Every year since my eldest son was born I along with all other mums, dads and grandparents used to buy a chocolate advent calendar.
It was something traditional, something exciting that made him want to get up on the dark mornings and something cheap.
However 9 years ago my youngest son came into this world and from then on I had to buy them one each. Expense started to creep in when my husband had to finish work through ill health and money began to dwindle.
As I began to run the Studio catalogue I noticed in it an advent calendar with a difference. It was made of fabric and had 24 pockets on it each big enough to hold a small sweet, chocolate or penny chew.
The first few years were tough but this little treat running up to Christmas and the big day kept the excitement going. I would start in the 1st week of November and buy a 15p mixture every week. This meant that in 4 weeks there was not only enough sweets for the advent calendar but also as a treat for my hubbie as well!!
Other treats are cheap lollies in tubs from shops or Studio. These are put in a special tin that is filled with other sweets and instead of them having pocket money in the last few weeks they have a handful of these each day instead. In the advent calendar you could also put in slips of paper saying that there is a video they can watch, somewhere special to go, 20p pieces or even that they can pick a Record they want to play.
Also for the Christmas tree if you have any insides of last years old advent calendar and you buy a cheap block of chocolate you can make chocolate novelties to hang on the tree.
Enjoy these few ideas and have a scrumptious Xmas all!!