M y NeeDoh Advent Calendar is fake – the 24 miniature squishy toys in each window are so terrible I don’t dare show my kids.

It’s thrown me into a fresh squishy crisis in the run-up to Christmas . The only thing my two children, Lola, 10, and Liberty, eight, wanted for the countdown to Christmas was this particular advent calendar.

It is more desirable to them than even the coveted Legami’s Dream Peaks Advent Calendar, filled with mini notebooks, stackable highlighters – and squishies.

I couldn’t tempt them either with the popular Coco Wyo: Cozy Countdown – An Advent Colouring Book Bundle, featuring a new miniature colouring book over 24 days. Or the new Meri Meri x Liberty Charm Advent Calendar, with numbered doors containing charms to attach to a gold-tone chain bracelet.

No – it’s NeeDoh squishies, and nothing else will do.…