How to Overcome being Overwhelmed by Advent Calendars this Christmas #Blogmas 2018

There are lots of advent calendars on the market these days. There's your usual chocolate calendars, toy filled ones even beauty laden ones. You could also attempt to create your own diy calendar perhaps using old Christmas cards. Or perhaps create one with brown paper packages tied up with string.

Last year I opted for an Advent Calendar from Matalan made from wood. Little drawers can be used to store away little treasures or even activities for the kids to do. For example, track down some reindeer or make a gingerbread house.

I also bought the girls a Happyland Calendar filled with characters from the Nativity play. I intend to have these characters to hand again this year so the girls can play with them.

How are we counting down the days this year?

This year I have decided to minimise the amount of chocolate consumed in the house. Since contracting Type 2 Diabetes sugar is seen more like a poison than a treat here. Sadly the preschool parents think it's a great idea for sweets to be sent home as each child has it's birthday and no doubt will have chocolate calendars in their homes. However, my girls have been known to opt for sweet fruit over sugar coated nibbles and I wonder how many kids will be bouncing around the classroom at this time of year?

Instead we have been counting down the days till Christmas with a Poundland Christmas Advent Calendar. We started around the 30th day which is a little crazy but has been fun as my eldest has been recognising her numbers and has been the one to change the numbers over each day.

I also have an Activity Calendar. I spotted it on an American Vloggers Vlog called Play With Purpose in which she shares a variety of activities for Christmas. One of these was an activity calendar and my curiosity as to whether they did a similar product in the UK proved fruitful as Aldi did them. After a search following their special buy release date I thought I was too late and would have to wait till next year but luck was on my husband's side and he discovered them in a store near his work place. This I'm certain will go down well with my eldest for she loves arts and crafts and costing £1.99 means we're not breaking the bank balance.

Of course there is another way we will be getting in the festive mood and that is by surrounding ourselves with Christmas books. I'm unsure whether we will stick to one story a day  (a book advent) we often read more than one a day but books will be popping up everywhere in this house and I've even treated myself to Michael Morpurgo's version of The Snowman.

So if you find yourself overwhelmed by the amount of advent calendars on the market around Christmas take a step back and ask yourself what your child really likes and go for it.

What type of advent calendar are you using this Christmas?