Advent Calendars for Toddlers
It’s that time of year again to get Advent Calendars sorted. The choices are many these days: chocolate calendar; store bought calendar pre-filled with toys or other gifts, depending on age; or DIY/ refillable calendars. We’ve always been team refillable. My mum hand made me a calendar as a child, which was then passed on to my eldest boy. She later made another one when my second son came along. But what to put in a toddler’s Advent calendar? And do they really need one at age 1 or 2? My boys are 9 and 13 now, but I’ve dug up my note from when they were younger to share what I did for them at that age.
Advent Calendar for a 1 Year Old
Well, I have to confess, at age 1 it was probably more for my benefit, the excitement for finally having a kid of my own to create a magical Advent and Christmas for. He had only just turned 1 not that long before Advent started. I decided to invest in a few bigger items, which filled about a third of the calendar, and fill the rest up with cheap and cheerful toddler friendly snacks.
Non edible items included:
- 3 mini Christmas board books
- A vintage style spinning top
- Stacking cups
- And two small cuddly toys – a cheap Ikea teddy bear, and a cuddly Santa toy
- A giant bouncy ball
The rest were all healthy(ish) toddler snacks, including fruit bars, oat bars, cookies, and wee bags of raisins and apple slices. We were living in Berlin at the time, so you may not recognise these brands if you live outside of Germany. But there are suitable equivalents in the UK and elsewhere.
Advent Calendar for a 2 Year Old
When my youngest was 2, there was no question about it, his Advent Calendar fillings had to be as close as possible to his big brother’s to avoid any squabbles, with some age appropriate substitutions. But when my eldest was 2, there were no siblings to compete with so I ended up doing something rally easy. One of the local supermarkets in Berlin – I think it was probably Lidl – had Lego Duplo on offer, so I managed to buy to boxes of Lego Duplo for the price of one. I simply pooled the contents of box boxes, and split them across 24 days. Happy kid. Happy mum. Job done!
(by the way, the photo shows how I divided up the contents, but that’s not the order I filled the calendar in. When assigning fillings to days, I made sure to alternative between the animals, flowers, and regular bricks).
Advent Calendars for Other Age Groups
For Advent Calendar filler ideas for other ages, check out my previous posts:
- Advent Calendar Fillings for Age 2 & 6
- Advent Calendar Fillings for Age 3 & 7
- Advent Calendar Fillings for Age 4 & 8
Last Minute Advent Calendar
And for anyone who needs a last minute Advent calendar, check out our Activity Advent Calendar and download your free printable activity cards.
>> Download Activity Advent Calendar Cards
And if you do end up using the Activity Advent Calendar Cards and enjoy them, and would like to support me with a small donation on Ko-fi to help keep this blog running, it would be much appreciated. Just hit the support button. Thank you x
You are welcome to print off these cards for your own personal use, and if you do end up using them, I’d love to see some photos so please feel free to share with me or tag me in on Facebook and Instagram.
