Items to put in Advent House?

[cchhbb]

I have an Advent house calendar that I bought my kids a couple of years ago. I am looking for some inexpensive items to put in the door cubbies. I really would like to limit the amount of candies that they receive. The cubbies are about 2 inches deep, 2 inches wide and range from 1 1/2 inches to 4 inches tall.

In the past, I've put in the tiny capsules that expand when they have water on them, a small snowman puzzle, little cars, stickers, tattoos.

I'd appreciate any ideas. My boys are 3 and 6. Thanks for all your help.

Cheryl

[2HUNGRY!]

It may sound strange, but my little cousins love any kind of post it notes or band aids.

[gertdog]

I got some creative responses on this thread (http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?t=98218&highlight=advent+calendar) a few years ago. Last year I tried doing some notes with promises of a holiday activity and Ryan really loved those- some that I did were:

Note w/ cookie cutter: today we'll make gingerbread cookies!
Tonight we'll go to see the holiday light display
Let's get our Christmas tree today
Tonight we'll plug in our Christmas lights for the first time
We'll watch a holiday video together tonight

DH and I enjoyed these too, as these were all things we could do together.

[misskitty100]

How about Legos?

[cchhbb]

It may sound strange, but my little cousins love and kind of post it notes or band aids.

Santa and the Easter Bunny both bring band aids :) at our house. I helped Santa and the Easter Bunny out this year by finding some at Big Lots for $1 that are latex free. I have a latex allergy and those can be hard to find. The band aids were Thomas, Matchbox, and some type of animals.

Gertdog, I've done a couple of those ideas in the past. Great ideas. I've also included the title of a new Christmas book and read that before bedtime. I didn't do a search so thanks for including the link.

Thanks and any more ideas are welcomed and appreciated.

Cheryl

[leightx]

We've also done scavenger hunt type clues to find larger (but still inexpensive) gifts like pencils and sheets of stickers that won't fit into the advent calendar. My kids like those the best (and the "do stuff" treats like Stephanie posted).