An Advent Calendar for Every Kind of Person
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The first commercially printed Advent calendars might’ve had Bible verses, but today’s are nondenominational and have broadened to include just about anything, from jars of Bonne Maman orange marmalade to American Girl doll parts. While the traditional Advent starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas, you won’t find many Advent calendars left by the end of November anymore — at least, not the kind on wish lists mailed to Santa. This year, they’ve arrived earlier than any year I can remember. If there were ever a time not to dillydally, it’s right now. Some of the calendars we’ve written about in earlier iterations of this post are already sold out online, including Anthropologie’s and Sephora’s. But there are plenty more to consider. Here, I rounded up all the year’s best Advent calendars, including the Aesop Abode (its countdown is in odd numbers) to Dossier’s with “designer-perfume dupes.”I’ll be updating this guide regularly as the holidays roll around, so check back soon — and be sure to check out our guide to the best beauty Advent calendars to buy before they sell out, too.
Update on November 29, 2025
We checked prices and stock for every Advent calendars in this guide. Some have sold out since our last update, while others are on sale for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Most should arrive before the 12 days of Christmas begin, but not all will arrive before December 1.
Beauty & Fragrance
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“In 2014, Liberty London took the Advent calendar — a time-honored tradition of daily chocolate eating and twee Christmas scenes — and beautified it,” says our beauty writer Tembe Denton-Hurst. (Other beauty retailers followed suit soon after.) This year’s Advent calendar for men features 25 beauty products with a pocket-size Radio Bombay from D.S. & Durga and a full-size Malin+Goetz Recovery Treatment Oil and Philip Kingsley Moisture Balancing Combination Conditioner.
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Everyone from acupuncturists to candle influencers burn Apotheke’s scents. There are over 25 of its “fragrance families” in this calendar, from bergamot tangerine and cardamom chestnut to neroli citronella and tomato tarragon.
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While Anthropologie’s 24 Days of Beauty Advent Calendar and 12 Days of Beauty Advent Calendar are sold out, the Holiday in the City Fragrance Advent Calendar came back in stock (for now). It might even smell better than a real Christmas tree with notes of vanilla bean and balsam, peppermint stick and juniper and cedar between different candles and room sprays.
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Even a hard-to-shop-for tween couldn’t resist Urban Outfitters’ calendar — including the Baggu bag charm, Starface Hydro-Star pimple patches, and Miffy hair clips that are inside.
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Inside the Aesop Abode are 13 doors (or the odd numbers counting up to 25), each with a “notable member of the Aesop range,” like Eleos Aromatique Hand Balm or Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash.
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Think of this as Kiehl’s greatest hits with full-size versions of its works-for-everyone Ultra Facial Cream and Keke Palmer’s can’t-live-without Creamy Eye Treatment and a travel-size Ultimate Strength Hand Salve (which is hand-model approved).
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Everything from a Benefit Cosmetics Benetint to an RMS Beauty Legendary Lip Oil are in this Macy’s-branded tube of lipstick.
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“This set is great if you’re looking to revamp your lip wardrobe,” according to Denton-Hurst. Not only does it come with a Lipglass (her first lip gloss), it includes lip pencils (in the shades Soar and Cool Spice), “which have been the best available option since the ’90s,” she adds.
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For the mother (or mother-in-law) who still believes in Estée Lauder or Borghese, get this Clarins calendar (which she wouldn’t buy for herself) that has a three-in-one day cream-face mask-makeup primer balm, lip-plumping oil, an exfoliating body scrub, and other formulas to help with dark circles and dullness.
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As freelancer Fiorella Valdesolo reported, Dossier opened up on Elizabeth Street recently and is “a Gen-Z destination for affordable designer-perfume dupes.” Included here are its impressions of Le Labo’s Santal 33, Tom Ford’s Lost Cherry, and YSL’s Black Opium.
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The Replica line was our writer Kitty Guo’s “jumping-off point into the world of fragrance.” This calendar will be the same to a recipient who’s figuring out their scent with sample sizes of eau de toilettes Beach Walk, Jazz Club, and By the Fireplace, or even a Lazy Sunday shower gel.
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All the products in Dermstore’s limited-edition 12 Days of Beauty are full size, from Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 6% Mandelic Acid and 2% Lactic Acid Liquid Exfoliant to SkinCeuticals Glycolic 10 Renew Overnight. At $300, it’s a great value for anyone who’s figuring out their skin-care routine.
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This is modeled after the 59th Street store, and I’d liken what you’ll find inside to the Bloomingdale’s skin-care counter, with a SK-II facial treatment essence, Shiseido serum, and Augustinus Bader eye patches.
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For the Fragrantica-review reader, there’s Bloomingdale’s fragrance calendar. It has deluxe sizes of Byredo’s Bal d’Afrique, Bond No. 9’s Tribeca, and Maison Margiela’s Replica by the Fireplace. (It’s better to know how Ex Nihilo’s Fleur Narcotique smells before paying $245 for a 1.7-ounce bottle.)
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From “the home of the bath bomb” comes the 29½ High Street Advent Calendar. (That’s named after what fragrances every Lush shop, the 29 High Street Perfume.) Inside is a mix of exclusive bath bombs (Honey Butterbear, Christmas Tortoise …) and others available year-round and during the holidays (Ginger Tom, Catch Me If You Can …).
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Courtney Love’s favorite bath brand has an advent calendar, too, with deliciously scented body products behind each door.
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If you don’t know DedCool, its scents are “popular among the Brooklyn nightlife set.” This includes samples of its Taunt and Mochi Milk in body-wash and air-fragrance form, too.
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Better than a Drybar gift certificate might be the House of Blowouts kit for a salon-worthy blowout at home with Detox Dry Shampoo, Seltzer Spritz Flexible Hold Hairspray, and Liquid Glass Smoothing Shampoo and Conditioner (Double Shot not included, though).
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You can’t do better than Voluspa when it comes to a drugstore candle. “Even when the candle isn’t burning, I find that you get strong wafts of fragrance from the wax itself, and the scent really fills a room once it’s been lit,” says writer Dominique Pariso. Every 2.5-ounce votive (in Crushed Candy Cane, French Cade Lavender, Santal Vanille, Goji Tarocco Orange, and Noble Fir Garland) inside its Heritage Advent Calendar has a 25-hour burn time.
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Olive & June “gained something of a reputation for its crazy-long wear time,” according to Denton-Hurst. Behind every day of its Christmas calendar is either a quick-dry polish, a special-edition shade, or another tool for a manicure (like a buffer or nail-art sticker sheets).
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As our contributor Jolie De Feis says, “I can only assume the reason more people aren’t talking about Manucurist is the same reason I waited so long to try it — the Instagram ads seemed way too good to be true.” But Manucurist nail polish actually wears like gel, she says. Included is everything you need for a Manucurist manicure: polishes from its Green and Active lines and nail-care tools like files (one for shaping and another for buffing) and wooden sticks (to push back cuticles).
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Each nail polish has a merry-themed name such as Ginger Snapped and Spread the Cherry. Plus, they feature OPI’s fast-drying formula (not to mention, you get base and top coats).
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Jo Malone’s calendar reminds me of a Mondrian painting. Each drawer has a Jo Malone product, whether that’s a wood-sage and sea-salt hand wash or a pine-and-eucalyptus candle. The included orange-bitters cologne “smells like a pomander — festive in a Victorian way, not a Hallmark way,” says our senior editor Ailbhe Malone. “It makes me want to yowl, ‘You there, boy! What day is it?’ from my bedroom window to a snowy street below.” (“Why, it’s Christmas Day!” I’d shout back.)
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Designed by Luke Edward Hall (of Greco Disco fame), this calendar resembles a theater, with a character on every door. Inside these illustrated boxes are mini Sisley skin-care products, including the Phyto-Noir Mascara, Black Rose Cream Mask, and Floral Toning Lotion.
Food & Drink
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Senior editor Jen Trolio’s family opens Bonne Maman’s calendar all at once, with her husband baking a loaf of homemade bread beforehand. The limited-edition spreads inside (which “can only be found during the holiday season,” according to the brand) include caramel with vanilla, strawberry and passion fruit, and wild blueberry with maple syrup. Yum!
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For the licorice enjoyer, here’s 48 confections (two for each day leading up to Christmas) in flavors like milk chocolate, salted caramel, and passion fruit from the Danish confectionery Lakrids by Bülow.
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The Bissinger family has made chocolates for Napoleon Bonaparte and the Rothchilds. King Louis XIV even bestowed them with the title Confiseur Imperial. (Today, many of Bissinger’s sweets are based on recipes from a family cookbook that’s dated back to 1899.) Inside this year’s calendar, which is inspired by Versailles, are peppermint-bark squares, gingerbread and white eggnog truffles, and raspberry caramels.
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Fly by Jing, which makes a mean chili crisp, introduced a new, very spicy Advent calendar that includes some pantry staples (like a pack of sweet-and-spicy noodles) along with “returning favorites and new flavors you’ve never tasted” before from the company.
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In Tea Forte’s herbal tea assortment, there’s apricot amaretto, blueberry merlot, Belgian mint, and ginger lemongrass blends. Or a collaboration with The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) has cherry blossom, cucumber mint, and raspberry nectar blends.
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I like Whittard’s hot chocolate more than Swiss Miss’s! This is 24 days of its hot chocolate (Whittard recommends stirring them in hot milk or making an ice-cold milkshake), including sticky toffee, hazelnut, cookies and cream, and salted caramel flavors.
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There’s no place like the Vermont Country Store with its Lemon Up shampoo (which contains the juice of one whole lemon), Garibaldi currant biscuits, and Anthon Berg chocolates. This calendar has 24 days of the chocolatier’s “dark-chocolate bottles filled with a top-shelf liquor” (cognac, rum, and liqueurs) for a nightcap.
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For the popcorn snob: Included here are kernels of the sweet baby blue, mushroom, and hull-less varieties, plus salted-caramel, French toast, buttery jalapeño, and dill-pickle seasonings for a marathon movie night.
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December is cookie baking month, and this calendar (which reveals different cutters, stencils, and piping bags each day), makes the whole process even more celebratory.
Hobbies & Interests
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Per our investigation into the toy line 5 Surprise: Its “Mini Brands” series sells “miniature models of familiar household items including Skippy peanut butter, Wet Wipes, Tapatio hot sauce, and the coveted Royal gelatin.” You can now unbox detailed replicas of Ulta’s best-selling products (inside a make-believe version of the beauty store) — like a Naked palette, Dry Bar blow-dry brush, Supergoop Play sunscreen, etc. — as part of a Mini Brands and Ulta collaboration.
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Jane Mount, the illustrator behind Ideal Bookshelf, just released the Bibliophile’s Advent Calendar for Bookloversfeaturing 24 tiny books, each filled with either a question of the day or trivia for a bibliophile. There’s a special surprise for the 25th day of the calendar. (No spoilers, unfortunately!)
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For “anglers of all ages”: This is filled with 24 different fishing lures, from minnow to crankbait and frog spoon. (Importantly, the lures have “sharp barbed hooks that will fool even the most wary of fish.”) It’s still on sale for its Prime Day price.
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Since 1748, Villeroy & Boch (which started out in the town of Lorraine, when it was under the Holy Roman Empire) has been making ceramics. This features dinnerware (appetizer plates, cereal bowls, egg cups) from its Christmas-themed Toy’s Delight line.
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Our senior writer Liza Corsillo wears her Local Eclectic charm nearly every day. If you’d like something shiny for yourself, its annual Advent calendar returned this year with 12 gold-plated pieces (charms, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings). You can pick the right ring size before checkout.
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Here’s something cheeky (in more ways than one) from Hanky Panky: 25 original-rise one-size thongs, which come recommended by Love and Other Rugs’s Lily Sullivan, investor Barbara Corcoran, and Richer Poorer’s Iva Pawling. Save it for someone you know rather intimately!
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The Victoria’s Secret thong calendar, meanwhile, is a more affordable festive undergarment option.
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Don’t worry, there are easy instructions for a sewer to stitch every day from the first to the 25th of December. Be it a candy cane, snow glove, or a Santa hat.
For Kids
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“LEGO puts out an incredible number of new sets each month, including multiple Advent calendars at this time of year (there are six designs for 2025),” explains our resident toy expert Liza Corsillo in an installment of our monthly New Toys Alert. Some have already sold out, with the exception of this year’s Star Wars-themed Advent calendar. It features C-3PO and Babu Frik minifigures, plus buildable droids (Pit Droid, Gonk Droid, Buzz Droid). Sold separately are other LEGO sets set in George Lucas’ fictional universe (if you’re thinking ahead for a birthday gift).
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The characters in this year’s Friends Advent calendar are Aliya, Autumn, Liann, Nova, and Leo and their pets (a dog, guinea pig, gecko, and cat), all having a sleepover.
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For the kid who’s in the middle of a Mercury hyperfixation, courtesy of National Geographic: 24 days of space-themed activities, with everything you’d need to paint models of the planets in our solar system and excavate a genuine pyrite (or fool’s gold) specimen. And they can use glow-in-the-dark stickers to form the constellations Canis Major, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and Orion.
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Another rather educational calendar from National Geographic, this comes with 13 dinosaur figurines (including a stegosaurus and velociraptor) and 11 activities from painting rocks to making suncatchers. They can play Indiana Jones while inspecting a replica tooth from a Tyrannosaurus rex.
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Included are 26 different Jibbitz for no more plain Crocs.
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Cheaper than most Build-A-Bears is the Build-A-Bear Advent calendar, with six mini-plushes and 19 pieces of clothing and accessories for them to play dress-up.
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On the first day of this Barbie-themed calendar, you receive a pink-haired doll, and for the next 23 days, you get accessories for her to be a princess, a mermaid, or a fairy, like a tail and clip-on wings.
More From The Strategist
- Hark, the Advent Calendars Arrived (Very) Early This Year
- The Best Things Strategist Editors Have Bought This Year (So Far)
- 63 Things You Should Never Buy Full Price
- The Strategist Fall 100
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
