Help me find a pre-filled advent calendar for two adults.

November 2, 2007 10:26 AM

Please help me find a cool pre-filled advent calendar to share with my husband.

In previous years, I have taken great pleasure in sharing Leslie Harpold's advent calendars. Not that anything in the world can replace her brilliance, but I am looking for something to step in as a new ritual for the two of us.

I'd like to find a pre-filled advent calendar that would be appropriate for two non-religious adults with no children (beyond the cats). I've read the advent threads in the archives, and the limitation there is that I don't want to do the filling with the tiny gifts - I want to be surprised as well. But I also don't want the surprise to suck. In searching online, the current front-runner is the Lego one - out of sheer lack of finding anything cooler. And while I'm not adverse to chocolate ones, I'd really like it to be good quality chocolate instead of $5 waxy crud. What I'd really like is if someplace like Red Envelope or Wishing Fish or Uncommon Goods had a calendar full of interesting little toys and trinkets, that were both quality and adult appropriate. Price really isn't an issue.

(As an aside, yes I know that Halloween was this week. But as an anxiety coping mechanism I'm usually done with my holiday shopping before Black Friday. Please don't hate on me for advance planning, it's better for everyone if I don't go to the malls the month of December.)

posted by librarianamy to shopping (8 comments total)

There's a Lego one and a Playmobil one.

You might want to call a specialty chocolate shop about whether they make custom advent calendars. That seems the best best. Or buy a regular one, get the plastic out and refill it with better-quality chocolate that you melt yourself. Perhaps it's not much of a surprise that way though.
posted by GuyZero at 10:52 AM on November 2, 2007

I nosed around etsy.com and saw a few. Otherwise, now is the prime craft show season. It would give you an excuse to browse the shows, if you don't see one you could always approach a crafter whose other work you admired and commision one.
posted by saucysault at 11:11 AM on November 2, 2007

Gingerbread Advent House from Harry and David. Their chocolate is usually above average.
posted by mikepop at 11:19 AM on November 2, 2007

and now the proper link
posted by mikepop at 11:20 AM on November 2, 2007

Depending on your interest in German chocolate and/or Kinder Surprise toys (which have a large adult following), something on this page might do the trick.
posted by artifarce at 11:36 AM on November 2, 2007

The Advent Calendars at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston look really cool.
posted by coevals at 1:36 PM on November 2, 2007

Thanks everyone. I talked to my husband about your suggestions, and we're going to do a blend of two. We've got a local specialty chocolate importer, so we're going to call her and see if she will sell us 24 Kinder Eggs. Then we're going to just buy a nice calendar that we can use every year and fill it this year with the eggs.

There has been some talk about next year me taking the even days and him taking the odd, and swapping out the surprises that way. So thanks for the suggestions!
posted by librarianamy at 9:23 AM on November 3, 2007

I just came across two interesting/unusual advent calendars (unfilled), and thought I would add them here for anyone still looking:

hats/mittens

elves

posted by mikepop at 6:27 AM on November 8, 2007