We usually buy a Lego or Disney Advent calendar every year and the kids love opening a door each day. We splurged this year and bought a beautiful wood one that we can use every year and the doors are big enough to fill with treats for all three kids. The problem in the past is there would only be one toy in each door so they would fight over it. Any ideas of what to fill it with? DD1 has a dairy allergy so we don't do chocolate and I'd like to do items besides candy (because they get enough this time of year). The only thing I've bought so far are little candy canes. DH said Hatchimals but I hate them because we are the ones that end up hatching them and then they just go in a box to die.
One year I did puzzle pieces for a small Christmas puzzle. That was a big hit to see it come together each day.
Last year I bought a tiny little tree and tiny ornaments at dollar tree. Each day they got a new tiny ornament to add to the little tree.
This year I think I might do books, since we have a ton of Christmas books laying around the house already. I'm going back and forth between our Elf on a Shelf bringing the book, or just doing it as an advent calendar thing.
Stickers? Small boxes of crayons? Melty bead crafts? Maybe an iTunes gift card so that they could buy a movie to watch together? Small Rubik’s cubes? Small LEGO figures? Matchbox/hot wheels?
I hate little junk...so I would totally do something cumulative mixed with useful things.
Cumulative: build a necklace, stickers to decorate a new water bottle (get the bottle beside the calendar with a sticker the first day), pieces to make and decorate hair bows/ribbons for sports, Legos to build something winter themed like the sports resort ski lift or Minecraft igloo, riddles for a scavenger hunt type activity that end in a prize each week
Useful things (our elf brings some of these and the rest appear in stockings): hair bands, chapstick or Eos, socks (you guys i swear I don’t have a thing for socks, they are just practical), kid kitchen tools, stretch gloves/mittens, change rolling papers, kids dental flossers, Papermate Flair pens, hot chocolate keurig pods, card games, character toothbrushes, pig iPad/iPhone stands, Apple cider pouches, travel antibac gel from bath and body works.
I have to admit, this is why we just buy two lego advent calendars each year (one for each kid). I used to have a nice reusable one, but could never figure out what to put in it.
I’ve always eyed those nice calendars but it seems like a lot of work . We get each older kid a Trader Joe’s one with tiny chocolates. They can’t wait till Saturday to start them and yesterday morning they had me get them out just to admire them
What about some small ornaments for them to hang on the tree? My kids also like the tiny golden books. And tiny glass animal figurines.
2chatter, I'm with you on the little junk so that's why I'm getting stuck because it needs to be small to fit in the doors. I wanted to reuse the Christmas figures they received the past couple years but DH said no and wants it to be a new, "fun" surprise. I love your practical ideas!
phdmomma, I'm finding this out now.... it just added another thing to my to do list! I honestly think it's more for me because I love it as a decoration.
sdlaura, small ornaments would be good. They each have a little tree with their special ornaments so that would work well.
mellym, my girl friend writes little notes for her advent calendar set for her two littles and the bigger one gets a lego piece each day with the instructions on the 24th to build the lego. The notes range from fancy hot cocco, dance party, stroll out to see the lights, go the kid museum, make cookies, go see Santa, etc. She also is SAHM so has daylight hours to fill too.
I've done advent style calendars for my college age sister the last few year. Things I've done: hair ties, travel size lotion/body wash, socks (one year I mixed them all up so they were mix matched), nail polish, candy, baking supplies, ornament and other stuff college kids always seem to need. She is pretty bummed I'm not doing it this year.
Coins or dollar bills. Gift cards, Clues to a scavenger hunt or a bigger gift I also like to mix it up with little to-do things on a strip of paper. Like giving $ to a charity the kids choose, going for ice cream, making cookies that night, talking about what we are thankful for, etc. I try to mix fun stuff in with things to make them think about the season.