Alternative Advent Calendars

There's no denying that one of the most exciting things about the run up to Christmas is waking up every morning during December and rushing to get your advent calendar open. Now, admittingly there have been a few years in my lifetime where I have been a bit 'meh' about having an advent calendar but over the past couple of years and this year especially I have been so excited! 

So, first of all, my advent calendar for the past 2 years has been a lovely homemade one from my Mother in Law. She painted this herself and I absolutely love it and will cherish it forever. Before this one I'd only ever had your standard chocolate shop bought advent calendar so this was literally so exciting for me and it meant so much that she had done it all herself. The first year (shown below) had Fererro Rocher and a Terrys Chocolate Orange in which were beaut and then last year we tried something different and she bought me some Lindt but they weren't quite big enough for the holes. Nonetheless it is an amazing idea and like I say, I shall be bringing it out every year!

This year I hadn't even thought about advent properly but then my sister in law mentioned she had bought some wax melts from a local market stall (pre-lockdown) and while browsing said stalls Instagram page I noticed they had shared some wax melt advent calendars. I thought this was a really good idea as it means you can try a range of scents and it's always nice to cosy up with a nice wax burner and a Christmas movie on in the winter months so this would be perfect! I showed them to my mum in passing as she loves room fragrances etc too and she offered to buy me one as apparently my brother usually gets a fancy one every year too (thanks again mum). I'm so excited to open this through-out December and hopefully find some new favourite scents - the box already smells amazing so I imagine they'll be even better when they're melting! I'm hoping to do a review of this one so keep your eyes peeled if you're interested. 

As if one advent calendar wasn't enough, Kallum showed me a picture on his phone of a bouquet style advent calendar that I had never seen before about a week after I got the first one. We had a bit of small talk about it (mainly me saying how much I liked the idea) and then it wasn't mentioned again for a day or so when he said something about getting advent calendars. He then showed me the exact same advent calendar a day or so later and I was like 'awh yea you showed me them they're good'. Little did I know he had actually ordered me one the first day we spoke about them and was just teasing me for a few days! Saturday rolls round and there's a knock at the door and this stunning bouquet style advent calendar was waiting for me on the doorstep. Not ashamed to say I let out a little happy tear and I'm super grateful. I'm most excited to see what different chocolate bars are going to be under the wrapping as I have literally no idea what's inside them all! I think these are an amazing idea as you can literally personalise them for anyone - any wrapping, any chocolate/sweets!

So, there's my advent calendars for the year - I fully appreciate that 2 is a little excessive but they were both lovely gifts and I'm so happy with them both! Also if you're in the East/South Yorkshire area and would like to browse the companies, their @'s are @melts_andmore and @deliciousbouquets2020

Let me know, do you have an advent calendar this year? If so which have you got? My usual go to is a Cadburys one! 

Disclaimer: This blog post is in no way sponsored and all opinions and photographs are my own. Both advent calendars were kindly gifted to me by members of my family as mentioned in the post.