12 Advent Calendar Fillers That Are Not Chocolate
The refillable calendar comes down from the loft in the last week of November. Then you are standing in the kitchen holding twenty four small empty drawers.
Chocolate is the easy answer. For a lot of families it is the right one. It stops being right when a child cannot start the day on sugar. Or when there are three calendars in the house and breakfast turns into a negotiation. Or when the big chocolate calendar is already bought, and you would rather the little doors did something else.
Twelve things below that fit through a drawer, survive a December morning, and do not all cost the same as a toy.
Twelve things in four groups. Ratings are live Amazon ratings, never ours.
- 1
A fifteen piece fidget packBest if you only buy one thing - 2
A large mixed fidget boxBest for two or three calendars - 3
A plain fidget pack with no themeBest for a wide age gap - 4
A twelve sided fidget cubeBest for the child who chews pens - 5
A six pack of quiet silicone fidgetsBest for a classroom desk - 6
Spiky sensory ringsBest for hands that need pressure - 7
A small set of soft fidgetsBest for a younger child - 8
Four sensory pencil gripsBest for sore writing hands - 9
An eight pack of textured gripsBest for a big family - 10
Focus stickers for the deskBest for a door that is not a toy - 11
A light up spinning wandBest for the last door - 12
Six squeezy stress ballsBest for sharing between siblings
Group one
The packs that fill a week of doors at once
Buying twenty four separate small things is how the calendar becomes a job. You end up in a shop on the second of December with a list. By the ninth you are putting in whatever was left in the drawer.
The way out is to buy in bulk once. A mixed pack of small fidgets splits across a week of doors. The pieces differ from each other, so it still feels like a surprise every morning. It also solves the age problem. Most packs hold something a six year old wants. They also hold something a ten year old will put in a pocket.
One thing to check before you order. Look at how small the pieces are if there is a toddler in the house. A calendar hangs at child height for a month. The little ones will find it.
15Pack Fidget Toys Bulk for Adult Kids Age 5-7, 8-12, Sensory Autism Travel Must Have ADHD Autistic…
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Filling more than one calendar changes the sum. The bigger boxes work out cheaper per door. They also leave a spare handful for the party bag drawer. Nobody needs a hundred and twenty fidgets. Two children and a cousin get through more than you think.
If your children are four years apart, the plain packs are easier to divide. Nothing in them is obviously the little one’s. That means no argument about who got the better door.
Group two
The single things worth a door of their own
Two or three doors should hold something that is not part of a set. It changes the rhythm of the month. It also gives you somewhere to put the thing your child keeps asking for.
The fidget cube is the one we would choose first. It is quiet and it fits in a school pocket. It lasts well past January, which is more than most of December manages. If your child chews pen lids or picks at their sleeves, this door gets used every day.
For a school desk, silence matters more than novelty. A clicking toy comes home in a teacher’s hand. The soft silicone sets are the ones allowed to stay. We went through what teachers actually permit in quiet fidget toys for the classroom.
Some children are not looking for something to fiddle with. They are looking for pressure. Spiky rings roll up and down the fingers and squeeze as they go. A soft toy does not do that. The whole set still fits behind one drawer.
For a younger child, keep it soft and keep it obvious. A small set of squeezy pieces needs no explaining at half past seven. There is nothing small to lose under the sofa.
Group three
The doors that go back to school in January
This is the group that stops the calendar being twenty four pieces of plastic. A few doors can hold something the child still uses in February. School things are the easiest version of that.
Pencil grips are the quiet win. Handwriting gets heavier in the winter term and hands get tired. A grip changes how the pencil sits. Nobody has to be told they are holding it wrong. If writing is a bigger battle than that, we looked at the whole picture in what actually helps with handwriting.
The larger packs are worth it if there is more than one child. They are also worth it if things vanish. A grip leaves the house on a pencil and does not come back. Spares are less annoying than reordering in March.
One door can simply be a sticker. Focus patches sit on a desk or a jumper. They give a child something that is theirs and is not a toy to put away. It costs almost nothing per door.
Group four
The last door, which should not be like the others
The twenty fourth drawer carries more weight than the rest. It is opened on a morning when the house is already loud. It needs to hold attention for longer than two minutes.
A light up wand would be a strange present on its own. Behind the final door it is exactly right. It is loud to look at and silent to be near. It works in a dim room at four in the afternoon, when the daylight and the patience have both run out.
ArtCreativity Spinning Light Up Toy Wand Magic Ball with LED Lights
If the last day is shared, a set that splits beats one good thing. Six squeezy balls between two children is a calmer end to the month than one wand and a rota. For a child who finds the whole day too much, spend the money on the kit in the sensory kit for a loud Christmas instead.
What we would skip this year
The twenty four piece squishy sets sold as advent fillers. They look like the perfect answer. They are also the most complained about thing in this category. The ones we looked at sit near three and a half stars. The pieces arrive stuck together, or stay sticky. One good fidget beats twenty four disappointing ones.
Small magnet sets for anyone under about ten. Magnetic balls and rings are lovely to fiddle with. They are also dangerous if two of them are swallowed. A calendar gets opened without an adult standing there. This is not the place for them.
Anything that needs building, charging or an adult. A kit with instructions behind door eleven is a nice idea in November. By the fifteenth it is a source of guilt. Keep those for the weekend, not the school run.
The honest caveat: we have not opened every pack in this list. Bulk fidget sets vary between batches more than most products do. Ratings are live Amazon ratings pulled from our product library rather than typed in by us.
One last thing that has nothing to do with buying. Half the doors in our house hold a folded piece of paper. Those are the ones the children read out loud. Film night. Pyjamas all day. Walk to see the lights on the far street. They cost nothing and they fill a drawer. They are also the part anybody remembers in January. If the real problem is how much is coming into the house in December, we wrote about that in what to do when there are too many toys.
More on the December run up
Questions parents ask
What can you put in an advent calendar instead of chocolate?
Small fidgets, pencil grips, stickers, hair ties, a coin, a sachet of hot chocolate, and folded notes with an activity on them. The rule that matters is size and speed. If it fits through the drawer and takes under a minute before school, it works. If it needs building or supervising, it belongs at the weekend.
How much should you spend on advent calendar fillers?
Most families land between fifteen and thirty dollars for the whole month per child. Bulk packs are what keep it there. Buying twenty four separate items costs more and takes far longer. Filling six to ten doors with paper notes brings it down again, and the calendar does not feel emptier.
What age is an advent calendar with small toys suitable for?
Around four upwards for most fidget style fillers. It depends more on the youngest child in the house than on the one the calendar belongs to. A calendar hangs at child height for a month and gets opened without an adult watching. Leave out anything with small magnets or loose beads while there is a toddler around.
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