How the scramble for the most popular squishy advent calendar has ruined my Christmas

My 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. Squishies are nothing new, but they have become one of the biggest children’s toy crazes of the year – whether that’s the NeeDoh Nice sensory cubes, Taba Squishy cat paws or RMS Crazy Fun Squishy Dumplings, which went viral.

And NeeDoh Squishy toys have skyrocketed in popularity, with online searches increasing by more than 5,000 per cent in the last year, according to Google Trends. So it’s no surprise the NeeDoh Advent Calendar is a top pick this year for children, with its mini candy swirl cube and slow-rise squishies, including the light blue jellyfish and pink lollipop, which widely rank as the overall best items in it.

“Mum, I’ll do anything for one,” Liberty, eight, told me months ago.

Now it’s arrived – and I can’t believe my eyes. Is this some kind of cruel joke? The toys aren’t squishy. It’s like a squishy nightmare – even worse than Liberty taking her DIY squishies made from balloons and flour that she gave as presents to her entire class this week – and which easily explode.

I’d really liked the look of the NeeDoh Advent Calendar when I searched for it online, but it had sold out at a few reputable stores, including Smiths, who were selling it for £29.99.

That’s when I made the fatal mistake of buying one elsewhere. It was late one night as I was scrolling Instagram and I saw a post advertising original NeeDoh Advent Calendars – I was directed to an online store.

It claimed to be the real deal and said: “Hurry while stocks last”. The photos looked just like the ones in YouTube unboxing videos. But sadly, after spending £46.99 for two in “the sale”, I can safely say I’ve been scammed.

The advent calendar arrived yesterday and is half the size of the original – I have compared measurements – and it’s thin-looking, rather than thick and chunky like the original. But worst of all, you can’t squish the squishies. Or rather you can, but there is no good sensory satisfaction to be had from doing so: they are like soft plastic blobs devoid of the satisfying squish offered by real NeeDohs.

Forget the fact that each mini squishy toy in the real advent calendar is meant to feel different – from soft and squishy to firm and bouncy. There are bigger issues to contend with. Such as the fact that the purple bus in my dupe calendar doesn’t even have wheels, like the original. And the lime green UFO is missing the alien. With some, it’s hard to tell what they are even supposed to be. Also, there is a chemical smell to the “squishies” – if you can even call them that. Although it was a miracle in itself that it even turned up; another friend bought one online and it never even arrived.

The fake calendars were so bad that I resolved to hide them from the kids to avoid upsetting them. But one squishy – which looks like a green mushroom – dropped out of the back of one of them and Liberty picked it up: “Ugh, what’s this?” she asked, looking disgusted as I tried to change the subject.

Little did I know that the market is currently flooded with unbranded and generic NeeDoh Advent Calendars. And I fell for the scam just like I did with the fake Labubus two years ago – now named Lafufus (with missing teeth and feet that fall off).

And then there were the unbranded toxic, squishy dumplings earlier this year – that I’d been paying more for at my local Budgens than the real ones, which were sold by REM for £6.

How could this happen to me again? I feel embarrassed, but deep down I know I’m not the only “fool”.

Clearly it’s the Wild West when shopping on third-party marketplaces for advent calendars. The original squishy dumpling manufacturer, RMS International, has explicitly confirmed that their Viral Mystery Squishy Dumpling Advent Calendar is not sold on Amazon. So any listings appearing there or on unverified marketplaces are highly likely to be knock-offs.

Authentic NeeDohs are made by toy company Schylling. And Bigjigs Toys, the official distributor of NeeDoh in the UK, offers tips on how to spot red flags for their products: “NeeDoh DO NOT sell directly from China to the public,” it states online. “If you don’t recognise the name of a shop online, don’t purchase any ‘NeeDoh’; check before you buy!” Mine were shipped from China.

“Real NeeDohs have a satisfying ‘memory foam’ squish,” the advice continues. “Counterfeits are often greasy or sticky to the touch, full of air bubbles, or far too soft and ‘jelly-like’.”

Also good to know: not all will say NeeDoh on the bottom, but they will have the Schylling mark. And real boxes have a sturdy, crisp, matte finish, while counterfeits are made of flimsy cardboard and often have a super shiny, glossy finish – just like mine.

Other big giveaways noted online include versions branded with misspelt names like “Neato” or “Nee Doh”.

But I would not have been able to spot most of these things until I had made the purchase and inspected the calendar myself.

The issue with buying a dupe squishy calendar is not just aesthetic. Counterfeit versions pose dangerous health and safety risks. Recent safety alerts from UK Trading Standards highlight significant risks tied to the chemical compositions in fake gel- or foam-filled squishy and “NeeDoh”-style toys.

Fake ones can break open and leak toxic substances, especially dangerous when kids were putting squishy dumplings in microwaves. In July 2026, the Office for Product Safety and Standards recalled a copycat dumpling after tests found excess benzene, and over 1,000 of them were seized from UK retailers, according to the website of UK toy brand Abeec, which is part of RMS International.

The only solution is buying viral kids’ trends from real UK toy retailers. When I called my bank to report my purchase as a scam, they told me that seven out of 10 scams are people buying goods online – and according to Reuters, scams and prohibited goods on Meta could generate roughly $16bn in revenue, or about 10 per cent of Meta’s total annual revenue.

“Be careful of anything advertised on social media and sponsored links on Google – and watch the Google shopping tab for impersonators,” the fraud team tells me.

If the seller is a random storefront, you just don’t know if it’s a fake item – or if they’ll do a runner with your money. I got away lightly – with just a pathetic squishy advent calendar.

But all is not lost. I’ve just signed up for notifications to alert me when they restock the real NeeDoh Advent Calendar. One reputable UK retailer is expecting a delivery any day.

Happily, the fraud team at my bank are currently looking into my purchase and – fingers crossed – will refund me. But in the meantime, I’ve got a new rule of thumb to avoid being scammed online again: if something seems too good to be true… then it probably is!