I have been keeping my eye out for an advent calendar for when Little F is old enough to understand what it is. A friend of mine has three lovely ones for her children, with little boxes for tucking little treasures into. I nearly ordered one, but then I thought – where would I put it? With a small house with no mantlepiece or spare space to put decorative things into, that was a problem.
Then I saw some of these lovely ones that hang from the wall, or are strung as a garland, or could be pulled out one day at a time. Problem solved! Now I can go back to staring admiringly at them all and trying to decide over the next year which one to make.
Amy from Odd Socks and a Ponytail shows a cute advent calendar that her friend made, and also lists some activities to include.
I like the idea of the activity advent calendars – things to do together to celebrate the day. I grew up with a chocolate a day calendar, and while good (although my brother used to open the back, eat all the chocolates in one go, then put it back in) I think having an exciting activity to look forward to each day would be really fun.
Rochelle from Why Diss has one made from the pockets of jeans, which looks very cute.
Brisbane Kids list some that looks quite easy to make and put together – there’s even one made from envelopes, handy if I run out of time or inspiration.
There are so many lovely ones out there that it may take me all year to narrow them down and decide!
Mumma, Did You Know? 
You’ll have a lot of fun with it. Just get little’un used to them without chocolate because once corrupted with chocolate I think modern day kids want nothing else. I have a wonderful advent I was given years ago by a friend for my kids but I felt my youngest at the time was too young and things would get lost and the eldest was not interested. So it stayed in my treasures and I found it about 10 years ago and *I* love it. It is a Playmobil advent with a santa’s workshop scene and each day reveals more things to go on the scene. We have a small home too so it does require clearing of the window sill and the calender bit to go on the wall.
My little guy is very active, so I think activities will work for him, fingers crossed. I’d probably eat all the chocolate anyway.
Hi Alissa, hope you have got lots of inspiration for next year! I have to say after doing chocolates last year, it took the kids about 1 minute to get over the fact that it would be activities this year and they are much more into it! They open the envelope in the morning and then are excited all day looking forward to the activity that night after school. I thought I might pop a little chocolate in the last five days or something. Thanks for the mention by the way!! 😉
I am glad to hear the activities are a success! What has been their favourite so far? There is always lots of chocolate on Christmas day with my family, so I know he will get chocolate eventually.
Tonight they just loved putting up the “special” decorations we’d saved for today and then reading a Christmas story by candlelight whilst eating gingerbread cookies with a glass of milk. Old school but happy! (And not too strenuous or complicated for me!!)
Aww that is so sweet!
As kids, we had one that hung on the wall and the items pulled out were ornaments to go on the tree that was part of the wall hanging. We loved that thing!
That sounds exciting too!
Pingback: Advent calendars | The Cactus Garden