The Christmas Countdown is on! Tomorrow is the 1st of December and you will most likely be very aware of this if you have any little people in your house. The Christmas really excitement starts when they can open Day 1 on their advent calendar.

These days advent calendars are filled with chocolates or even toys but did you know the first advent calendar is believed to have been created way back in 1851. The traditional calendar, which has a surprise illustration behind each paper door, went into mass production in the early 1900s and continued to be extremely popular until rationing began in wartime. The first chocolate advent calendar appeared in 1958, but it was in 1971 that Cadbury launched its version and it went on to be the most popular one in the UK.

This week we’ve created a colouring in advent calendar which you can do with all the family! Simply print out our new Advent Colouring printable from our Tender Leaf Blog, then grab your brightest felt tip pens and colouring pencils to colour in your own Christmas countdown! We’d love to see your creations so please share them with us using the #tenderleaftoys hashtag!

Also for the eagle-eyed Tender Leaf fans out there, how many of our toys can you can spot in our advent calendar? We’d love to know!