Alternative Advent Calendars

This year we found some of the coolest Advent calendars we’ve yet to find. Advent calendars are as much a part of Christmas as stockings and mistletoe in our house and the kids love them. But too often, in past one of my children would find the cute chocolate advent calendar and scarf all of the chocolate bits down and be left with nothing. Then other child would follow suit of course. Monkey see, monkey do, right? For the last two years I have made it my mission to find toy Advent calendars. This year instead of the cheap chocolate calendars we’ve had in days gone by, we found amazing alternatives at Real Canadian Superstore. Back at the start of December I couldn’t believe my luck when I happened upon a Littlest Pet Shop advent calendar. It was priced at $10 and held a toy a day or a small Littlest Pet Shop accessory. That’s 24 toys. Three original Littest Pet Shop pets and clothing for them. My daughter Payton, now 8, immediately claimed it. That left me to hunt for another for my fiver Ainsley. The Real Canadian Superstore had run out of the LPS ones, so I bought a super cute My Little Pony (see pink one at top). On the weekend it was marked down to $7. Ainsley has already uncovered two little ponies, a pile of stickers, a tiny stocking for the ponies, a pretend present and reindeer antlers. So cute! I also picked up a sweet PlayDoh calendar for a friend’s little girl. Last year we bought an amazing Playmobil pirate calendar that was one of the year’s best gifts. I paid $20 then and remember thinking it was a bit much. But really the two girls shared the playset which opened up pirate worlds to them for the 24 days leading upto the big event. It was totally worth it and that toy of all the things they got last year was one of the best and most durable. Polly Pocket after all can easily become lost on Playmobil pirate island. I have seen these adorable calendars at Real Canadian Superstore, Winners, Scholar’s Choice and Chapters/Indigo. Sears Canada also carries a plain Advent calendar you can fill with toys yourself.