Advent Calendars

Me and DH always treat ourselves to an Advent Calendar each and always try and get a decent one. This year we found one on Amazon. It's got a little shortbread biscuit in each window made by Walkers. I get fed up with the chocolate ones and not really interested in the ones with games, etc.

I have a lovely wooden perpetual advent calendar. It's a living room.scene with Santa coming down the chimney. It has 24 doors and behind each door is a Christmas ornament to hang around the scene. The doors are big enough to hide a treat behind as well as the ornaments

DS buys me one with little cheeses. I particularly look forward to the days with smoked ones. Mmmm.

Last year I made a nativity scene for my grandchildren with 24 characters made of felt. It took months to make and I packed the characters in an empty advent calendar box that had had toiletries in and I got free on freegle. It even still smelled nice. I added chocolates to some of the boxes from about the 10th of December.
My DS packed it all back in the box and they will open it again this year. I've given him the chocolates to add to the boxes. I hope it will be seen as a family heirloom. I guess if my DD has children in future I'll have to make it all over again!

Last year, I made a “lucky dip” advent calendar for my DGDs. I found various little things (for one it was a bulb of garlic!😆) which I wrapped. Each dat, they would cross off the date and fish around for a small present. They absolutely loved it and asked me to do it again this year. Win, win 🏆

I try to find different ones every year for each of my family (sister, brother-in-law, nephew) two friends and myself. They get treated as Christmas presents as well. The women tend to get the same one as do the men but not always. A couple of years ago I could only get 2 Star Wars socks and one Marvel socks for the men, so with my nephew and brother in law gave them the choice of which one they had - afraid to say my nephew (18 at the time) hadn't heard of Star Wars so chose the Marvel (although I had thought he'd go for that one anyway). Last year he had a fishing one (lures), got a golf one for this year. To help out with the costs I usually get them after Christmas for the following year - usually half price or using loyalty cards/points. Also to point out I only buy for 6 people altogether for Christmas including myself

I've bought my Son and Advent Calendar with cheese, chutney and crackers. I've bought myself 1 with a tiny cross stitch for every day. I've even found 1 for my Jewish Sister, a Hannuka Advent Calendar. hugs

We were very hard-up when my children were young. I used to buy one Advent calendar and they took turns to open a window.
Nowadays my daughters buy them for their cats and dogs and I get given one every year. No chocolate, just pretty old-fashioned pictures.

Witzend

I always treat myself to a corny just-little-pictures one. Never had one as a child, so I’m making up for it!

I’ve never bought any with chocolate or anything else.

The best ones are just pictures. Childhood memories. Nothing more is needed.

i shall definitely get one for my dog and i like the picture ones too

I made an advent calendar for my reception class. Each “door” had enough Smarties for each child. December 1 was “wet play” lunchtime… not a single Smartie left! 😂

I love the old fashioned sparkly ones and really disapprove ( sorry everyone else!!) of the ones with chocolates etc inside!
My grandchildren - aged from 9 - 19 - still love getting the ones I send them every year (even the 19 year old who is in his 2nd year at uni). I'm lucky that my local toy shop, in West London, still sells the beautiful ones (from Germany I think).

We have a blank nativity scene one that opens on a tri-fold. It has tiny numbers for the characters and each day a child selects the corresponding character to add to the scene. They love it.

I had my first advent calendar in the 50s. No chocolates or gifts, just a tiny painted Christmas scene behind each door. I loved it and it came out year after year.

jocork that's absolutely beautiful! You are very talented, as an adult I'd love one like it

I made a large Advent calendar for my kids years ago. It was in the shape of a Christmas tree and I used 25 matchboxes with little sweets in. It was covered in red and green felt and I used little gold split pins to open the boxes. They loved it and we used it for years. Maybe it’s still somewhere in the loft.

Like a lot of you I love the little pictures behind each door. My daughter used to like the beauty ones but now thinks they put in a lot of stuff you don't want so she has got a picture one this year.
I found a beautiful gold foiled one online from a specialist stationery shop in London. It has a Madonna on it from a medieval painting in Serbia and we are both excited to see what is under the windows.
When I was little my sister and I would always open number 22 early as it was our birthday. It was pretty obvious as the cardboard would be all dogeared where we kept opening and closing the flap!

yellowcanary

I try to find different ones every year for each of my family (sister, brother-in-law, nephew) two friends and myself. They get treated as Christmas presents as well. The women tend to get the same one as do the men but not always. A couple of years ago I could only get 2 Star Wars socks and one Marvel socks for the men, so with my nephew and brother in law gave them the choice of which one they had - afraid to say my nephew (18 at the time) hadn't heard of Star Wars so chose the Marvel (although I had thought he'd go for that one anyway). Last year he had a fishing one (lures), got a golf one for this year. To help out with the costs I usually get them after Christmas for the following year - usually half price or using loyalty cards/points. Also to point out I only buy for 6 people altogether for Christmas including myself

Your shocked emoji made me laugh yellowcanary- fancy not having heard of Star Wars!

jocork

Last year I made a nativity scene for my grandchildren with 24 characters made of felt. It took months to make and I packed the characters in an empty advent calendar box that had had toiletries in and I got free on freegle. It even still smelled nice. I added chocolates to some of the boxes from about the 10th of December.
My DS packed it all back in the box and they will open it again this year. I've given him the chocolates to add to the boxes. I hope it will be seen as a family heirloom. I guess if my DD has children in future I'll have to make it all over again!

jocork That is beautiful. I made one for GC many years ago and they've been passed down to GGC now. Mine wasn't as beautiful as yours though.

What a beautiful new tradition you have started for your grandchildren jocork, how lovely for them to greet a little 'feltie' each Advent morning .

LaCrepescule

Advent calendars to me are the beautiful glittery German ones we had in the 60s - nothing inside but a little illustration. There were 3 of us and we had to take turns opening the windows.
I don’t like the ones today and sadly can’t find any of the old-style ones to buy.

We had to share ours between three, too. I think all families did then so the only way to get to open every door by yourself was if you were a rare only child. My birthday is on December 6th so I always opened 3, 6, 9 etc. Of course, this meant that I opened the double door to the nativity scene on the 24th. Some independent newsagencies and bookshops sell these traditional advent calendars and I buy one with a nativity scene on the front each year.

Last year I bought beauty advent calendars for my daughter, granddaughter and my daughter in law at a cost of over £700 ! 😂. Not doing that again . This year I’ve bought a beauty calendar for daughter again but everyone else can make do with a chocolate one .

I got this one from Avon many years ago, you pull out a stick each day and Father Christmas drops down every 3rd day until the 24th December when he finally lands in the fireplace. My DS’s used to take turns and now my DGD loves to take out the sticks when she visits. I love it and it sits on my mantle piece every year.

My made one for my daughters out of fabric out of fabric and refilled the little pockets every year.
I was treated to a beautiful one from a posh department store a few years ago, saved the lovely box and refilled it for DD1 a few years ago when I thought she needed extra TLC after a breakup. Some of the boxes are quite able to arrange things I knew she would really like, plus a couple of treats for the cat. It was time consuming to find 24 things though…..

I’m really pleased to hear that children still like the ritual of opening the calendar, even when there’s not a gift. That has made me think that I might invest the time on making a permanent one for my grandchildren that doesn’t include gifts. Hopefully they will start to enjoy the ritual of finding their favourite decoration or picture. I’d love to think that they might still be doing that when they are teenagers or even young adults. (I was 71 when DGS1 arrived, so it might even outlast me!)

Another scrambled message - sorry - hopefully the point comes across even if the words haven’t 😂