Advent calendar without sweets?

Hello everyone, I am just going to make this years' advent calendar for my kids. Sure, I could just buy one, but I am no fan of sweets (contrary to my kids) and I would like to make something special out of it. There is a lot of chocolate nibbling during the festive season, anyway. By Christmas the children are already acting strange from the chocolate and on Christmas eve they are going to get another bag full of sweets potentially lasting until next years festive season... But Christmas is not just about stuffing our bellys with sugar and fat, right?



If you see it the same way, I will tell you what I put into our advent calendar this year. My children are 1, 3 and 6 years old.

Dried Fruits
Dates, cranberries, raisins - they are great for the advent calendar. I got some grocery bags for them.

Tangerines
My kids absolutely love to peel tangerines. So they get tangerines.

Squeez Applesauce
The kids love them. Actually, I find them too expensive since they are only filled with applesauce but what the heck...

But I won't just put things to snack on into my advent calendar, but also:
Christmas stickers
Glitter glue sticks for crafting
Vegan Lip Balm

And the best things in the calendar: is spending time together. I make little notes with pictures and the kids will have to guess what we'll do together.

We play games together like Ludo or UNO Junior .

We bake Christmas cookies together.

We go to the Christmas market.

We watch a Christmas movie together.

A Froebel Star

We make froebel stars (also called: German stars). Here is a detailed instruction on how to do them.

We make Christmas balls out of paper. Here is a guide for it.

We play together and sing Christmas carols.

We read a Christmas story.



I always plan the actions for those days we have enough time in the afternoon. On the other days the children will find the edible gifts or crafts accessories in their calendar. With each Christmas action I get the advent calendar full and simultaneously we all will have a nice and peaceful festive season together.




Photo credit: gomattolson via photopin cc (advent calendar), .janu via photopin cc (tangerines), m01229 via photopin cc (glitter glue sticks), PetitPlat - Stephanie Kilgast via photopin cc (cookies), BlueRidgeKitties via photopin cc (froebel star)