A magical Christmas: How one PTA gave advent calendars to every pupil

“Our school is a primary school in Gosport with 390 children on roll, aged between four and 11, and we have a higher-than-average number of pupil premium children.

The idea to give all the children in our school an advent calendar was a middle of the night lightbulb moment. I wanted all the children to have the same as their friends and to spread the Christmas cheer. 

The organisation of such a thought was trickier than anticipated. We couldn’t find a shop that was willing to give us a discount or let us bulk order, taking into account we didn’t have an endless pot of money to make this work. We had to shop around eventually, buying: 

• 100 character advent calendars (for reception and Year 1) from Poundland at 89p each 

• 120 Santa advent calendars(for Year 2 and 3) from Poundland at £1 each 

• 180 Dairy Milk advent calendars (for Year 4, 5 and 6) from Morrisons on various offers 

• 10 NOMO allergy-free advent calendars at £3.50 each

It was never up for discussion that the children with various allergies would receive a different item. The aim was for all children to have an advent calendar and that’s what we were able to achieve! 

The total cost was £455.89 — just a smidge over £1 per child! 

The advent calendars were a complete surprise for the children and their families. We had put some teasers out on our social media that a Christmas treat was coming, but let nothing slip further than that. After the last school day of November, we went into school and delivered a sack of advent calendars to each class. Inside each sack were the advent calendars for each child and a packet of KitKats for the staff as a treat. We used our social media page on the Friday to let the families know the children would all bring home an advent calendar that day. 

Our PTA had held a couple of fundraising events since September and had already fulfilled our SLT wishlist of items on return to school in September. We also had a sponsored walk to the North Pole planned for mid-December, so financially we were in a good place to provide this treat. Our headteacher and leadership team were over the moon with the idea, and all the teachers thought it was lovely. 

We had this message from a parent on 1st December: 

That message is the exact reason we decided to go ahead with the crazy lightbulb idea in the first place — we do what we can for the children, to create memories, happiness and inclusivity. Our school had taken on the No Outsiders programme in this school year, so the advent calendars also linked into the the motto: No one is the same, but we are all equal.

Of course, the children were ecstatic when they were given the advent calendars, the kind of happiness you want to be able to bag up and share around the world! Some advent calendars were definitely being tucked into on the way out the school gates! We received so much thanks for the gesture and even had some thank you cards, which speaks volumes and meant a lot.

Despite it being so successful last year this year, we have mixed it up and will be back to providing all our children with a Christmas hat. Seeing just shy of 400 children all coming out of school on the same day wearing a Santa/​Elf hat is something really special!”

Suze Weeks, Chair of St John’s C of E Primary School PTA, Gosport 

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