I've always bought my children a chocolate advent each, when Zack was younger we'd have to put it out of his reach otherwise he'd open it up at one end & nick all the chocolate out of it. Kai enjoys sitting on my lap after school & going through all the numbers until we get to the date, we then have to study the design on the chocolate before he eats it.
I tried refillable ones one year thinking they'd save us money in the long run but found they actually cost us more, 50 individually wrapped sweets cost more than a £2 for 2 calendars
My favourite advent though was my advent swap with Ruth & Noonie a couple of years ago. I had so much fun making & choosing items for them. I was sooooooooooo excited to open my gifts each day, it felt like I was 5 years old again, with all the excitement & magic of Christmas.
You can see what I gave them HERE
& what they gave me HERE
I often look at the advent swap on UKS :) It looks such fun. We have a refillable wooden one for the girls now - it's worked out really cheap this year with the £4.00 tins of Celebrations we found.
ReplyDeleteMy memories of Advent calenders are the same as yours. Every January I make a plan to make a "real" nice gift calender for the family's kids. I did that in 2008 - but then they were two and to be honest I think it was to much to handle for them:)
ReplyDeleteWe've gone for the Cadbury's ones this year, not so keen on the Kinnerton choccie, even though the designs are better. Don't like the design on the Cadbury's one this year though, Santa has these great big eyes and even though I took a picture for my December Daily I didn't like that freaky Santa so it didn't make the book! We have gone for Playmobil ones in the past but they are quite expensive. (Waffle, waffle..) Love the idea of handmade ones for US! ♥
ReplyDeleteThe Boy has a choccie one this year. It's a Fairtrade one, with a "proper" nativity picture and the Christmas Story told in daily installments.. so he gets his Advent Message at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThe daily window has been opened and the chocolate scoffed before I even get downstairs in the morning!
I still have my best childhood advent calendar (we would keep them from year to year and re-use them). It has the story of the Little Drummer Boy, told in daily sentences, with a lovely illustration on the front. I still love it now and the story still makes me smile. I'm just a big baby really!
Great post, K!
The to remove the door or keep the door was a very big decision! I always decided based on the picture on the front. One year (and possibly one of the few I had a bought calendar) it had been dropped and all the chocs had fallen to the bottom. I sat for a while trying to re-position them, then just ate them all and only opened doors instead :)
ReplyDeleteWe never removed the doors becasue my Mum used to iron the doors back down again for the next year! I will admit to trying the same trick myself..
ReplyDeleteOooh K i LOVED our advent swap too... It was sooo much fun opening a gift each morning after taking the boys to school..
ReplyDeleteWe lewft it too late this year.. But i really think it would be huge fun to do it again next year, then we can plan as we did before
xxxx