Playmobil 4152 Christmas In The Park Advent Calendar

.../> This is a branded Playmobil item that consists of a hanging advent calendar (not pictured here), with little boxes from 1-24 which contain bits of playmobil, building up to a Christmas in the Park scene, as in the product picture. In our family a box is opened every morning after breakfast on a rota basis and is a greatly anticipated morning ritual.

The whole thing comes in a box and the calendar and little boxes have to be assembled ...
...to see which bit of playmobil goes into each detachable box which slot cleverly onto the hanging part of the calendar. It is a fairly straight forward assembly job, if you are missing any pieces there is a number to call on the box. I would advise putting the whole thing together a little before the 1st of December and keeping it away from curious little eyes - the box itself has a picture on the back of all
the little pieces, so I normally ... more

Is it just me or does Christmas come around more quickly every year? There are some traditions that I enjoy less than others at the Christmas season, but I do like a good Advent Calendar, and this one is the best I have ever found.

What is it?

This is a branded Playmobil item that consists of a hanging advent calendar (not pictured here), with little boxes from 1-24 which contain bits of playmobil, building up to a Christmas in the Park scene, as in the product picture. In our family a box is opened every morning after breakfast on a rota basis and is a greatly anticipated morning ritual.

The whole thing comes in a box and the calendar and little boxes have to be assembled by an adult. This does take about an hour I find, though perhaps I get a bit slowed down by sipping a "traditional" mulled wine which I feel is a helpful aid to the assembling process.

You have to make the little boxes which come flat, and then follow the instructions to see which bit of playmobil goes into each detachable box which slot cleverly onto the hanging part of the calendar. It is a fairly straight forward assembly job, if you are missing any pieces there is a number to call on the box. I would advise putting the whole thing together a little before the 1st of December and keeping it away from curious little eyes - the box itself has a picture on the back of all
the little pieces, so I normally hide this so that the surprise is not ruined.

Using this set

The idea is that every day the child detaches a small numbered box from the hanging calendar and then adds that piece to the little scene. I would say that this calendar is probably aimed at age 4 and above, but last year my youngest, then just over 2, greatly enjoyed participating in the playmobil advent calendar opening.

We tend to buy one of the various incarnations of these sets every year as we all enjoy it so much, but if you wanted to you could keep all the bits and use the set year after year, despite the scene and hanging pieces being cardboard they are fairly robust.

In terms of what you get as far as this particular Playmobil Calendar is concerned, this set is really excellent and I actually think you get a fair amount of playmobil for your money. Some of the pieces are a little dull - the first couple of days started off with bits of trees, and random birds which were frankly not very exciting, but there is a good range over the whole 24 days and it does get better as you build up the scene.

The little music organ actually plays carols in a rather tinny but still pleasing fashion when you press the buttons and there are 4 full sized people and a few interesting elements such as a pram with a baby in, a sledge and a park bench.

As I have said you could use this item as a stand alone calendar, however we have mixed up the set with the rest of our playmobil which means that the Father Christmas does get to drive an ambulance or a helicopter now and then!

This set has got a bit of a German feel about it with the daschund and little boy eating popcorn - obviously as Playmobil is a German company originally, but it is still excellent and a fantastic addition to our family Christmas traditions. My only criticism would be that there are rather too many birds, some of them are tiny so could be a danger to smaller children, but you could always remove the smaller pieces.

Buying one of your own

I bought this set for £10 from Tesco Direct, but it can be purchased at amazon, or I recommend worldwideshoppingmall.co.uk as stocking this and other calendars in the range at a reasonable price and for a very reasonable postage cost, I've bought several other sets for presents.

If you prefer a more traditional calendar then Playmobil also do a nativity scene, but there do bring out different sets every year.

Overall

I highly recommend Playmobil Calendars in general, and this, the first one we ever had is one of the better ones in my opinion and really brings a lot of pleasure to the adults and children in my house alike.

(originally on dooyoo)
 

...less