Advent Calendar Gift Ideas: Sugar-Free Advent Calendar Fillers For Toddlers

Get creative and reduce the sugar load this season by using some of these homemade advent calendar gift ideas! These ideas for advent calendar fillers easy to get a hold of (or make), not candy-based, and perfect for toddlers. Plus, you can stick with a theme of advent calendar filler ideas or mix and match for the week to get you through twenty-four days!

When my first was old enough (last year at the age of two) I knew I wanted her to experience the awesomeness of an advent calendar. Unfortunately, I couldn’t justify giving her store-bought, crappy chocolate every morning before breakfast... no, not even at Christmas season!

After a ton of debate, I ended up buying an awesome Wooden advent calendar (that’s as big as a dollhouse haha) and rocking it my own way.

In the last couple of years, and with another toddler, I've had to get pretty creative when it comes to advent calendar fillers. Thus, I have a good variety of options! While candy is definitely easier, instead I choose to opt for some of these advent calendar gift ideas.

Perks Of Homemade Advent Calendar Gift Ideas

• Healthier
• Better experience
• Quality/eco-friendly

This list of advent calendar fillers ranges from healthy homemade treats, to homemade finds, and to store-bought gift ideas. Likewise, all are simple in nature and great for younger kids.

While I have previously picked one thing and done that for the entire season, I think next year I'm going to mix and match instead so that every day is a new surprise.

Remember, kids don't need BIG things, they just love the excitement of it all. Bring back some of the magic and DIY it.

 

 

Mini Advent Calendar Gift Ideas

Stickers

Stickers are our option this year as my toddler is obsessed and my baby thinks they’re funny. Trolls are a big theme in our house right now so I’ll probably go that route!

Ribbon Wrapped Crayons

I thought this was a cute idea! Give one new crayon a day for anyone who has kids who love to draw! My game plan was to do “special” crayons like the glitter ones versus the everyday pack.

Hair Clips

A great one for anyone with little girls! Little cute hair clips or elastics is a great way to stock up (we lose these sooo often).

Erasers

Simple but great for anyone who has an artsy kid. I lost erasers all the time when I was young, so I thought this would be great for anyone with just in school kids.

Advent Calendar Gift Ideas: Socks

This is just practical. Yes, 25 pairs of sucks sound like a nightmare. But we lose socks probably every other day and I am constantly buying new ones!

Have a stash of cute socks wouldn’t be a bad thing. Plus, my toddler totally gets excited by stuff like this!

Stamps

If your toddler loves stamps why not get a stamp set? They’d love to collect all of them from the month and it would be a great activity to keep them entertained!

Homemade Lip Chap

My girls feel pretty special when they put on my lip chap and they love having one beside their bed like mommy. This cinnamon lip chap is great as it doesn't contain any essential oils.

Temporary Tattoos

Not everyone will be on board with this one but a bunch of little tattoos for them would be super cute. It’s simple but they’d get to try out a new one (or save them up of course!) often and show it off.

Hot Chocolate Lotion Bars

My girls love having everything that I have and mimicking me in every way. These chocolate-scented homemade lotion bars make a cute advent calendar gift idea for them.

Money

And yes, the old stand by is that the homemade advent calendar could contain money instead of a treat or gift. I’m mostly okay with this, a buck a day to fuel a piggy bank isn’t bad. Buutttt, for me it takes the magic and excitement out of it.

My rule was that if it was money it was to be saved for something specific and then on boxing day you go buy that item. I still think it’s an opt-out though!

Kid-Safe Bath Bombs

These DIY bath bombs come in mini form which is why they're perfect as an advent calendar filler! Plus, every kid I know adores watching bath bombs fizz up! Whip up a big batch in different colors and portion them into baggies.

 

 

Food-Based Advent Calendar Fillers

Homemade Chocolate

I make a tasty freezer fudge that my daughter loves (it’s coconut oil, almond butter, cacao, pure maple syrup) and I was going to pop those into baggies and put them in.

Again, super-simple but you would have to get up early to put them in the morning because otherwise, it does melt.

Homemade Gummy Bears

The first year I rocked the homemade advent calendar gifts we went with homemade, immune-boosting gummies. My girls absolutely loved them and I would have continued with them but my husband pointed out that we make a lot of gummy bears now with the girls and they were bound to put two and two together.

Below is a video to help explain how to do them but they worked really well in the calendar. You can grab all the ingredients at Well.ca However, this is another one you'd have to get up early to put in in the morning!

I bought little baggies portioned them out and snuck them into the calendar in the morning before my daughter got up.

This is our go-to recipe but truthfully, I make it up most of the time!

Advent Calendar Gift Ideas: Hot Chocolate

Giving a baggie of homemade hot chocolate is an awesome advent calendar gift idea! I'd do this on a Friday night so we could curl up with it in the evening and watch a movie. I always loved these Rudoplh baggies for hot chocolate gifts.

My favorite is dairy-free, peppermint hot chocolate.

Caramel Corn

We make a big batch of homemade, healthy caramel corn a lot- so yummy! portioning it out and popping it into the advent calendar would be a cute treat.

 

Advent Calendar Gift Ideas To Play With

Playdough (Or Mini Paints)

Not only is a jumbo pack of mini play dough colors cost-effective. But think of how much time it gives you while the kids play! This is on the list for next year and I personally can't wait! You could make a theme too and intersperse play dough with little cutters.

 

Advent Calendar Gift Ideas: Mini Trolls

I loved this idea, but my husband was less enthused about 25 mini trolls that he’d probably be stepping on haha.

I still think it’s awesome though and think of the collection! So much fun to play with (I may possibly be bringing my own troll obsession back into this from when I was a kid!)

Disney Figurines

This option depends on how much you want to spend on ideas for advent calendar fillers! As well as how big your calendar is!

We hid these Disney Figurines in Easter eggs this year (check out how to have a non-candy Easter) and the girls loved them. There's only 20 though so you'd need something to fill for the other five days.

Glow Sticks

Glow sticks are a killer one for advent calendar ideas! We love mini glow sticks in our house because they’re honestly just fun. Plus, you could collect and sort the colors to make it a game. We give them to my daughter at bedtime and she “reads” her books with them.

Race Cars

Stock up on mini race cars and let them zoom! 

Advent Calendar Gift Ideas: Hatchimals

We did these mini hatchimals last year and it was pretty fun. Costco had 20 packs on sale for twenty bucks and so we grabbed two and use them as advent calendar fillers. The girls loved seeing "who they would get" in the morning.

Yes, we now have an alarming amount of bloody hatchimals.

Toy Accessories

Depending on what your kids are into, accessories make great advent calendar fillers! Barbie clothes, LOL doll cups etc.

Finger Puppets

A cute option and one to spar imagination!

 

Advent Calendar Gift Ideas: Themes

Build A Craft Or Puzzle

Give one piece of the craft every single day and on the last day put it all together! This works with puzzles too but I find you do need a super patient kids.

Advent Calendar Race Track

Similar to the one above, space out all the pieces to build a fun race track. Intersperse the pieces with mini toy cars for the race track.

Baking Calendar

Give the kids something new each day to bake with and that will eventually make something special (a spatula, mini whisk, flour for the cookies etc)

 

Don’t forget to pin these awesome advent calendar gift ideas!

These advent calendar gift ideas help keep the Christmas Magic alive- and I love it! Likewise, you can make a theme from them or simply mix and match throughout the twenty-four days. Either way, these advent calendar fillers are great for kids.

 

Have advent calendar gift ideas? Drop them below! We could all use more ideas!