Advent Calendars for You, Friends and Family
Are you a planner? I like to plan ahead so I’m starting to think about Advent Calendars. Floss our daughter has been dairy free since 10 days old, so I’ve always been on the look out for Advent Calendars that are not just chocolate ones. It’s 2023 and I’ve updated this post from the previous Christmas.
Do you have Advent Calendars to mark the days before Christmas? Here’s ours that I made for when Floss was one. We use it each year. This year (2022) I’m determined to jazz up the star at the top with a little needle felting. It needs some extra love. It needs even more love after I found it folded a few too many times last week (2023).
We have little animals/ people and mini Christmas books that we reuse each year.
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The Works have really cute mini books that you can add to advent calendars if you’re looking to have a bookish Christmas.
Setting a Scene – The Nativity Calendar
The animals and people from our calendar come together to form our nativity scene. It’s a lovely way to piece together the nativity story each year as the scene begins to grow.
Each year a few of the days have a new treat for that year just to have a surprise alongside treasured returning friends.
New Advent Calendar Gifts – Yoto Cards and Tonie Characters
This year I’ve saved a couple of Yoto cards and Tonie characters for our audio players to pop in. If you’re tempted by an audio player you can find out more about them in our post here.
Tonies have also made a lovely reusable advent calendar. You can find more details and images here.
Advent Calendar for All Year Play
Lanka Kade animals are a lovely advent calendar idea and a toy that children can play with throughout the year too. You can get 15% off first orders with Yes Bebe using this link. When Floss was one we had Lanka Kade animals in the calendar and her ‘big’ present on Christmas day was a Lanka Kade Ark for the animals.
Advent Calendars for Family Time
As a family we often look for little rituals which mean we come together. Advent Calendars are a perfect opportunity to do this depending upon the calendar you go for. We love a little poetry tea time with a scone and some jam.
One of our favourite calendars was a Bonne Maman jams and marmalade calendar. You can see this year’s Bonne Maman calendar here.
Whether it was shared breakfast time or having a cheeky scone in the afternoon it was such a lovely way to come together in the bustle of December.
Gifting Advent Calendars
Starting during the Covid pandemic we changed the way we gifted for families at Christmas. We wanted friends and family to have things to look forward to in the run up to Christmas, not just on the day.
For some families we gifted an advent calendar along with a festive book, a family game and something tasty. It was a little hamper from our family to theirs. They went down so well we continued the year after and plan to continue going forward. The Works has a great range of books that are good for Christmas gifts or to use in advent calendars.
2023 Advent Calendars
Here are some advent calendars that have caught our eye so far this year. I’ll add more as I spot them.
Crystal Advent Calendar
An Advent Calendar that’s caught my eye this year is a crystals ones where you get a different crystal for each day. You can then match it to the list and find out a little more information. A lovely alternative to chocolate!
Joe and Seph’s Popcorn Calendar
If a little family time is what you’re looking for with your calendar then you might like Joe and Seph’s Popcorn calendars. Share a couple of popcorn nibbles together or eat the lot for yourself!
Tea Advent Calendars
Here’s another tea one that we loved the packaging for. You can find more info about this one here.
Creative Playdoh Advent Calendar
This would be a perfect family calendar. You get 5 tubs of playdough with different surprises to form and adorn your creations. Find more information here.
Sounds Cool! Electronic Sound Advent Calendar
If you’re looking for something a little different then this looks really cool – Electronic Sound Advent Calendar. You build your very own synthesizer in 24 steps, each day adding to your creation.