Advent calender fillers

BargainBee2111

I really want an advent calender full of crisps! Will have to make one I suppose!

Spendless

If you buy mens smellies from any of the beauty counters for any males you buy for ask if they have any free samples, or you could just ask if they have any samples anyway as you are thinking of purchasing <whatever>.

Have a look in Home Bargains as suggested if you have one, they often have small gifts for naff all. Today I've seen a Sponge Bob game where you try to get the balls into the hole for 10p, which had sweets in.

Poundland do a kids party bag range with things like bubbles, if they are not too young for him. Split up randomly over the 3 calendars would be ok I think.

Do you keep on eye on the newspaper thread on the discount codes board? Worth keeping an eye on, for different gifts for the price of a newspaper.

vikki_louise

springdreams wrote: »

No he doesn't NEED three

He has special needs, and gets a lot of enjoyment out of the advent calendars. He opens one before school (motivation to get ready quickly), one when he gets home from school and one after dinner.

Whether it is one or three, the issue is still what to put in them.

It is not really about the quality either. Most things in advent calendars are similar to cracker toys - fun for a short while.

He is getting a main present, a stocking (which I already have all the bits for) and a Christmas eve hamper (which I also already have all the bits for). The advent calendars are simply a build up to the main event.

They don't have to all contain things that cost money, so it doesn't just boil down to cost. I will be putting things in that don't cost a lot, such as the photo of his dog in a santa hat. I also plan to find some jokes on the internet and put some of those in.

This thread is not just for me. I could think up ideas on my own if need be - I have been doing it for years after all. However, I thought it would be nice to share ideas and see what others put in theirs.

So ignore the fact that my DS has 3, and come up with ideas to just fill one

Sorry, some people put themselves under pressure to do several just as that's what they have done in the past, it's nice your son enjoys them so much. Could one be dedicated to challenges, 'can you sing Rudolph the red nose reindeer', 'can you wrap a box in 1 minute' 'can you do the reindeer hokey kokey'

soon2bjobless

There are loads of Xmas jokes and printables which would be good for re-useable advent calenders here..

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas-jokes

building_with_lego

savingmonkey wrote: »

My mum did stockings for my sister and I up to age 21 - when she said it was the last year we decided to start doing them for each other - that was 15 years ago and we still do them for each other every year! Just an idea if you did want to stop the calendars they could do each others!

Back to ideas for what to put in - what about a lego set that you could split up and put bits in different days?

I've done this and it worked brilliantly! I had the Toy Story train set and printed off the instructions and bagged up 6-8 pages plus the requisite parts and they built a little every day. This year I've got a large Atlantis set which I bought years ago int he sale and tucked away; I've bagged up random parts though so they will (hopefully) have no idea about what it is until the 24th when they get all the figures, easily identifiable parts and the instructions!


Is 13 too old for Match Attax cards or similar? How about Spongebob toothpaste from Poundland?! The odd chocolate coin won't hurt- most of the supermarkets do bags for £1 or 3 for 2 at this time of year- three bags would easily fill one of your calendars. How about putting some Christmas decorations in one so he can add to the tree each day? Pens, pencils, rubbers etc?

EDIT: Pinterest threw up this list: http://steffi-cottoncandycastle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/50-inexpensive-advent-calendarstocking.html which yielded some ideas.

springdreams

Many thanks for all the ideas :beer:

My DS has never been into lego - we sold all his unopened stock recently at a car boot.

I do like the travel size toiletries idea, and have been pricing these up over the weekend.

I also like the chocolate tree decorations idea, and bought a few packs of those over the weekend.

My sister is an Avon rep, so I'll ask her to get a few of the mens samples to also add.

The advent calendar bits on eBay are excellent, however, I think my DS may be a bit old for many of the items included in the packs I looked at. But a lovely idea, which may be useful to someone else here.

Many thanks for the links to the jokes - will most definitely use those too.

Keep the ideas coming

springdreams

I'll be getting some of these Haribo tubes which contain mini bags and will be splitting them into the advent calendars too - they are currently on offer at Superdrug:

http://www.superdrug.com/uncategorized/haribo-tangfastics-tube-120g/invt/588407

http://www.superdrug.com/haribo-starmix-tube-120g/invt/588164&bklist=

I'm also planning on buying a few mini gifts sets and splitting them up - Superdrug and Tesco currently have gifts sets on offer - will work out cheaper than buying the individual travel toiletries, which are £1 in Wilkos, and £1.20 each in Asda.

fatblackandwhite

springdreams wrote: »

I'll be getting some of these Haribo tubes which contain mini bags and will be splitting them into the advent calendars too - they are currently on offer at Superdrug:

http://www.superdrug.com/uncategorized/haribo-tangfastics-tube-120g/invt/588407

http://www.superdrug.com/haribo-starmix-tube-120g/invt/588164&bklist=

I'm also planning on buying a few mini gifts sets and splitting them up - Superdrug and Tesco currently have gifts sets on offer - will work out cheaper than buying the individual travel toiletries, which are £1 in Wilkos, and £1.20 each in Asda.

Don't get the Haribo tubes to split up - DS1 had one the other day and all they contain are four 10p bags (in slightly bigger bags). You can get multi packs of the little bags in places like Home Bargains for not much more that a tube and you will get a lot more for your money. HTH

springdreams

fatblackandwhite wrote: »

Don't get the Haribo tubes to split up - DS1 had one the other day and all they contain are four 10p bags (in slightly bigger bags). You can get multi packs of the little bags in places like Home Bargains for not much more that a tube and you will get a lot more for your money. HTH

Thanks for pointing that out :beer: I shall certainly go with your suggestion instead.