Parents are ditching traditional advent calendars for this new cost-cutting trend

The countdown is now officially on to Christmas, and that means only one thing – advent calendars.

Like everything else, advent calendars are pretty expensive unless you’re going the traditional chocolate route (and even they’ll set you back a pretty penny!).

So, a mother has found a solution that will not only save you money, but also guarantee you quality time with your little ones.

Unique idea

Mom Corinne took to TikTok to show off the special adventure calendar she’s created for her kids.

“Making our favorite Christmas tradition 🎄,” she captioned the video.

In it, you can see Corinne collecting, wrapping and decorating 24 Christmas-themed books.

Each one is numbered from one to 24, to be broken down and read together each day leading up to the big day.

“We reuse the same set of books for Christmas every year,” she explained in her caption.

“I love that it’s so easy and promotes time together.”

“I want this!”

Moms in the comments were quick to praise Corinne’s idea, saying they’ll be dancing this Christmas.

“I must do this! My toddler loves books,” said one commenter.

“We’ve been thinking all week about what to do this year and this is it!!!” said another.

“Oh, I love this! I was looking for a non-shock advent calendar,” said one.

“I love this, I totally want to do this for my boys this year,” said a fourth.

Others suggested their own similar ideas to save even more money.

“Would it be weird to wrap library books? (Then give them back of course),” suggested one.

“Another way to save money is to get books from the op shop if you don’t mind it being Christmas themed,” said another.

“If you like the idea but can’t afford that many books, you can buy a mini-book advent calendar for about $20.” said a third.

“You can buy them after Christmas this year at a discounted price and make them next year,” suggested another.

Or, try this!

If your little ones aren’t that into books, but you’re looking to make your own DIY advent calendar this year, maybe give this idea a try.

TikTok creator @emilycarriveau shared how she did it using a toolbox last year, filling it with everything her kids could want.

“It’s 24 compartments, which means it’s the perfect box,” she said.

“You guys can fill your advent calendar with whatever you want – hot chocolate, Nespresso, toys and trinkets, money. In the end, everything will fit!”