How to Boss your Advent Calendar.
- Naomi
- Nov 24, 2017
- 4 min read
It's that time of year. It's only one week until December. There is only one week before people accept that you can become christmassy, the decorations come out, the music starts playing in homes and the advent calendars get unpacked.
This year is our first year with a homemade advent calendar. P's Mum made one for S and over the last couple of weeks I've been slowly collecting little bits and pieces to fill it.
Now I may have made it slightly difficult for myself, but I decided that I didn't want to just fill it with chocolate and sweets, especially not when S is still so young, so I've been scavenging for toys that are useful and not just toys for the sake of a calendar.
I thought I would share some of my ideas as being faced with 24 little pockets to fill, can be rather daunting...especially when there's only 1 week to do it!
We love wooden toys in this household, so that was where I started my search. Some folk that I turned to for advice said that it had been so hard trying to find gifts small enough for the pockets, that they had given up. However I didn't let that hinder me. If the pocket is too small, slip in a little note saying 'See Mummy' and then you can produce the gift.
Toy Food
We're planning on buying S a toy kitchen for her birthday next year, so we figured this was a good excuse to start buying food for it. The cut fruit and veg were part of a set from Aldi's Little Town Smoothie Maker set, and the swiss roll is from Wilko.
Musical Instruments
Next, we invested in some musical instruments. You can find the odd piece in charity shops, but we went once more to Wilko and to Amazon.
The recorder is from Wilko, and is part of their Safari set. There are lots of other bits and pieces you can buy from this set depending on how much you want to spend. We just stuck to the recorder.
The castanet is made by Big Jigs, and was from our local toy shop. You can buy them directly from Big Jigs, but have a hunt around because they tend to be cheaper in the little toy shops.
Toy Cars
This year S will be getting a lot of cars. Her christmas present this year is a wooden garage, so by way of stocking it up, she'll be getting cars in her calendar. Don't be afraid to duplicate presents, just spread them out throughout the month so there isn't a plethora of the same gift.
All of these little cars have been sourced from charity shops and secondhand children's shops. They range in price depending on the shop from 50p-£1 and are the perfect size for the little pockets.
Children's Cutlery
We never seem to have enough spoons for S, so we thought we'd add a spoon or two to the calendar. This Elmer spoon was from her other Grandma and can be found at Vinegar Hill.
Don't be afraid to seek help to fill the calendar. If you're doing it by yourself it can end up being quite pricey, but friends and family may want to donate little bits and pieces to fill it too.
Nick Nacks
Almost at the end of the list. Nick nacks and random fillers. If you see something going cheap- grab it! Her dolly is short of a bottle so we bought this one on the food shop and the doll was in a £1 bargain bucket so that was added to the basket too. The watch will go with mummy's watch as it has small parts, but it's a little investment for when she's older.
The watch is again by Big Jigs.
Big Packet Items
This is my brainwave, cheat present. If you're all out of ideas or money then this is a great way to go. This box of Duplo was from amazon, and as an add-on item, it was only £2.90 compared to the £3.99-£4 it is in shops (I've been looking).
The plan with this is that we will split the pack up and put all the different pieces in individual pockets. Ten pieces in a pack and straight away, that's ten days you don't have to worry about!
Depending on how much you don't want to think, you can buy the bigger packs and use up even more days. Just remember that it might be better to use this closer to the beginning of the month so that it can be made before christmas and out of the way ready for the other presents.
You don't have to choose Duplo. There's Lego, Stickle Bricks and Mega Blocks to name a few. It just has to be something that has lots of little items that you can split.
The Christmas Eve Gift
Last but not least, we decided to give her a more sizeable present on Christmas Eve to make that day a little more special.
This we too found on Amazon. It won't fit in the pocket, but she'll have it in time to snap away on Christmas Day!
So hopefully with these ideas, filling an advent calendar with sustainable and thoughtful toys shouldn't be too scary. Let us know how you do!
See you in December!!!
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