3 alternative advent calendars

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Do you remember that childhood rush of excitement when you woke up on a December morning? The realisation that there was a tiny square of chocolate waiting downstairs. Tearing open the little door and eating the chocolate before breakfast!

These days, advent calendars aren’t the preserve of children. But, a tiny square of cheap chocolate just doesn’t hold the appeal it used to. Let’s face it, when you earn your own cash you can eat chocolate for breakfast every day if you want to. So here are a few advent calendars that recapture the thrill of advent.

Mad Beauty advent calendar from Prezzybox

This sweet advent calendar contains a beauty treat every day. It’s suitable for older children who are allowed to wear makeup, or for adults. The contents include lipstick, lipgloss, nail varnish, nail stickers, makeup brushes and eye and lip liner pencil. Lia and I have put together a little video of us opening the calendar. SPOILER ALERT: Don’t watch this if you don’t want to know what’s in it on which day. It includes a photo of every item.

Since opening this, we’ve used a few of the items. The nail varnish is lovely colours but it doesn’t stay on for long – at least not on my children. I painted their nails over half term as a treat but it was gone within a couple of days. That said, the lipstick fared much better, staying put for ages and not making its way to my teeth once. The products are all quite small as you would expect with an advent calendar. But they are perfectly functional and would definitely delight any makeup lover each December morning.

Tea light advent calendar from Heart & Home

This is the sort of advent calendar I’d happily buy for virtually anybody and I know they’d be delighted. It contains 26 tea light candles, each scented with one of six gorgeous fragrances.

The candles are all in festive colours of red, green, white and off-white. Each one is either:

• Christmas Spirit with the scent of brandied oranges, sweet butterscotch and Winter spiced apples
• Snow angel to capture joyful memories and candied treats in a sweet scent
• Waiting for Santa which is a warming fragrance of sugared fruits and spices
• Christmas tree to bring the scent of fir trees and warming spiced wood into your home
• Christmas night blending nutmeg, orange balm and sage to form a festive fragrance
• Sugar and spice with buttery vanilla infused with almonds to provide a warm welcome on a cold night

A special treat lies in store on Christmas Eve, with not one but three of these fabulous scented tea lights behind the large door. If the beautiful candles and festive scents wasn’t enough, Heart & Home have great ethical credentials. The tea lights last for much longer than a standard tea light and the soy wax ensures that they burn cleanly. I think if it was me, I’d open this advent calendar in the evenings after the children had gone to bed. Then I’d chill out with a hot drink and breathe in the scents of these delightful tea lights.

Misfortune Cookies Anti-Advent Calendar from Prezzybox

This misfortune cookies anti-advent calendar appeals to my inner grinch. These days, I’m pretty much obliged to embrace Christmas. Blogging requires me to be enthusiastic about Christmas days out, the latest gifts and Winter holidays. Being a parent is a fast track to lying to children about Santa, elves and all that jazz. And I’ll be honest, these days I quite enjoy it.

But deep down, there’s a secret scrooge clamouring to get out. So, the misfortune cookies anti-advent calendar is the perfect antidote to all that sickly Christmas cheer. Open a door every day to reveal a vegan black wheat cookie with a message inside. Messages say things like “Merry Christmas beautiful.” And “Spread festive joy to one and all.” Okay, I’m joking. It’s more likely to tell you a black joke or insult you. Which, let’s face it, is much more entertaining.

This fabulous joy-sapping creation has of course totally sold out. However, Prezzybox have assured me that it will be available again from 18th November.

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