Alternative advent calendar - ideas for contents?

I can only think of fairly boring things like boxers, socks or toiletries. We have a Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe near us and I like to buy my OH sweets he remembers from his childhood.

Is he into any sports? My Dad would like golf balls/tees in there, but that wouldn't work for everyone.

Fancy coffee/specialist teas, a mug, cheese(you could always 'hide' it in the fridge) and biscuits, spirit/liquer miniatures, magasines/books, cinema voucher.

It's tricky not knowing him, eg, my OH would never wear a tie, but yours might, does he like spending time in the kitchenor garden? You can often pick up fun little gimmicky/gadgetty things, if he likes childhood nostalgia how about a little lego set or a pack of UNO cards.....

Also, you don't want to ruin any actual Christmas presents. I struggle enough getting a few things for my OH, let alone 24 + actual gifts for the day!

Ideas: maybe one of those books of favours you can do for him - 1x back rub, 1x slave for the day, 1 x car wash? A DVD of film he wanted to see at the cinema but you couldn't go? Actual cinema tickets? A book/magazine?

Hope it goes well and OH appreciates it!

Without knowing him it's hard but I would just stick things he like's into Amazon and eBay and see what comes out.

My OH's a gamer and we have loads of junk in our house I've bought him that he loves doing that. I just buy merchandise from whatever game he's into at the time.

None of it cost more than £20 - most of it was cheaper - and it's good as a stocking filler.

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately he's not a sports fan, or into gaming or any particular hobby.

He's 49, a builder (wears ties only for weddings and funerals), he is a foodie and drink person but we already have so much alcohol in the house that we've run out of space! We do regularly buy wine though and he does like his real ales.

The cheese was a good idea as I had already ordered a speciality cheese with whisky that is in a wax seal so will defo include that in the collection.

As has correctly been identified - 24 items are needed so I really need to keep most of them under £5 as it will add up very quickly. He is difficult to buy presents for anyway so I may have really set myself up....

The books magazine suggestion reminded me he loves sudoku so had a look today and found a book of 3D puzzles he's not done before and a 4 pack of the times killer sudoku reduced from £27 to £5!!!! I will split the pack and probably use a couple for separate days and put the others away for some other time.

Toiletries wise he only uses basic stuff but because he's a builder and outside in all weathers, he does like lip balm and hand lotion so also got these today.

I also picked up an A4 hard back ring bound note pad today - something he's mentioned he needs for keeping track of work on jobs.

I'm also going to get him some stollen, baklava, nut brittle and ginger bread.

If anyone has any other ideas please keep them coming. I appreciate you don't know him but just suggest stuff your OH would like. Some of the ideas might be a match.

I know he's going to love this. We're both big kids.

Thanks again.

If he works outside what about pair of thick socks for one day. If nothing else it fits with the joke profile that men always get socks for Xmas. I've also done the soap on a rope joke bit before now.

My OH is a bit anal when it comes to cleaning his car (don't ask me why as he's the messiest person ever in the house) so good polishes etc he likes. He would also probably marry his motorbike if possible so anything motorbike related is good for him. One of his presents every year is another biker t shirt. Which reminds me I need to find one.

What about a set of kiddy Xmas chocolate tools. Tool belt.

My OH has just had what he considered a serious bout of manflu caught from my slight sniffle. I'm considering putting together an emergency manflu kit for him for when he gets it again.

Hmm what else. Mine uses a calendar so I've gathered lots of pictures of him at trackdays with beloved motorbike and done him a Truprint calendar.

Oh and hats. The man has a fetish about winter knitted hats I'm convinced.

Quite possibly none of this helps you!

You're already thinking along these lines with the box of Malteasers, but to keep the cost low you could always do just a basic chocolate bar to pad the days out. I've seen templates for build your own selection boxes somewhere, I'm sure you could find one online. So you could give him the first bar in the box with 6 or 7 empty spaces for him to fill the box up as the days go on and as the single bars are cheap it'll keep your costs down overall and He'll have his selection box ready for Christmas so another saving there!

Ooh, this sounds like so much fun! I bought my husband a beer calendar last year which was fun. We have a little gadget/gift shop nearby that I've bought little bits from for gift top ups, they include purses, glasses cases, a notebook, year planners, money boxes, cuddly toys, colouring pencils etc. Also, what about keyrings, homemade goodies like cookies/cake/fudge, a glass (to drink his beer out of) gloves, slippers (just primark or something) will keep thinking!

JE the car polish made me laugh. OH's van is a typical builders van, I'm not sure it ever gets washed much less polished!

I would love to get him some chocolate tools, I saw some fantastic ones at a food fair a few weeks ago. But, OH and I only buy ethical cocoa products - fair trade, UTZ or rain forest alliance. (this is because we support the stop the traffik campaign to make chocolate traffik free - there are an estimated 15,000 traffiked child slaves working on cocoa plantations). I will keep an eye out in Lidl though as a lot of their stuff is UTZ certified. I suppose I could look for a chocolate mould and make my own.

The socks is a good idea. I'll see if I can find some funny/xmas ones that are stlll actually warm.

The calendar - he bought one when we were in Crete last year. He hasn't even remembered to turn the pages much less write anything on it!!!

YK - I've never seen the make your own selection box and they sound great but OH will do well to wait until after his dinner before eating any bars - there's zero chance of him saving them until xmas.

Thanks for all the suggestions though, they are helping me think outside the box!

I went for a wander around places like the range, B&M etc yesterday looking for inspiration and came up with:

A back scratcher - OH is always asking me scratch his back

Travel backgammon - we both love this game and OH lives for holidays so this will go down well. It's small, lightweight and in a hard case so ideal.

A code breaker game in a small tin.

Bath time hoopla - he loves a soak in the bath so this is just a bit of a joke

Also because he loves boats and keeps (jokingly) asking me to buy him one, I bought a five pack of baby bathtime play boats. Will probably combine this with running him a bubble bath, candles, wine etc.

I'm still looking for some thick funny socks - they're all either one or the other so far.

I still need a few more ideas so if you think of anything ....