Playmobil Advent Calendar Xmas in Forest

Every year’s Playmobil Advent Calendar is a treat. The calendar basically has two parts, both revolving around 24 little playmobile animals, Santas, presents, and other Christmas-oriented toys: (1) a stand-up sheet to which parents attach 24 little boxes, one for each day of December until Christmas, and (2) a little tableau, where the kids can set up the toys as they open them. Each day, the kids get to open a box and place the toy on the tableau, setting up a scene that will be finished by Christmas Eve.

The 2008 calendar, “Christmas in the Forest,” is my favorite yet. Santa is bringing presents (mostly food) to the animals of the forest, so the set has a bunch of mother and baby animals, together with Santa, a sled, and plenty of delicious treats. Playmobil did a great job with this year’s calendar. If you don’t have one yet, go get one and catch up!

We just finished assembling our advent calender for this year, and it’s everything I’d hoped it would be. Better than last year’s pirate theme, this one has a Christmas theme.

The beginning of December begins with a quiet wood, that over the first four days of December accumulates a few trees, birds, and scenic items. Then animals arrive, one by one each day – sometimes bringing food along with them. First come the deer, a buck, a fawn, and a doe, later mama and baby raccoons, boar, foxes, badgers, and mice. A few fir trees are thrown in on a couple of the days, and the final three days are devoted to: 22. Santa’s ‘sleigh’ (Santa pulls this himself) 23. A whole bunch of food for the animals – presumably that which Santa is delivering on his sleigh, and finally on the 24th, Santa Claus himself.

Our calender has an improvement over the previous years’ in that you do not have to assemble 24 boxes. Instead, you only have to assembled a 4-piece divider within a large box. This has a cover that goes over top, with doors which can be punched out to access each days’ items. This leaves you instead with a box equal in size to the original box the set came in, which you could stand on a surface or hang via a punch-out hook on the back of the box. The placement of the cubby holes is still in random order, so you have to hunt a bit for each days’ numbered door and corresponding items. The plus of all this is that assembly is brief, and consists mostly of locating the correct items and placing them in their slots, which I find to be the fun part anyway.

All in all, this is a very well-thought out set. I know the kids will be as happy as I am as they bring life to this lovely little forest.

For anyone wanting better pictures of this set, google: flickr playmobil advent. Someone actually documented each day as they assembled this calender, and their pictures are actually quite beautiful, fun to look at, and are what ultimately convinced me this was the perfect set for us this year.