How to thrift an advent calendar

Year five of books for advent

I've been doing a book advent calendar for the last few years now, for originally one, then two, and now three littles in my life. It's exactly as the title describes - an advent calendar with a wrapped second hand book to open every day, from December 1st until Christmas day. I collect the books from thrift stores, charity shops, and online marketplaces, and I’ve gathered some of my learnings here for anyone interested in doing it themselves. Of course, ‘real’ bloggers would have posted this content at least a month ago, to give you time to source everything you need to do it yourself. But better late than never, and a trawl of Facebook marketplace might get you everything you need in one go!

I've broken this post down into sections, to help summarise my best tips and tricks for making your own thrifted book advent calendar but first and foremost, I would say the most important tip is to check in with the parents of the kidlet you're planning this for. If they live in a small space or already struggle with storage, they may not thank you when an enormous box arrives on their door mat on December 1st!

These are my tips and tricks but if you decide to partake in this adorable tradition, please let me know in the comments or tag me on Instagram @craftandthrift. Nothing would make me happier than spreading the joy of second hand books with other littles!

Side note - this could obviously be done with any second hand item, for which you can source 25 objects. Thrifted toy cars perhaps? Or lego? Maybe dolls or plushies? Those solid toy animals? There are so many items like this in charity shops, you can personalise it to your loved one’s interests.

1. Time & money

I realise this isn't helpful for you if you're reading this in November (my bad for not having an editorial schedule!), but I try to start sourcing the books in around September/October time. It can be tricky to find enough good quality second hand books in the right age range, at the right price point, so I like to give myself plenty of time for multiple charity shop trips. There's nothing more stressful than panic sourcing books in the last week of November, I have found from experience.

I target the charity shops most likely to have cheap kids books, since the minimum needed is 25 books, multiplied by the number of kids you’re buying for, assuming they're getting one each. Even at £1 a book, the costs can mount up, since you may also have to ship them (my besties and I live at opposite ends of the country), so I prioritise the charity shops most likely to have deals on kids books. My local Cancer Research warehouse is my favourite, selling kids books at 5 for £1. There will most likely be something similar in your town, potentially at a retail park rather than on the high street. Facebook marketplace and Gumtree may also have good opportunities for sourcing job lots of books, or perhaps your kid's school jumble sale or local church fête.

2. Damage & repairs

When I'm thrifting for kids books, I always try to flip through the pages to look for obvious damage. This is especially true with lift the flap books, or any book with a tactile element. Minor damage can be repaired, but if every page has been scribbled on with biro, you might want to put it back.

Last year I repaired a couple of flaps, including a new tractor door for Farmer Sam and a bush for some ducklings. I also made good use of paper-based tape for repairing spines and a ripped envelope for a letter to Santa.

When assessing a book for damage, it's worth considering how much effort is worth expending. I bought a Noisy Farm Spot the Dog book, without realising the noise producing element wasn't functional. I assume it was needing a replacement battery, but the batteries are sold in packs of 10, and I'm not sure what I would do with the remaining 9 batteries once I'd fixed Spot's tractor. This, alongside the environmental concerns I have over non-reusable batteries, meant I decided it wasn't worth the time and money to repair this one, and it's definitely made me avoid these kind of books in the future. It also begs the question - what is the end of life plan from the publisher for books like these? To recycle this book would involve removing the plastic noise element, and then also removing the battery. All these pieces can be recycled separately but call me cynical, I suspect this doesn't happen very often. In my opinion, these books aren't worth buying, unless you're prepared to donate it with a fresh battery at the end of your useful time and/or dismantle it to recycle the individual parts.

My last point on damage and repairs is more about salvage than fixing. Some kids books I’ve thrifted have been sadly beyond repair when I’ve got them home and had the chance to properly look at them. This year, the injured party was a book of activities and stickers, themed around trucks and cars. I'd flipped through it in the charity shop (it’s always worth looking at the sticker pages specifically, since those will be the first to be used) and decided the amount of stickers left and the unused activity pages still made it worth buying. Once I got it home and had a proper look, I had second thoughts. There were still plenty of unused pages however, so I set about removing them by scoring along the edge of the page with a sharp knife, then using my £5 Facebook marketplace guillotine to tidy up the edge. I bundled these pages together with some of last year’s Christmas ribbon and included a note to explain these were activity sheets for a rainy day. The rest of the book was recycled.

3. Wrapping & shipping

This year, I saved all the wrapping paper from my Who Gives A Crap loo roll order. It comes in plastic-free packaging, with each roll wrapped in these jaunty, geometric designed papers. I carefully smoothed them out and stored them, knowing I could make good use of them later in the year. If you don't have a similar loo roll order, you could consider saving brown paper from Amazon deliveries or wrapping paper from birthdays throughout the year. Newspaper or old magazines and comics would also do the trick. Second hand maps in charity shops are often super cheap, and make great wrapping paper.

Some of the perfectionists amongst you may be horrified at the crumpled loo roll paper I'm using but honestly, in my opinion, kids don't care or notice. The joy is in the unknown element of the present and the ripping of the paper, most kids I know are not going to stop and think about the quality or design of the paper. The added benefit of reusing paper is exactly that, reusing. In the hierarchy of the 5 Rs (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rot), reuse is third in order. And then once the presents are open, you can do the fourth option: recycle. Or even rot, if it’s 100% paper with no additions that won’t decompose, you can add brown paper to your compost bin.

This brings me nicely onto my next point on wrapping paper. If you can't reuse paper and have to buy new, try to avoid wrapping paper that can't be easily recycled. My understanding is any wrapping paper with glitter, metallic designs or plastic fibres can't be easily recycled or decomposed. I personally stick with plain brown paper for all my wrapping needs. You can buy a roll of 100m for less than £30 off Amazon and that has done me for years, for all my birthday, Christmas et al gifts.

4. Suitability

This may be a controversial point and everyone will have their own take, but last year I recycled a book rather than use it or redonate it. I always scan the storyline of any unfamiliar book, just to get a feel for the vibes. I find a fair amount of modern kids books seem like they're just marketing toys to children, through the medium of story telling (hello Doc McStuffins), so I try to avoid them. Equally, a fair amount of older children's books (think, 80s and earlier) have some unsavoury themes or poor choice of words that I'm not sure are appropriate these days. Obviously it's up to every parent to decide what they feel is right for their kid, but equally, I don't have to gift a book I'm not sure is suitable. If I feel someone else will enjoy it and it's just not for me, then I'll redonate it. But if I feel it's inappropriate, I might quietly slip it into the recycle bin. This year I recycled Mortimer by Robert Munsch. The language felt weirdly aggressive for a kid’s book (Mortimer’s mum ‘throws’ him into bed at one point) and the story line, about a kid who is singing in his bedroom when he should be going to sleep, escalates to the point where Mortimer’s parents call the police on him. The illustrations felt quite dark and unsettling and I generally felt like this was the kind of book that just wouldn’t be written these days. I had a look on Good Reads, to see if I was being overly sensitive, but the book has a fair amount of 1 and 2 star reviews citing exactly the same concerns I had.

I debated whether, by recycling the book rather than redonating it, I was removing the option for someone else to make the same value judgement for their kid, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the risk. If I feel this unsettled and disturbed by a kids book, without having any children of my own who may be directly affected, then I thought any of my friends with their own kids to consider would probably feel the same or stronger. A lot of the Good Reads higher star reviews were people talking about the nostalgia they felt, having read the book as a child in the 80s or 90s. Times have changed, culture and society have moved on, and what is considered appropriate is now different.

Those are my top tips and tricks, as of the time of writing this post! I predict I’ll be doing this advent calendar for many years to come, so if I write any more on this subject, I’ll be sure to update this post with links. If you try this idea and enjoy it, I would love to see! Drop me a line in the comments or tag me on Instagram @craftandthrift.