24 happyland surprises behind each door! Each day in December, watch the excited little ones open the numbered doors of their advent calendar to see what’s inside – is it an angel, a happy snowman or maybe Santa himself?
The Lego City calendar features 24 different surprises, one for each day of the season, including santa’s sleigh, a gingerbread house, christmas tree, plane, snowman, coast guard helicopter and much more.
Why not fill your own advent calendars. There are lots of options available from Amazon!
Festive felt christmas advent calendar with pockets – £6.99
Premier decoration wooden advent house, 40cm – £18.21
For filler ideas check out the following links:
https://holidappy.com/gift-ideas/Ideas-for-Advent-Calendar-Fillers
https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/ideas-for-filling-your-home-made-advent-calendars
http://mumsgrapevine.com.au/2014/11/20-ways-to-fill-your-advent-calendar-without-chocolate/