Stumble It!Advent Calenders.
We’ve all had them, we can see piles and piles of them in the shops. A thin card sleeve with this season’s popular film characters on and inside that a moulded plastic tray meant to hold tiny slivers of poor quality chocolate that all fall out and lurk at the bottom of the box.
My kids love them. They love the idea of a countdown to Christmas, a small gift or treat each day leading up to the big event. Of course they’ve been seduced by modern commercialism and in previous years they’ve had those and enjoyed them. We’ve taken them apart and recycled the card sleeve but not been able to deal with the plastic tray locally.
This year is different.
This year we’ve decided to dig out a fabric advent calender that we had hidden at the bottom of the box of Christmas decorations and we’ve been hunting for minimal or zero waste alternatives. I’d love to go fully organic and fair trade but money isn’t exactly flowing like water here so we’ve cut back a bit.
So, we’ve got 2 net bags of small foil wrapped chocolates in the shapes of snowmen and santa from Wilko’s at 2 for 97p and I’d already got a bag of assorted pencils, sharpeners, rubbers and the like – small things that I was going to slip into stockings for them. Some of those have been tucked into the pockets too.The foil from the chocs will be recycled, the net bags are now hanging in the garden full of nuts for the birds and the only waste for landfill will be the one or two bits of plastic that comes inside the plasticine that’s on the 18th. I’m sure that with a bit more thought you could come up with other treats to go in the pockets and end up with Zero waste and much more fun.
Reusable advent calender
We’ve had it for years, bought it at a Christmas market somewhere I think and this year it’s come back into use at the children’s request.
Fabric, reusable calenders that you fill yourself are readily available and it shouldn’t be hard to find one!
Alternatively, if you’re not bothered about the chocolate and treats then why not book mark one of the online advent calenders?
The Woodland Trust have one where each day has a free activity for children to do, and I’m sure adults would like to join in as well. I’ve got the Advent Calender Online saved from last year and that one has a little arcade type game to play each day. No waste at all with those… Other than wasted time.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 4:09 pm
fab article; I LOVE that calender – that is the prettiest one I have seen. This calender is worth a peek too; you can enter a prize draw to win something if you fancy it when you open each window – why should kids have all the fun! http://www.dorsetcereals.co.uk/advent-calendar
We have a refillable one too; I put little wooden decorations in the pockets and we have an angel which flies up a blue ribbon – DD loves that; we’ve had it since she was a baby; I made it at a Steiner mother and toddler group:)
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:01 pm
It’s hung on a bit of garden cane and the tinsel is to hide that. The bells weigh down the tinsel and stop it flying about.
One pocket has three cinema tickets, one has mini packs of plasticine, there are pencil sharpeners, rubbers (erasers for any American readers) and slidey puzzles – you know the ones with a bit missing and you have to slide the other bits round to make the picture. Plastic but will last for a while.
Love that Dorset Cereals advent, have book marked it!