Dowmoo Rubber Duck Advent Calendar, 24 Day Christmas Countdown Blind Box

Description

Twenty four small rubber ducks, one behind each numbered door, each wearing something Christmas: a Santa hat, an elf cap, a set of antlers, a striped scarf, a tiny crown. They are plain yellow ducks underneath, moulded in the usual soft vinyl, and they are sized to sit in a palm or line up along the edge of a bath.

Why this works better than it should

A chocolate calendar is over on December 24. This one leaves you with twenty four objects that a child will keep playing with through January, which is a better return for the money. They also work as stocking fillers, table decorations or party favours if you decide not to use it as a calendar at all. There is no date printing on the doors, only numbers, so nothing stops you splitting the box between two children.

Safety, stated plainly

These are small. The supplier’s marketing includes a photograph of an infant in a bath with them, and we are not going to repeat that framing. Individual ducks are a choking size for a child under three. Treat this as a product for children over three, with the box kept out of reach of younger siblings, and you will have no trouble.

In the bath

They float, and they are moulded in the usual squeezable vinyl, so they do take on water through the base hole like every rubber duck ever made. If you want them to last, squeeze the water out after each bath and leave them upside down to dry, otherwise you get the familiar problem of mould inside. Used as shelf decorations rather than bath toys, none of that applies.

Format

The box is a flat 24 grid, roughly 300 by 200 millimetres and 30 millimetres deep, with a printed Christmas scene across the front. It stands on a shelf or lies flat on a table. It comes from the same maker as our mineral and magic trick calendars, in the same format, if you want to run more than one.

Order it before December

This has to be in the house before December 1 to be worth having, which is a tighter deadline than Christmas itself. Handling is 1 to 3 business days and transit is 5 to 9 business days, so aim to order in the third week of November. Our usual Christmas cutoff of Monday December 7 does not apply to advent calendars.