What To Put In Your Advent  Calendar For Your Toddler

Are you wondering what to put in your advent calendar for a toddler? Advent calendars are an exciting tradition for children and parents alike, and creating one specifically tailored for your toddler can bring joy and anticipation during the holiday season. 

Toddlers love exploring, discovering, and learning, making the advent calendar an excellent tool to stimulate their curiosity while providing fun surprises that also meet their individual needs. Having a Christmas advent calendar for toddlers in addition to the great Christmas tree is a great way to make that time of year super special. 

To create the perfect advent calendar for your toddler, it’s important to not only consider the type of calendar you want to use but also the types of items you’ll be filling it with. Keep in mind the goal of fostering their development, their interests, and ensuring their safety. 

Make the advent season magical for the little ones with thoughtful and age-appropriate fillers that will delight and entertain while balancing your budget and your child’s well-being.

Key Takeaways

• Personalize an advent calendar suited for your toddler’s unique interests and developmental needs
• Combine DIY and pre-made options with budget-friendly and low-sugar fillers for a fun and balanced experience
• Prioritize your child’s safety while incorporating festive activities and traditions in the advent calendar

Understanding Advent Calendars

Advent calendars are a popular and cherished Christmas tradition, meant to help celebrate and count down the days until December 25th. It is a calendar that consists of 24 or 25 little doors, pockets, or drawers, with each one opened or revealed on a consecutive day in December. 

This adds an element of excitement and anticipation leading up to Christmas Day for both children and adults alike. It also makes for a fun tradition. 

In recent years, there has been a growing trend of creating fun and interactive Advent calendars specifically tailored to young children, typically called toddler advent calendars. 

These can include a variety of small toys, activities, and treats to engage and entertain curious tots throughout the month of December. When selecting the perfect advent calendar fillers for a toddler, it’s essential to consider their interests, age, and the meaning behind this festive tradition.

Traditionally, Advent calendars were filled with a small piece of chocolate or a tiny image behind each door. However, as modern calendars have evolved, they can now contain anything from little gifts, toys, or even messages offering little activities to do as a family. 

Here are some popular contents for toddler Advent calendars:

• Toys and trinkets: Small, age-appropriate toys for young kids that can fit inside the calendar compartments.
• Stickers and coloring pages: Encourage creativity and can fit easily into the calendar.
• Outdoor activities: Small nature-based items or prompts for outdoor exploration.
• Acts of kindness: Ideas for simple, age-appropriate kind gestures, like doing something nice for a friend or sibling. 
• Holiday-themed stories: Miniature books or printed short stories to read together each day.

Some parents choose to create DIY Advent calendars that offer more personalization and flexibility in their contents. 

Making your own diy advent calendar may include a combination of store-bought items and personalized touches, such as handwritten notes, activities, and crafts. Remember that the focus should be on the experience, excitement, and anticipation, rather than just material objects. 

Overall, an Advent calendar is an enjoyable way to build excitement and bring some extra magic into the December countdown. Keep this tradition alive and fun by choosing or creating a toddler-friendly Advent calendar that reflects your child’s interests and the true spirit of the holiday season.

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Choosing the Right Advent Calendar

When it comes to finding the perfect advent calendar for our toddlers, there are several factors to keep in mind. Let’s go over some key aspects that will help you pick the right calendar for your little one.

Budget: It’s important to consider our budget when choosing an advent calendar. There is a wide range of options available, from inexpensive cardboard calendars to more elaborate, heirloom-quality wooden and fabric calendars. Determine how much you’d like to spend beforehand, as this can help narrow down the options.

Material: Considering different materials for the calendar itself can influence its longevity and style. Fabric calendars are soft and flexible, making them easy to store and, with proper care, they can be reused for many years. Wooden calendars often have a charming and classic appearance, and they can be more durable than fabric options. When well-crafted, wooden advent calendars can become cherished family heirlooms.

Compatibility with your Display Space: The type and size of the advent calendar you choose should fit well within your home’s available display space. When selecting a calendar, be sure to measure the intended area and consider the calendar’s dimensions to ensure a proper fit.

Refillable and Reusable: Another factor to consider when selecting an advent calendar is whether it is refillable, providing the flexibility of personalizing the contents each year. Reusable advent calendars, such as wooden or fabric options with little drawers or pockets, offer a more sustainable and customizable alternative to disposable calendars.

Here is a list of some interesting types of reusable advent calendars, suitable for toddlers:

• Wooden advent calendars with small drawers
• Fabric advent calendars with pockets
• Felt advent calendars with attachable ornaments

Finally, remember to take your toddler’s interests and needs into consideration when choosing an advent calendar. Seek out options that will engage and entertain them, creating a joyful holiday season for you and your little ones.

Filling Ideas: Now that we have our DIY advent calendar structure, it’s time to fill it with fun surprises for our toddler. Here are some ideas for age-appropriate items to include:

1. Stickers
2. Temporary tattoos
3. Finger puppets
4. Mini puzzles
5. Small toys without small parts 
6. Crayons or markers
7. Sweet treats (with moderation) like tiny chocolates 
8. Notes with fun activities to do together
9. A coupon or picture of a Christmas movie they’d like 
10. Cookie cutters to be used with modeling dough 
11. Christmas books 

Many of these things can be purchased from the dollar store which makes it budget friendly. 

Setting up a Christmas activity station next to your advent calendar can add excitement to the daily countdown. In this area, place things like coloring supplies, craft materials, or baking ingredients, so everything is accessible and organized. This way, when we reach an activity prompt in the calendar, we’re all set to engage our toddlers and create lasting memories. It makes for a great time during Christmas time. 

Another way to heighten the excitement and anticipation is to integrate Christmas traditions from around the world. We can dedicate a day to learning about a different culture’s customs, food, and decorations. This may prompt our little ones to ask thoughtful questions while also adding educational value. Sometimes we include tiny toys that reflect the traditions from these other places. 

By incorporating these ideas into our advent calendar, we add a touch of magic to the holiday season, making it memorable for both us and our toddlers.

Safety Considerations for Toddlers

When creating an advent calendar for toddlers, we must prioritize their safety. This means taking into account potential choking hazards, ensuring materials are non-toxic, and making your Christmas countdown using your Christmas advent calendar child-proof.

Choking Hazards: Toddlers tend to explore objects with their mouth, so we must be cautious when selecting items to include in the calendar. Always avoid small items with small pieces that could become a choking hazard. A good rule of thumb is to choose items larger than a toddler’s fist, such as plush toys, large building blocks, or age-appropriate puzzles.

Non-toxic Materials: Toddlers have sensitive skin and are more susceptible to harmful chemicals. We should always ensure that items included in the calendar are made from non-toxic materials. Look for labels such as “BPA-free” or “non-toxic” when selecting toys, and consider using natural materials like wooden toys or crafting supplies.

Material	Safe for Toddlers?
BPA-free Plastic	Yes
Non-toxic Wood	Yes
Natural Fiber	Yes

Child-proofing: To avoid any accidents or unwanted messes, we should take steps to ensure that the advent calendar is child-proof. This may include securely attaching the calendar to a wall or sturdy furniture, placing it out of reach of younger siblings, and avoiding items that could break or cause damage to the child’s surroundings.

In summary, when planning an advent calendar for toddlers, we should always prioritize safety by avoiding choking hazards, selecting non-toxic materials, and child-proofing the calendar. By doing so, we can create an enjoyable and stress-free festive season for both toddlers and parents alike.

Using kids advent calendars helps bring the Christmas magic to life by encouraging imaginative play for more than one single day. It’s also a great way to take the focus away from the single day of December for the whole family.