Ask a six year-old what the best advent calendar is and they’ll tell you it’s the one with the most chocolate. Right? Well, maybe in the 1970s. But in 2024 we have Lego advent calendars, Pokemon advent calendars and calendars filled with every kind of sweet and children’s toy you can think of. How can they possibly choose?
For adults, it’s even harder. Do you try to get your hands on one of the best beauty advent calendars, which often sell out as soon as they go on sale? Do you blow the budget on an indulgent food advent calendar or sophisticated drinks advent calendar, and give it to someone as an early Christmas gift? Or do you spoil yourself with a calendar packed with scented candles, jewellery or spa gifts and make every day of December a mini-holiday?
We’ve tried and tested dozens of advent calendars, filled with all sorts of gifts, from affordable chocs to high-priced cosmetics. The full list is further down, but if you’re in a hurry, here’s a quick look at our top five:
Which are the best advent calendars in 2024? At a glance
- Best Lego advent calendar - Lego Star Wars advent calendar
- Best beauty advent calendar - Charlotte’s Beauty Chest of Love advent calendar
- Best chocolate advent calendar - Hotel Chocolat The Grand Advent Calendar
- Best Pokémon advent calendar - Pokémon Trading Card advent calendar
- Best grooming advent calendar - Kiehl’s Limited Edition Holiday Advent Calendar
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Best advent calendars already on sale
1. Lego Star Wars advent calendar
£29.99, John Lewis
Best lego advent calendar
We like: not just figurines but mini building projects
- Inside: eight Lego Star Wars characters, 10 mini-build vehicles and five other mini-builds
- Available now
- Quickest delivery is next day, £7.50
Whoever came up with Lego advent calendars is now rich enough to build their own life-size spaceship. They’re astonishingly popular. We’ve picked the Lego Star Wars one but could equally recommend the Lego Harry Potter advent calendars, There are dozens in all, and Playmobil advent calendars now vie for kids’ attention too. Plenty of pointy plastic for parents to step on on bleary December mornings.
2. Hotel Chocolat The Grand Advent Calendar
£80, Hotel Chocolat
Best chocolate advent calendar
We like: the grown-up version of a classic 24-chocs calendar
- Inside: chocolate slabs, selector packs, truffles, batons, liqueurs, hot chocolate and cocoa-based beauty products
- Available to buy now
- Quickest delivery is next day, £4.95
The childish excitement of revealing a new chocolate every morning never really goes away, even when you’re over 30 and the treats include a cheeky tipple or two. Hotel Chocolat advent calendars start at £8.95, but this 18-inch high range-topper is the one to give as a present. (To yourself, if you must.)
3. Lindt 3D Teddy Advent Calendar
£20, Lindt
Best budget advent calendar
We like: the classic advent gift for sweet-toothed grandchildren
- Inside: 24 chocolates (310g total) including santa, bears, bunnies, snowdrops and truffles
- Available to buy now
- Quickest delivery is 3-5 days, free
Christmas makes us up our chocolate game, from basic Snickers to refined Swiss fare and Lindt sure know how to capitalise on that. Their Lindor mini advent calendar – which usually goes on sale around this time of year – is good, as is the slightly more indulgent Lindor gold advent calendar but this full-size bear makes a more impressive gift.
4. Pokémon Trading Card advent calendar
£44.99, Pokemon Centre
Best Pokémon advent calendar
We like: it’s the best way to get ahead for the new year
- Inside: eight foil promo cards, two Pokémon coins, two sticker sheets, one sidekick danger and booster packs
- Available to buy now
- Quickest delivery is same day, free
Launched in 1998, playground craze Pokémon is now old enough to be passed down to a second generation and there’s no let-up in the number of collectibles. This trading card game advent calendar has a new item each day with a choice of eight foil promo cards, Pokémon coins, sticker sheets, booster packs and more.
5. The Gruffalo and Friends advent calendar
£10, The Works,
Best young children’s advent calendar
We like: guaranteed 15 minutes of quality kids time each December morning
- Inside: 24 mini activity books
- Available to buy now
- Not available for next day delivery
For a slightly more intellectually stimulating December, Julia Donaldson’s much-loved monster counts down to Christmas with a big hardback calendar containing 24 colouring, quizzing, drawing and activity mini-books based on The Gruffalo, Room On The Broom, The Snail and The Whale and others.
Now you can have a full 15 of quality time with your kids each morning of December instead of the quick 30 minutes when they open their presents under the Christmas tree on December 25.
6. Enamel Charm Necklace Advent Calendar
£65, Meri Meri
Best advent calendar for girls
We like: just that little bit more special than toys or sweets
- Inside: 17 enamel charms, six tassels and a gold-tone chain necklace
- Available to buy now
- Next day delivery for £6.95, otherwise free standard delivery within 5 working days
Girls around 10 or 11 can be a little tricky to buy for at Christmas, so this pretty advent calendar from children’s party specialists Meri Meri is a stroke of genius. Each day she’ll unbox a new enamel charm or tassel to add to the supplied necklace and, when advent is over, the pink gingham suitcase doubles as a jewellery box. There’s a hair accessories advent calendar working along the same lines. Neither is super-cheap, but she will feel very special.
7. Rituals Classic Advent Calendar
£91.90, Rituals
Best luxury bath advent calendar
We like: more than a month’s worth of ‘me-time’ products
- Inside: shower gel, body oil, hair mask, candles, soap, hand lotion, hand balm
- Available to buy now
- Quickest delivery is 1-3 days, free
Indulgent, pampering products make failsafe gifts for her and Rituals have capitalised on that by including candles, scrubs, soaps and body creams in their tasteful-looking advent calendar – basically everything you need for an at-home spa day. Rituals is also selling a £114.90 Deluxe advent calendar and £172 Premium advent calendar.
8. Kiehl’s Limited Edition Holiday Advent Calendar
£118, Kiehl’s
Best grooming advent calendar
We like: the only beauty calendar you can give to your husband (and steal from when he’s not looking)
- Inside: unisex cleansers, toners, masks, creams, serums, scrubs and face-washes
- Available to buy now
- Quickest delivery is next day, £6.95
Perennial favourites on Gifts For Him lists, New York’s Kiehl’s is not specifically a men’s cosmetics company but their traditionalist product design definitely appeals to stubbly shoppers. This year’s advent box has 24 doors and a Kiehl’s formula behind each one.
9. Body Shop The Advent Calendar of Wonders
£55, The Body Shop
Best face and body advent calendar
We like: supports the women in the developing world who help make the products inside
- Inside: soaps, shower creams, face washes, body butter, sheet masks, shampoo, conditioner, hand creams
- Available to buy now
- Quickest delivery is next working day for £4.99
The Body Shop are doing several fairtrade advent calendars this year. This is the midrange option, with 24 gifts worth around £119 (a saving for £64) in a foot-wide recyclable box. Sign up to The Body Shop to find about the other advent calendars coming this year.
10. Charlotte’s Diamond Chest of Beauty Stars
£170, Charlotte Tilbury
Best beauty advent calendar
We like: reasonably priced considering the value of the gifts inside
- Inside: 12 gifts including Magic Lip Oil, Charlotte’s Magic Cream, Charlotte’s Magic Serum
- Available to buy now
- Quickest delivery is next day, £5.95
What is the best beauty advent calendar? Charlotte Tilbury vies with Liberty and Look Fantastic in the ‘must get it before it sells out’ stakes – and no wonder, when the products are worth £140 more than the ticket price. If you can get your hands on one, you’ll be able to add the glow of victory to the youthful complexion afforded by its contents.
11. John Lewis wine advent calendar
£100, John Lewis
Best wine advent calendar
We like: crowd-pleasing wines from interesting producers - a good way of expanding your repertoire
- Inside: 24 200ml bottles of wine including merlots, pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, shiraz and a malbec
- Available to buy now
- Next day delivery is £7.50
This is where advent calendars start to become advent boxes: you’d have a hard time hanging this on the wall. But with 24 quarter-bottles of carefully chosen wine, John Lewis’s selection strikes the right balance of quality, variety and price. Just remember to open a door a day, rather than trying to drink it all on the 25th.
12. Brewdog craft beer advent calendar
£55, Brewdog
Best beer advent calendar
We like: a cold one for every day of December, for much less than you’d pay for them individually
- Inside: 24 33ml cans of Brewdog’s craft lagers, pale ales, bitters and porters including seasonal ales and beers exclusive to the calendar, plus a glass
- Order before 9 October and get an early bird £10 discount
- Available to buy now
- Next day delivery is £2.95
Beer advent calendars have only been a thing for a short while but there are now hundreds. Brewdog’s often sells out so, although they’ve increased production this year, it’s a good idea to order well before December 1. Expect Christmas exclusives like a Festive IPA and a Coffee Stout in collaboration with Grind.
13. Biscuiteers Advent tin with limited edition advent calendar
£135, Biscuiteers
Best biscuits advent calendar
We like: the keep-it-forever limited edition cloth calendar (although it’s highly likely to sell out)
- Inside: 24 individually designed vanilla biscuits, total weight 275g.
- Includes a limited edition Emma Bridgewater advent calendar
- Available to buy now
- Free next day delivery
Being endlessly personalisable, iced biscuits are a popular gift – but to keep 24 of them fresh, you really need a tin. Biscuiteers’ solution is to team up with Emma Bridgewater on a limited-edition hand-finished embroidered advent calendar 24 embroidered pockets, that you can re-use every year.
14. Paxton & Whitfield Artisan Cheese Advent Calendar
£150, Paxton & Whitfield
Best cheese advent calendar
We like: at last, an advent calendar for fromage fanatics
- Inside: 24 75g cuts of artisan cheese
- Available to buy now
- Three fresh deliveries going out on November 29, December 6 and December 13
Cheese, they say, is chocolate for boys. But let’s not be sexist. Anyone lacking a sweet tooth is cruelly neglected by the majority of advent calendars and this savoury salvo from the 225 year-old London cheesemongers is like the cavalry coming over the hill. Each cheese is hand-cut, had-wrapped and sealed in an individual box. They arrive in three separate deliveries to keep them super fresh.
15. The Cartwright & Butler advent calendar
£200, Cartwright & Butler
Best giant advent calendar
We like: enough Christmas food to feed a family of 30 or a medium sized business
- Inside: 24 full-sized Cartwright & Butler products including sweet and savoury biscuits, hot drinks, prosecco cakes and confectionary
- Available to buy now
- Early bird offer - £20 off
- Quickest delivery is next day, £7.95
The price may seem high but it figures when this advent calendar arrives. You are looking at well over 20kg of biscuits, preserves, cakes, hot drinks, confectionery and prosecco in 24 drawers, standing almost two feet high. Definitely not the advent calendar you remember from your childhood, this is a serious investment in festive over-indulgence. In fact it might work best as a workplace advent calendar, with a treat each day for the whole company to share.
16. Fortnum & Mason feasting advent calendar
£200, Fortnum & Mason
Best festive food advent calendar
We like: the abundance of festive spices in this ultra-traditional foodie gift
- Inside: 25 miniature and full-sized Christmas food and drink products including preserves, chocolates, biscuits, liqueurs, Christmas teas and coffees
- Available to buy now
- Earlierst dispatch after October 31
- Next working day delivery £9.95
Also stretching the budget a very long way, Fortnum & Mason’s Feasting advent calendar is essentially one of their famous Christmas hampers in calendar-form. 24 doors hold Christmas classics like Fig Preserve, Cranberry and Port Chutney and Mini Cognac Butter. Behind the 25th is a quarter bottle of champagne. F&M also do a beauty advent calendar, a spirits and liqueurs advent calendar, a tea advent calendar and (of course) a dog advent calendar, as well as wooden reusable calendars. They do luxury Christmas crackers, too. Quite a Christmas-oriented shop, in other words.
Best advent calendars available to pre-order
17. Look Fantastic Iconic Beauty Advent Calendar 2024
£100, LookFantastic
Best advent calendar for women
We like: so many of the products are full size
- 27 products worth more than £565
- Available to pre-order now
- Includes a £30 voucher from FOREO
Last year, we considered the Look Fantastic beauty advent calendar to be the best value out there and this year looks set to top it. Products this year are worth £565, despite it being one of the few beauty advent calendars to cost just £100.
Inside are 27, from Look Fantastic’s most luxurious brands including Sol de Janeiro, Estee Lauder, MAX cosmetics and Elemis. Inside are 14 full size whcih include Sol de Janeiro’s Delicia Drench Perfume Mist, Aveeno Daily Moisturising Body Lotion, Anastasia Beverly Hills Soft Glam Palette and the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream.
18. Diptyque Advent Calendar
£390, Diptyque Paris
Best candle advent calendar
We like: a year’s worth of gifts disguised as a calendar
- Inside: candles, eau de toilettes, eau de parfums, shower oil, scented soap, hand wash and holiday decorations
- Available to pre-order now
- Ships October 7
- Quickest delivery is 3-5 days for £5.95
Now are really are at the top end (and there are more luxury advent calendars each year). If you can afford it, Diptyque’s selection of candles, perfumes and soaps will keep your loved one in heavenly scents for the best part of a year. Even the box is like a fragrant atelier on the Boulevard St Germain.
Other advent calendars coming in 2024
We know what you might expect inside (based on last year), but you can’t buy or pre-order them yet...
19. Pandora advent calendar
£350, Pandora
Best jewellery advent calendar
We like: you’re basically getting £200 of jewellery free
- Inside: silver sliding bracelet, murano charm, heart necklace, heart stud earrings, padlock and key charm pendant
- Available to pre-order
- Quickest delivery is next day, £5.99
Pandora launched its debut advent calendar for 2023, with 12 boxes to be opened adding up to the worth of £550. Also inside were two vouchers, one for a jewellery cleaning kit and another for a jewellery travel box. It’s the perfect way to make her December, or keep it hidden and drip feed the presents throughout the year.
20. Wedgwood Fine Bone China Christmas Advent Calendar
£860, Wedgewood
Best luxury advent calendar
We like: every ornament matches the blue and white theme
- Inside: 24 Wedgwood porcelain ornaments to be used as tree or table decorations
- Available to buy
- Quickest delivery is next day for £7.50
More of a family heirloom than an advent calendar, Wedgwood’s ultra-high end offering was an 18-inch tall townhouse filled with 24 exquisitely detailed bone china ornaments in white and blue jasper, were all part of the historic firm’s Christmas 2023 collection.
21. Cox and Cox Midwinter Village Lit Advent Calendar
£35, Cox and Cox
Best reusable advent calendar
We like: durability and classic Victorian looks
- Nothing inside: this is a fill-it-yourself calendar
- Available to buy soon
- Quickest delivery is within three days, free
Investing in a reusable wooden advent calendar will add charm and sustainability to your holiday traditions. Not only is Cox & Cox’s traditional village scene eco-friendly, but it can be re-used and personalised year after year. There are no gifts included, just 24 drawers you fill yourself with anything walnut-sized, like a Lindt Lindor truffle.
Advent calendar FAQ
When do you start using an advent calendar?
24-day or 25-day advent calendars start on the first day of December. 12-day advent calendars will start in the middle of the month.
Can you make an advent calendar?
Some of the advent calendars above are reusable, meaning you can refill each section every year with items of your choice. You may decide to build your own advent calendar as well.
Where can I find the cheapest advent calendars?
Some of the cheapest, from Cadbury’s and Lindt, are also the most popular. You can get them in most supermarkets. Companies like Lakeland and Dunelm also sell good quality calendars online.
If you really plan ahead, you’ll be able to buy an advent calendar for next year very cheaply in the weeks after Christmas – although that does seem a little Scrooge-like.
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