As part of our role as Playmobil Playologists we were sent a Playmobil Pirates Treasure Cove advent calendar. Playmobil produce 5 advent calendars with different themes: Forest Winter Wonderland, Police, Pony Farm, Princess Wedding and Pirates Treasure Cove. We were sent the pirate themed advent calendar and behind each door is a piece of Playmobil which will build up during December to make a pirate scene. It’s a little difficult to review something without opening it so I thought I’d share some pictures from the Playmobil website. My son loves Advent and I think it’s a great way to mark…
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I think I signed up for a record number of swaps over the festive period. I really enjoyed putting them together and it gave me the opportunity to make some lovely decorations. You may remember last year I signed up for an Advent Swap and I enjoyed it so much I did it again this year. The idea was to send 25 small items and I loved choosing the little items and wrapping them. Of course I was equally happy to open a small gift every day through Advent! I was paired with Melanie, aka The Patchwork Robin, who sent…
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Having a toddler to keep busy means I have tried to come up with lots of activities during advent. We’ve been talking about Christmas for a while (or Chris-Chris as he likes to call it) and I know he’s confused. I’m hoping that our book advent, his traditional chocolate a day Thomas calendar and our activity calendar will keep us busy and allow us a smooth run up to the big day. It’s not hard to find ideas online for advent calendar games, from homemade craft tips to festive printables, games and videos. Last year Father Christmas had a very…
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Being the good-hearted blogger that I am, I put myself forward to tell you about some chocolate treats from Hotel Chocolat. They sell a huge range of milk, white and dark chocolates in all shapes and sizes. Hotel Chocolat have some great products for Christmas, including advent calendars, chocolate hampers and stocking fillers. I was sent a yummy Jolly Santa to taste and review. This is what I was expecting: Unfortunately this is what I received: Hmm, I think once upon a time it was a Jolly Santa but the courier must have dropped it at some point. When I opened…
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Have you ever heard of a book advent? I think I first heard about it on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to do with the children. Instead of a tacky Advent calendar with cheap chocolate, we’ll be unwrapping a Christmas book every day of December leading up to Christmas Day. This way we will get to spend more time reading together, which is something we all love, and some time each day to enjoy the festive season. The hard part has been finding the books. 24 Christmas-themed books can be difficult. I really wanted to buy second hand…
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I’m going to be brave and use the C word. There’s something about September that just gets me thinking about Christmas. I’ve written my Christmas wishlist (iPad mini please), been buying stocking fillers and joined in some swaps for Christmas crafting. Christmas doesn’t have to be all about the money. We’ll be keeping it simple. I’ve decided to buy and wrap 24 books to put under the Christmas tree. I love the idea of reading Christmas stories with the children during Advent so have been buying second hand festive books whenever I see them. We’ll also been starting early on…
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Hooray, finally we can open our Advent Calendars and light our Advent candle. As we’re spending Christmas with my mum she mentioned we should sit down and start planning meals over Christmas! I don’t think we need to do this just yet but my mum is so organised she has already ordered the turkey and beef from the butcher. Fortunately she has gone away for a few days to celebrate her birthday which has left me with some time to finish off Edward’s advent calendar. It’s a pre-printed fabric panel with pockets for each day of December. Sadly he’s too…