Advent calendar made easy: 1 product - 24 Advent days

The basis for the Advent calendar are our Small World Plays – Small World Play Down by the Meadow, Small World Play By the Water or Small World Play In the Woods. They are play sets that get to the heart of open-ended play. You are very likely to have everything around it either at home or you can find it outside in nature. Every day there is a part of the playset and a small task or suggestion of what you can do with it in a little letter.

The form in which you make the Advent calendar is up to you. You can use a refillable calendar with little bags, which you may already have at home anyway. Or you can take a branch or a clothes rail and hang lots of little fabric-wrapped presents on it.

The packaging box becomes a small stage and gradually becomes more and more cosy and beautiful. It can therefore already be there on the first day and can then be built upon. The principle works the same for all three play worlds, but there are small differences due to the slightly different products in the sets.

In this article, we use the example of the Small World Play Down by the Meadow to show you how you can spend the 24 days of Advent with little effort but lots of time together. Individual customisations are of course possible at any point.

And this is what it can look like:

1 December

This is in the calendar: one of the play figures
What you can do: Put the empty box up, welcome the little play figure and give it a name together.
This is what the little letter says: Hello there, I live here in this little box. What should I be called?

2 December

This is in the calendar: the string
You can do this: Wrap the string around the play figure like a coat.
This is what the little letter says: Brrr, it's already pretty wintry. Can you make me a coat out of the string?

3 December

This is in the calendar: one of the plates
You can do this: Design the box together with colours, coloured paper, bunting and anything else you can think of.
This is what the little letter says: Oh, a lovely new floor for my home. Can we decorate my box a little too?

4 December

This is in the calendar: a pearl
What you can do: Go for a walk together and collect natural materials. You can stick a small stem or flower into the hole in the bead. The other natural materials can be used to create a small landscape around the box.
This is what the little letter says: Let's go for a little walk today, then we'll look for flowers and small branches and put them in this beautiful vase.

5 December

This is in the calendar: a button
You can do this: Place the button on the bead and together they become a small table.
This is what the little letter says: Oh, now I already have a table, how great! Why don't you sit down together today and tell each other what your favourite things are during Advent?

6 December

This is in the calendar: the red roof of the little house
What you can do: Place the red building element in such a way that it becomes an armchair for the play figure. Make yourselves cosy and have a cup of punch together.
This is what the little letter says: An armchair for my home, now it's getting really cosy. Why don't you make yourselves a little cosy and have a cup of punch together?

7 December

This is in the calendar: a postcard or an empty envelope with a sheet of paper
What you can do: Write the postcard to the play figure together and write your child's biggest Christmas wish on it. Put the postcard in front of the box in the evening and it must of course be gone the next morning.
This is what the little letter says: Would you like to send me some post? And why don't you write your biggest Christmas wish on it, maybe I can pass it on.

8 December

This is in the calendar: the flower
You can do this: The little flower becomes a pedestal for the play figure. It looks out for it, but what?
This is what the little letter says: I'll stand on it and keep an eye out. But what do you think?

9 December

This is in the calendar: the second game piece
You can do this: Welcome the second character today and give it a name.
This is what the little letter says: Who are you? How great that there are now two of us. But what is my friend's name?

10 December

This is in the calendar: a pearl
You can do this: You can try out fun balancing exercises with the bead, the game pieces and the other objects.
This is what the little letter says: Today it's time for a bit of sport. We can be acrobats together!

11 December

What's in the calendar: some of the filling material and a tangerine
What you can do: The filling material can be painted, used for all sorts of different items for the play figures and as decoration in their house. Just see what your children come up with and decorate the box with it. The tangerine peel can also be cut to size or shaped with cookie cutters and used as decoration.
This is what the little letter says: I wonder what you can make from it? Hats, plates, lamps ... And we can also make beautiful Christmas decorations from the tangerine peel.

12 December

This is in the calendar: the orange part of the little house
You can do this: Find a place for the new piece of furniture for the play figures. It can be a bed, for example, but can also be anything else you and your children can think of. Make yourselves cosy together in the evening before going to bed and read a Christmas story.
This is what the little letter says: Is this a bed for us? Tonight, before going to bed, we'll read a Christmas story in bed, agreed?

13 December

This is in the calendar: the little felt cloth
You can do this: The felt cloth can be a blanket for the small play figures. Make another one together out of paper, scraps of fabric or whatever else you have.
This is written on the little letter: The blanket is wonderfully cosy. But we actually need a second one. Can you make us one?

14 December

This is in the calendar: a pearl
You can do this: Try to build a small ball run together from the available play materials and use the bead as a ball.
This is written on the little letter: With the bead, our home can easily become a ball run. Wow.

15 December

This is in the calendar: the red window of the little house
You can do this: The little red element can be a pillow for the play figures. Make a second one out of paper, scraps of fabric, cotton wool or whatever you have on hand.
This is what the little letter says: Oh, a cosy pillow. But we actually need a second one. Can you make us another one?

16 December

This is in the calendar: a button
You can do this: Take the button as a template and outline it on paper with a pencil. Then you can colour in the circles, cut them out, punch a small hole in them and thread a string through. Now you have a home-made ornament for the Christmas tree.
This is what the little letter says: If you put the button on a piece of paper and go round it with a pen, you'll get lots of circles. Colour them in, cut them out and with a string attached they become Christmas tree baubles that can't break.

17 December

This is in the calendar: the pink part of the little house
You can do this: There are small holes in some of the building elements. Take a walk together at dusk with a torch and collect a few more natural materials that you can put in the small holes.
This is what the little letter says: What are the little holes doing there? Let's go out into nature and see if we can find little blades of grass, flowers or twigs that we can stick in there. If it's already dark, just take a torch with you and go on a little night walk together.

18 December

This is in the calendar: a pearl
What you can do: The individual elements can also be used to create wonderful laying pictures. The wooden board, for example, is suitable as a base and you can then try to create an animal on it using the other elements. Of course, you can also use any other materials you have at home.
This is written on the little letter: What are your favourite animals? Why don't you draw a picture of them with the play materials?

19 December

This is in the calendar: the yellow door
You can do this: Put a few nuts or sweets in front of the door - it's not just fun on St Nicholas Day.
This is what the little letter says: Knock knock, now we have a door! Have a look outside your door.

20 December

This is in the calendar: the second disc
You can do this: Make a few rugs for the characters and their home out of pieces of paper or fabric or something similar.
This is what the little letter says: Our floor would certainly be even cosier if we had a few rugs. Can you make us some?

21 December

What's in the calendar: A brass candle holder and a small candle or alternatively a tea light
What you can do: Take a few minutes out of all the hustle and bustle, light a candle together and sing a Christmas carol together. The brass holder fits exactly into the hole in the flower - so it becomes a candle holder. But it also works if you simply use a tea light and place it on the table.
That's what the little letter says: Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year! We'll light a candle and make ourselves really cosy. Maybe we can even think of a Christmas carol to sing?

22 December

This is in the calendar: the little bags in which the game pieces are packed
You can do this: The small packaging for the play figures can be painted and freely designed. Make little sleeping bags for them and let them spend the night between the natural materials in front of their box.
That's what the little letter says: It's freezing cold outside, but we'd like to spend the night outdoors with our winter sleeping bags. Can you colour them in beforehand?

23 December

This is in the calendar: a button
You can do this: The excitement is building, Christmas is coming soon. Make faces together, as you feel. Use all the materials you already have from the calendar and whatever else you have at home. The plates can be the basis again.
This is what the little letter says: One more sleep until Christmas. How do you feel? Why don't you put your feelings as funny, excited, tired ... faces?

24 December

This is in the calendar: a button, tangerine / sweet
What you can do: Collect a cone or cut off a small fir branch and stick it into one of the beads. Now even the little play figures are in the Christmas spirit.
This is what the little letter says: Today is Christmas Eve! All we need now is a Christmas tree! Why don't you take a cone or a small fir branch and put it in our Christmas tree stand? Merry Christmas together!

You can download the exact instructions for all three Small World Plays here. If you like, you can simply cut out the letters and use them that way. Otherwise, you can of course copy and design them however you like.

Small World Play Down by the Meadow Advent calendar guide

Small World Play By the Water Advent calendar guide

Small World Play In the Woods Advent calendar guide

If you like, you can extend the set as you wish. They go particularly well with this:

• wooden beads in any size
• wooden buttons
• building rings
• gemstones
• Cords, e.g. rainbow cords
• playdough to attach the gemstones
• crafted or improvised small furniture made from cardboard, corks ...

Every day, the individual pieces are given a new impulse to play with. And of course, the set can be played with all year round and combined with different (natural) materials and is not limited to the Christmas season.

We wish you lots of fun together and a wonderful and relaxing Advent season!