Advent calendars for Christmas have been around since the 19th century.
It all started with German Protestants finding creative ways to count the days until Christmas.
The first known advent calendar was a handmade wooden carving from 1851.
Over the years advent calendars have become a staple of Christmas traditions.
Advent calendars sell out all over the UK, and there’s often a second round to buy them.
Whether you open them day by day or in one go on Christmas day, there’s an advent calendar for you.
Here are the best advent calendars by category:
Value for money: Sephora Favorites Advent Calendar
The Sephora Favorites 2023 advent calendar retails for £189.00 and contains products worth over £1000.
Fuller than the standard 25-product advent calendar, the Sephora calendar has 36 products.
The two-tiered box offers 25 neatly packed miniature boxes with a range of products across skincare, makeup, and home.
The products are so valuable that just ten of them pay off the full price of the advent calendar.
Sephora chose to feature products from high-end brands like Elemis, Aromatherapy, and REN.
The box also includes surprise gifts like candles and nail polishes.
With this advent calendar, you are getting a range of products with different purposes.
Best for men: Lookfantastic Grooming Advent Calendar
This is the best men’s advent calendar on the 2023 market.
It retails for £90.00 but has a total worth of £346.
Men’s grooming advent calendars are finally on the market now, after years of brands focusing on women’s beauty only.
This advent calendar offers a range of products including cleansers, fragrances, and beard oils.
They offer Elemis skincare, ManCave face scrubs, cleansing cloths, and more.
To top it off, there aren’t just mini products – everything is full-size or bigger.
Lookfantastic has made a great advent calendar for men who would appreciate some new wellness and beauty products this Christmas.
Most fun: Lego Advent Calendars
Lego consistently makes great advent calendars every Christmas.
They’re surprisingly cheap compared to a lot of their other products.
Each advent calendar has 24 figures in each box.
Retailing for £29.99, there are 227 pieces in the Harry Potter advent calendar.
They have a few different options to choose from like Friends, Star Wars, Lego City, and Harry Potter.
The pieces come in small bags and can be built using the pictures on the doors of the calendar.
Lego is fun for everyone; it doesn’t matter if you’re four or 40.
By the end of the calendar, you’ll end up with 24 new Lego figures to display or play with.
For tea lovers: Pukka Advent Calendar
Pukka is a great brand to gift to tea lovers, especially because they have such a range of options.
There are 24 sachets in the advent calendar, and it retails for £12.99.
There are 21 blends in the advent calendar, with some repeats of fan favourites.
Some flavours include turmeric, chamomile, matcha, and cinnamon.
Pukka also features some unique tea blends like liquorice and cinnamon.
If there’s a tea lover in your life, this could be the perfect advent calendar.
This calendar is also easy on the bank account, so that’s a huge bonus.
For kids: Gruffalo advent calendar
The Gruffalo advent calendar is the perfect gift for kids.
Featuring one of the greatest children’s stories of all time, kids can enjoy a book a day.
For 24 days, this collection includes colouring, drawing, and activity books based on Juli Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s books.
Retailing for £12, this calendar packages 24 individually wrapped books.
As children’s books become more expensive, this is a great deal for parents who may want to encourage their children to read more.
The collection contains bestsellers by Donaldson and Scheffler including ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘Room on the Broom’, and ‘Snail and the Whale’.
This is a cheap and cheerful advent calendar for kids, which can help limit their screen time too.
Image credit: Jan Romero via Unsplash
