I used to do advent calendars when I was a kid, but I think they were all chocolate.
This is why we did it this way. Smallsteps can't have the chocolate, so we were padding them with fruit smoothies and healthy snacks! Now, we can have a bit of candy, but mostly it is stuff that she can use in some way.
There are some pretty insane "adult" ones now. 1000 of dollars for perfumes and makeups, dildos... endless commercialisation.
Haven't heard of the chain thing - might be good for Hive :D
Haha, yeah, It was pretty cool. That actually might be a good idea. That give me an idea for a post this morning. Thankfully I have never seen some of those adult ones you mentioned!