The 22 Best Advent Calendars for Kids and Families (They’re So Fun and Creative!)

What kid doesn’t love Play-Doh? Your entire family will enjoy exploring 24 days of moldable fun. Each day features at least one new Play-Doh color and a modeling tool, alongside ideas for holiday-themed crafts. The calendar also folds out to reveal a play mat you can use when molding your new creations.

Help your little magician flex their skills with this unique calendar, which offers up 24 days of experiments and tricks from making a coin disappear to creating a bubble shaped like a square. By the time Christmas Day rolls around, they’ll be able to put on a show for the whole family.

KiwiCo’s calendar is packed with 24 days of presents you and your little one can put together to create a railroad scene. Enjoy a wooden toy train set, art supplies, and Advent envelopes filled with DIY projects the whole family can tackle to complete your holiday village.

For a simple, relatively affordable Advent calendar that appeals to the sticker-obsessed kids out there, check out the calendars from Pipsticks. The Hello Kitty calendar includes 12 days of sticker sheets for crafty kiddos.

If your family is Jewish but loves the idea of countdown unboxing, check out this eight-day Olive & June Hanukkah calendar. It includes special-edition nail shades and two sets of press-on nails, plus accessories like a nail file and a nail art sticker sheet from nail product favorite Olive & June.

Googly eyes make everything better. In this case, they bring charm and whimsy to 12 Christmas ornaments, giving you a tree-trimming activity for every other night leading up to the big show.

Unleash a love of crocheting with a Woobles Advent calendar, designed with beginners in mind. This one is made to resemble Santa’s toy workshop and includes four extremely adorable full-size crochet kits, six wee accessory kits, and two bonus surprises. If your kid has always wanted to crochet, this is a great place for them to start.

Everyone’s favorite blue heeler is the star of this calendar, which reveals new surprises every day including figurines, accessories, and stickers. Worth noting: There are three different calendar designs to choose from, including a Christmas swim scene. Since some of the pieces are smaller; this kit is best for toddlers ages 3 and up.

As most Hot Wheels fans will tell you, you can never have too many of these mini cars. Help your child add to their collection with this calendar (best for ages 3 and up), which offers up a new set of wheels and accessories daily. The set comes with its own holiday-themed track, too.

Expand your child’s magnetic toy collection (or test out whether it’s worth investing in a full set) with this Magna-Tiles option. It boasts 34 holiday-themed tiles, including a Santa and train conductor, to help your child work toward building a toy-train set that can roll along the tracks on the included playmat. Each of these pieces will fit in seamlessly with your standard Magna-Tiles collection, too.

All of the Frozen favorites come together for this sweet Advent calendar, which adds new characters and LEGO projects (ranging from a sleigh to a cozy fireplace) daily. Together, these build up to a special holiday-themed Frozen scene your child can piece together as the days go by. The calendar itself serves as a magical backdrop for the village you create. This one is meant for ages 5 and up.

Rock collectors will go wild for this calendar (for ages 8 and up) that serves up a new gemstone daily. The set comes with a guidebook to help you learn about each new rock, and there’s also an included collector’s pouch to keep the entire set together. For the grand finale on day 24, kiddos get to dig their last rock out of a mini brick like a bonafide geologist.

There’s so much to love about this Advent calendar, which includes a slew of characters straight out of Hogwarts. You’ll wind up with eight wizard mini figures, along with six creatures and buildable items, like the sorting hat and potions. Kids ages 7 and up can play with them or display their creations once they’re assembled.

Kids love to collect Funko Pop! toys, and this calendar allows them to add a full set of Marvel minis to their crew, from Thor to Captain America. The set includes a stackable tree that doubles as a display case to show off the new loot.

Your favorite Furby fan will get a kick out of this calendar. It offers up nine holiday-themed Furby figurines, along with holiday charms and clips to create keychains. There are stickers, too, for even more Furby fun.

A new surprise accessory reveals every day with this Barbie Advent calendar. Day one starts with a new Barbie doll, followed by pieces to turn her into a princess, fairy, mermaid, and more. There are even Barbie pets in the mix.

While it’s not from a big-name brand, this Advent calendar is perfect for little dino fans. Each day reveals a numbered package with a new dinosaur inside. They’ll have quite a collection by the end. Reviewers describe the toys as “durable” and “colorful.”

Pokémon trainers are serious about catching them all, and this Advent calendar gives them a shot at catching at least 24 Pokemon-related goodies, including eight foil cards, six booster packs, seven (three-card) fun packs, coins, stickers, and a code for a special Pokémon TCG Live game. It’s a must for Pokemon enthusiasts.

This SpongeBob calendar features a range of Krabby Patties gummies. Each is individually wrapped and comes in flavors like green apple, cherry, and candy cane.

An Advent calendar for the whole family! It will encourage your kids to try new-to-them flavors, like yuzu and chamomile, and everyone in the family will find plenty of uses for those cute little Bonne Maman jars once you’ve finished the spreads within. It’s a classic for a reason!

This hanging Advent calendar is so chic, people may think it’s wall art. Each numbered pocket contains animals that kids can pull out and play with when a new day hits.

If you prefer a more traditional Advent calendar, this option from Melissa & Doug is a good fit. It features your choice of a Santa or angel theme, with sturdy wooden magnets your child can put on the tree to count down the days. Bonus: It doubles as holiday decor, too.