Thank you. I should get one for myself. I remember loving these as a child. Mine were simple, with holiday pictures behing little doors. Great memory. Its wonderful how such a simple thing could bring such joy.

I have been looking at advent calendars for the last month-- I think I want a reusable one for my 2 great nephews but the challenge is that one of them is still very young. I don't want all candy and of course, no choking hazards.

I LOVE this one from LLBean but the boxes are very small .. I think a pocket style advent calendar may make more sense for a 2y and a 7yo.

but then I REALLY like this one too -- especially for my youngest nephew.

The reuseable ones are a little nostalgic as my grandmother made one for us when we were kids ... also, we are trying to find things to keep my mom busy and her spirits up. She gets VERY sad at Christmas because so many memories are around how much my father loved the holidays. This is one of the few traditions that isn't linked to dad so hoping it is something she can throw herself into. It was originally a gift I wanted to give ... but I will happily share with mom if it makes her happy.

I'll have to check out the links you shared, Maire-cate because maybe an advent calendar for mom will help bring a little fun for her too.

I also thought about doing activity prompts instead of trinkets -- but then that adds a burden to their busy parents. Maybe a mix would work better?

Thank you for the list Marie.

Aldi also has many, including beer, wine and cheese.

https://www.aldi.us/en/products/advent-holiday-calendars/

Funky - I think a reusable one would be the best too - especially if I retrieve it every year after Christmas and store for my kids and then fill it again for the following year. My DIL's would be thrilled. Right now my grand daughters are all under 5 and the youngest two are 18 months and 12 months so I'm waiting until they're a little older.

My kids had one from the Met that was filled with little holiday figurines. I bought a small tree that would fit on the mantel and each day they opened a door and put the ornament on the tree.

This year the Met has one with do-it-yourself crafts.

https://store.metmuseum.org/diy-advent-calendar-80054087

Maire

Funky,

Is your Mom a little crafty? I am not but I made a calendar for when my niece & nephew would visit. Maybe she could make a few as gifts, as a way to keep busy, and to start a new tradition.

Mine is a large piece of black felt, with little, felt stockings, that hang from the calendar on ribbon loops, hanging from either a little jingle bell or candy cane shaped button. I made my stockings in either red/white or grinch green/white because the kids were really into The Grinch.

The stockings can hold a small candy (like a Hershey Kiss or mini bar). I think I sewed the stockings using a blanket stitch, but I’d have to get it out of xmas storage to confirm. The black felt has ribbon loops on the top edge so I can hang it from a cafe rod, which is placed on command hooks on the wall.

It is very amatuerish looking but I choose believe that’s part of the charm 😁. Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe I’ll get it out again this year, even though the kids won’t be visiting 😕. Finally, my husband will get to enjoy the candy and not just kids 😆.

eta: The mother of the above kids puts notes in each of their home calendars with things like: we’ll bake the cookie of your choice, going out to a favorite resaurant just the two of them, coupons for activities like ice skating, etc. The kids are now 13 & 15.

I got Lego calendars for my boys for years. Usually one so they had to take turns! One year, I waited too long and they were sold out. I had kept the previous year box, and had a bunch of the images (did I save the packets? were they on the box? I don’t recall) so I scrounged through the Lego bins to recreate the sets.

That was a fun year, adding the element of ”how well did Mom do, collecting the right pieces?”

This year, I simply found a couple of beautiful door calendars, to drop off at their apartments.

A few years ago our grocery store had the Bonne Maman and I got that for us.

I got the Bonne Maman advent calendar last year for our kitchen and we enjoyed a different jam every day on our English muffins.

Whatever we do, apparently we need to avoid the Costco/Kirkland Wine Advent Calendar. A sommelier I follow on IG panned every single bottle of wine in the box. https://instagram.com/loopersomm?igshid=NDc0ODY0MjQ=

Aldi's also has a wine calendar. Do I expect it to be first quality wines? Why would I? I drink wines of various types and not all would be what I would consider drinkable. This is the first year that I have even seen one but I may make a trip to one of the local stores on November 2 just for something different.

Who does the Baby Cheeses advent calendar? I thought that was Aldi or maybe it’s TJ’s.

I still have my advent calendar from when I was little. It’s fairly fragile, but it still works.

Got mine a couple of weeks ago. Target had a Lindor's cart. Alid's has a plethera again this year. I have never found them to be difficult to find. I hand them out at Thanksgiving.

Oh, Baby Cheeses! NOW I get it!

I saw Walker's shortbread advent calendar the other day, and it reminded me how much I used to enjoy Scottish shortbread years ago. But I had no idea advent calendars were so numerous and came in such variety!

Read the labels carefully. I noticed plenty of establishments are getting the 12 days of Christmas mixed up with Advent calendars and that there are 28 days in Advent this year!!

I just ordered the Williams Sonoma spice calendar, and hope it comes with recipes!

In years past, I filled the Garnet Hill hats and mittens advent ’calendar’ for my own children every day. I’ve also given this as a gift to young families.

maddilee that is of course true--but my larger point was I saw many calendars labeled 'advent' and they are maybe 12-15 items. Companies got confused with 12 days of Chrismtas it seems! So buyer beware.