That's great, because a self-filled Advent calendar fulfills the unique preferences and wishes of your child and is age-appropriate! It doesn't get better than that! Small foot will gladly support you with plenty of ideas and tips!

A self-filled Advent calendar is more than just 24x anticipation for kids! This is because "time" is still quite an abstract measure for children aged 6 years and younger and the numerous days until the Christmas holidays are a particularly exciting time for families. Christmas calendars shorten the waiting time for the youngest children, make the remaining time until the holidays more comprehensible, and strengthen the feeling that the Advent is an especially lovely and festive time of the year. Extra Tip 1: Make a self-filled Advent Calendar even more individualised by not only customising the contents, but also by crafting the "containers" of the contents yourself! You can find lots of simple instructions to do this on the internet and on Pinterest – just search for "craft Advent calendar" or "wooden Advent calendar". This way, you'll also be creating your own original Christmas decorations!

Each year, as the Advent approaches, we are confronted anew with the urgent question: "What will I use to fill my children's Advent calendar?" A sufficient number of good ideas for great Advent calendar gifts not only ensures that the waiting time until Christmas goes by "playfully" – it also puts parents in a good Christmassy mood when others can take over the pondering and packing of the little gifts and surprises so that it all happens practically all by itself. Extra Tip 2: It's worth it to start the crafting and filling early (ideally already in October) so that it doesn't get hectic right before the first of December!

Christmastime is a time for indulgence! Mandarins, nuts, and especially chocolate and other sweets are at the top of the list like always when it comes to filling the children's Advent calendars. An Advent calendar without sugar – is that even possible? Of course it is! There are so many other things that will light up children's eyes with joy in the time before Christmas. Wooden toys are an especially neat idea when you're also trying to be environmentally friendly and plastic-free during the Advent! Extra Tip 3: You don't necessarily want the small trinkets to always be lying around during the Advent time! That's why it also makes sense to choose larger gifts or play sets as gifts because their contents can be spread out over multiple days so that the playtime fun is assembled together day by day, and at the end, parents also often end up saving money!

In addition to toys for the Advent calendar, another great idea that kids love is gift vouchers for parent-child activities in the pre-Christmas season or for seasonal Advent moments together. Extra Tip 4: The best way to do this is on the evening before the planned event in order to minimise the risk of disappointment if the event doesn't work time-wise or when the weather doesn't cooperate! How about these gift voucher ideas?

• Going to a Christmassy theatrical play for children (or visiting the cinema for a Christmas movie)
• Baking and decorating some yummy biscuits
• Crafting your own Christmas tree decorations
• Fingerpainting a window with Christmas motifs
• Folding Christmas stars for window decoration
• Making your own candied almonds or candied apples and enjoying them together
• A voucher for the carousel at the local Christmas market
• An exploratory walk through the forest or park (maybe you'll find pine cones for Christmas decor!)
• Drawing a big Christmassy picture together to make your own gift wrapping paper for Grandma and Grandpa!
• A visit to the bookstore to buy or rent Christmas books or films for a cozy afternoon together
• Play a board game together
• Write a letter to Santa Claus together (Address the letter to Nikolaus, post code 49681, in Nikolausdorf, Germany – that's where St. Nick picks up his letters!)
• Go ice skating (in the skating hall or outside)"

In the following, we've picked out smaller toys and play sets with smaller pieces, and we hope they'll make their way into your Advent calendar. Please be sure to check the dimensions of the individual products so that the gifts can fit in your unique Advent calendar and don't reveal themselves to your child's curious eyes before they're unwrapped! And now: have fun browsing and discovering your idea for your Advent calendar!