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We’ve come a long way from the humble chocolate Advent calendar. Now, you can buy an Advent calendar filled with just about anything you can think of, from skin-care products to dog treats to itsy-bitsy toys. With the market increasingly saturated, I’ve been extra critical in my roundup this year. By this I mean, just because a brand says a calendar is worth hundreds of dollars doesn’t mean it actually is — and I’ve done the cost-benefit analysis to make sure you’re actually getting a good deal with each calendar’s contents. So whether you’re treating yourself, or you plan to divvy up what’s behind the doors as holiday gifts, everything in this story will give you value for your money. I’m also partial to a calendar that can be reused, either for the next festive season or as handsome storage year-round.
Now we’re in November, plenty of big-name Advent calendars have actually already dropped and completely sold out (sorry to anyone looking to get their hands on the Squishmallows or SpaceNK Advent calendars this year). And as plenty of other calendars are sure to sell out well before the festive season — Lego, Liberty, and Papier, for example — I’m sharing my picks of the best now, which I’ll be regularly updating all the way up until December 1. And, while tradition dictates that you start using an Advent calendar on the first day of December and return to it each day until December 25, the options below (and their goodies within) would be just as delightful to receive and open all at once. (If you’re in the market specifically for a beauty-focused Advent calendar, we found the best of those, too.)
Update on November 14, 2024: Updated prices and checked stock for all products, new products added.
The advent calendars I think are best
Food and drink
This is my third year in a row featuring the Advent calendar from compote queen Bonne Maman. Inside the festively illustrated calendar sits 12 limited-edition miniature spreads. If you’re anything like Strategist senior editor Jen Trolio, then the final door of your calendar won’t make it to December 24 unopened. “My family and I will open the entire calendar in one go. This is our third year in a row doing it — my husband even bakes a loaf of homemade bread for the start,” she says. “Once the mini-jars are empty, my kids use them for all kinds of craft projects. My older daughter also grabs one to put under her pillow any time she loses a tooth, to keep it safe for the tooth fairy.”
Lindt is my favorite chocolate brand, and this has all of the hits: two milk-chocolate teddies, a tiny slab of milk chocolate, and its delicious chocolate balls in an assortment of flavors. If you’re sticking with chocolate, this is the way to go.
Sugarfina, known for its fancy candy, has gone with a gingerbread-themed calendar for this year. Behind each of the 24 doors are appropriately festive-shaped gellies, caramels, and cookies, including its best-selling sour gummy lips. A great gift for a discerning sweet tooth.
The Bean Box coffee subscription service is a Strategist favorite, so it was no surprise to find the — in my opinion — best 2024 coffee Advent calendar while browsing their site. It comes from the brand Onyx, and behind each door is two ounces of a different small-batch coffee blend (ideal for a 24-ounce pour-over), in both brand-classic and Advent-calendar-exclusive flavors. The intricately illustrated box is also a real delight, and could be recycled into a countertop storage container.
If they’re more tea-inclined, this inexpensive option from Pukka will brighten up their first morning brew. It features 24 tea sachets — a new flavor for each day in the buildup to Christmas — including festive cinnamon blends as well as classics like elderflower. The whole box is completely recyclable, too.
If you’ve visited (or wish to visit Japan), and long for its snacks, delights, and flavors, Bokksu delivers with its Advent calendar each year. Their theme this year is kintsugi, the art of repairing broken pottery with gold, so the calendar itself is particularly handsome. Inside is the usual mixture of snacks (behind 17 doors), and eight collectible holiday items that’s made the calendar a mainstay of this roundup year after year.
Beauty, jewelry, and lifestyle
Fore more 2024 beauty-calendar options, be sure to read beauty writer Tembe Denton-Hurst’s in-depth guide.
Liberty’s beauty Advent calendar was one of the very first, and remains one of the best. It’s so covetable, year upon year, as the team who curate it are truly dialed in to the most desirable products of the year (I presume they pull the data directly from purchases made in the Liberty Beauty Hall). Basically, there are no doors that you’ll open and feel disappointed. Behind the 24 doors in the calendar, there are 28 pieces (including 18 full-size products) from brands like La Mer, Sunday Riley, and Skin Rocks. A select number of calendars also have a $1,000 gift card that winners can spend online at Liberty — but even without a Wonka moment, it’s still definitely worthwhile.
This Macy’s Advent calendar was already excellent, but now that it’s in the Black Friday sales, it’s a total steal. Included are miniatures from Anastasia Beverly Hills, M.A.C, and NYX, as well as a $10 off discount card and a bow-shaped claw clip. A perfect gift for a teen or tween.
This is what I’d class as a great Advent calendar: 12 gifts you’d actually want (each day, a new flavor of Burt’s Bees’ best-selling lip balm) for a very reasonable, under-$25 price. I might just buy this for myself, to stock up ahead of the winter dryness.
W7 makes budget beauty staples, and its Advent calendar is filled with them: $30 for 24 miniature-filled Advent boxes. The minis include bronzing drops, lip liners, eyeliners, and even a mini travel mirror. The products are also cruelty-free, and the calendar is completely recyclable.
Over here in the U.K., Revolution is another huge budget beauty name, so I can’t recommend its Advent calendar enough. It has 24 pieces, including the eye shimmers and shadows that are perennially sold out in drugstores over here, lip glosses, blushes, baking powders, and some rhinestone stickers for New Year’s Eve makeup. The box is fabulous, too.
I’ll admit I was a little skeptical when I first heard about Love Honey’s Advent calendar — that was until I realized that it had partnered with Womanizer, which makes some of our favorite vibrators and sex toys. In fact, the combined worth of the included Womanizer Liberty 2, We-Vibe Sync Lite, and bullet vibrator means that the other items behind the remaining 21 doors work out as free little extras. A truly excellent (and admittedly even more fun) choice if you were already in the market for some new sex toys for the holidays.
It’s tough to find a (good) option for less than $100, but L’Occitane has provided. There are 24 pieces inside the calendar, featuring minis of its cult-classic luxurious hand creams, as well as four full-size products. I think it would make a great gift option for a mom or a grandmother (or a guilt-free treat, at $84).
At $515, this to me screams “main present.” But what a great present that would be: a calendar with 12 days of stunning jewelry, in either 18k-gold-plated silver, or rhodium-plated sterling silver (preference depending). Inside are earrings, huggies, and necklaces, and the calendar itself is a gorgeous jewelry box that you’ll want to reuse. Astrid and Miyu do have 24-day calendar options, but as they’ll set you back triple the price, I’ve selected this as my favorite of its Advent-calendar offerings this year.
Truly Beauty has wrapped up ten days of its best sellers in a bow — for a sweet price of $99. Minis of all of its best sellers are included, from its glazed-doughnut shave oil, to whipped berry body butters and a vanilla eau de parfum. A very sweet gift.
If you know you love a brand, its Advent calendar is always a good idea. I adore the doll-lash mascaras, pigmented blushes, and pore-eliminating primers from Benefit and look forward to its Advent calendar each year. This year the theme is Gorgeous Grocer, and each of the 24 gifts come inside a Barbie-pink basket that I already know will come in handy for storing my various beauty products once December 25 has come and gone. I do think that it’s been stronger in recent years (there’s a lot of its skin-care line this time around and, frankly, who cares), but if you’re a fan of the brand, then you’re sure to be delighted.
[Editor’s note: This calendar is currently sold out, but Benefit are expected to restock in the next couple of weeks.]
Hobbies and interests
I’m remarkably fond of the Papier Advent calendar; it’s a stationary lover’s dream, packed with notebooks, photo frames, bookmarks, pens, highlighters, and other desk essentials. It also comes in a box (that can be used for storage for all of your new goodies), and each of the 24 different- size boxes perfectly wedge inside in a way that’s sure to satisfy organization-loving types. This one’s always a sellout.
Discover a new rock or gemstone every day leading up to Christmas with this National Geographic Advent calendar filled with 24 specimens, including black obsidian, blue quartz, jade, and a “dig brick” that budding gemologists can chip away at to reveal a special crystal. The calendar also comes with five jewelry settings for those who’d like to transform their finds into wearable art.
I would be remiss to mention National Geographic without its classic science Advent calendar. Like the calendar above, it also features gemstones, but there are also 13 science experiments that can be completed from home, including growing a colorful crystal tree, making a test tube glow, and — on the final day — finding fool’s gold from a mini dig brick.
Its magic Advent calendar is pretty fun, too. It features all the classics, from card and dice tricks, cup-and-ball slight of hand, and wand levitating. There’s also some fun scientific spins on classic magic tricks, like “making snow” and creating a bubble in the shape of a square.
Kids
Lego Advent calendars are a mainstay of the holiday season, and for 2024 the toymaker added a brand-new variation. Themed after Disney princesses, the 24-day calendar contains five micro-dolls (including newer characters such as Moana and classic princesses like Ariel), as well as teeny sets from classic Disney films, and a few sidekicks, too.
A sellout every year, the Lego Star Wars Advent calendar looks particularly appealing this year. It contains six character minis (including a festively attired Luke Skywalker), as well as various ships from across the films and Disney+ original shows. As always, there are some exclusives inside, making it an excellent gift if you know any collectors.
My third and final LEGO suggestion is particularly interactive; it features raceable cars, five mini-figures, and a Sandman catapult to launch toys all over the living room (much to parents’ delight, I’m sure). It also features one of the best festive LEGO figures I’ve seen this year: Venom in a wooly scarf.
Christmas baking is the theme of Playmobil’s Advent calendar for 2024. Once all 92 pieces of the calendar have been opened, it creates a completed kitchen play set (that, once you minus the Father Christmas figurine, is great for playtime all year-round). There are also three cookie cutters included in the calendar, so that kids can do some festive baking of their own.
Parents of Disney children should consider this Tonies calendar. As well as a Toniebox starter kit, it contains 24 Disney Tonies characters as well as a fabric Advent calendar to hang them in (and reuse). At full price, the calendar wasn’t worth raving about, but at its sale price, it’s an absolute steal. As each individual Tonie is worth $18, the sale price of $450 for the whole lot means that you’re basically getting the Toniebox itself for free.
An Advent calendar with a … plot? EXIT’s Advent calendar emulates the experience of an escape room at home: Families have to answer 24 riddles, solve mysteries, and find clues over the course of December in order to escape Santa’s workshop (and, of course, save Christmas). It can also be played alone, but I think this is a great pick for families looking for a new festive-themed game for the holidays.
This Advent calendar sings! Behind five of the 25 doors, the Peanuts calendar has sound buttons to play clips of songs from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. It’s more of a keepsake, meaning no takeaway goodies but plenty of pullout ornaments, illustrations, and quotes.
A calendar for all the mini-horse girls. Schleich horse club has 24 doors, each with a new figure or accessory to create a horse farm throughout December, from saddles to stable equipment and, of course, two horses.
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