Hot Wheels, American Girl, LEGO: The Best Advent Calendars for Kids (So Far)

Designed for toddlers, Haba’s Advent calendar is filled with 24 wooden animal figures and comes with a book that tells a daily story about each day’s animal. The box folds out to reveal an illustrated play area for the menagerie.

Strategist senior editor Winnie Yang and her number-obsessed 3.5-year-old son have been making their way through the Numberblocks Advent calendar early, to help with preschool motivation and good behavior.

Fresh pots of Play-Doh are always useful, and this calendar has 24 of them, plus a new tool every day to go with each new color.

My car-fiend preschool kid would love this holiday-themed Hot Wheels Advent calendar. Each compartment is filled with either a 1:64-scale vehicle or a festive accessory for a vehicle, like reindeer antlers or a Santa hat.

If you’d rather add your own gifts and treats to an Advent calendar, this capacious Step2 gingerbread house is a great option for little kids. Each drawer is big enough for a small stuffy, an action figure, or a toy car.

Kids who love exploring Busytown will enjoy popping out a new scene each day to create Christmas ornaments for a tree, wreath, or garland. The calendar comes with gold thread for stringing each ornament.

Rather than having them open a new toy or treat each day, Melissa & Doug’s countdown calendar lets children add a new wooden ornament to their tree. Each one has a poem on the back that parents can read aloud.

Gund’s Advent calendar has just 12 doors, but each one houses a different adorable stuffed animal.

Nostalgic parents like me who read the Little Miss and Mr. Men books as kids will love watching their kids open a wacky figurine or accessory each day.

Here’s one that’s perfect for Disney Princess–obsessed kids. The box transforms into a wintery castle with a cozy fireplace and foldout furniture, and you get three princesses, Tiana, Belle, and Rapunzel, plus accessories and animal friends for each.

Here’s an Advent calendar for your kid’s American Girl doll to open each day. It comes with 24 doll-size surprises, including sunglasses, hair accessories, a toy cell phone, snacks, and a purple beanie.

I like the idea of activity-based Advent calendars that won’t add toy clutter to a kid’s room. This one comes with 24 mini kawaii coloring books.

This Where’s Waldo calendar is also filled with mini-books, but instead of coloring, each one provides a different search-and-find challenge.

Each year, LEGO releases a handful of highly anticipated Advent calendars. My favorites of this year’s cohort are the LEGO Friends calendar set in a snowy ski chalet and the LEGO City calendar depicting Santa’s workshop.

While it’s not explicitly billed as an Advent calendar, this elaborate LEGO Christmas tree set comes with 24 bags of bricks inside the box, so families can chip away at the build as they count down to Christmas Day. Strategist senior editor Jen Trolio and her family will be doing just that this year. Just be aware this set will likely sell out fast, so if you want to buy one, don’t wait.

Each section of this 25-day countdown to Christmas includes a holiday-themed mini-build with illustrated instructions.

This calendar has everything you need to build a Christmas train out of microMags. And the box folds out into a play set with train tracks.

Similarly, the PicassoTiles Advent calendar lets you build a festive gingerbread house.

Or you could get this Bluey jewelry Advent calendar with charms to build a bracelet and a necklace.

This New York City Ballet–themed keepsake box is my favorite of all the kids’ Advent calendars so far. Inside, you’ll find five paper characters from The Nutcracker to pose as you like. On top of that, the 24 compartments hold a gold-tone charm bracelet and an assortment of Nutcracker charms to go on it.

I also like this DIY-beaded-bracelet Advent calendar that’s much more affordable.

Here’s a putty-filled Advent calendar for anyone who can’t get their hands on the one from Aaron’s Crazy Thinking Putty.

Magic is a hobby that lends itself well to the Advent-calendar format. This National Geographic calendar comes with 24 magic tricks for kids to learn and the tools they need to pull them off.

Trolio’s two daughters have enjoyed this Thames & Kosmos calendar in past years. It contains all the materials kids need to do a new mini science experiment each day.

KiwiCo has multiple project-based Advent calendars, but this battery-powered winter wonderland for older kids is by far my favorite. It has a conveyor belt that helps sledders climb up a snowy hill, real working string lights, and an ice rink that shows skaters’ tracks.

Crafty kids get to make a dozen different cross-stitch ornaments with this Advent calendar.

For the many squishy hunters out there, this Squishmallows Advent calendar comes with 24 holiday Squish-a-longs that can each be worn as a ring.

You’ll get several “full-size” Fugglers, a few minis, and an assortment of stickers and other accessories in this 24-day Advent calendar devoted to the creepy yet kind of irrisistable creatures.

Inside this calendar, you’ll find ten Pokémon-themed Bitty Pop vinyl figures, plus stackable cases and accessories to build your own Christmas-tree-shaped display.

Another Pokémon option that looks kind of like a coffee table book and opens to reveal a scene where kids can set up the pop-up tree, 24 days’ worth of ornaments featuring different Pokémon, and tree topper.

You’ll have to temper your expectations with this one: NeeDohs are still in great demand, and it’s extremely difficult to buy authentic ones online. If you are hoping to get a NeeDoh Advent calendar this year, your main strategy should be to haunt your local independent toy store and inquire often about availability and restocks. However, you can also enter a lottery at Amazon for a chance to buy one there.

Not technically an Advent calendar, but Taba Squishy is another popular squishy brand, and this case contains all 12 of this year’s holiday blind boxes, so you could start in mid-December and open one each day until Christmas.

Artsy tweens will appreciate the paint markers, mini-watercolors, travel paintbrush, and other arts and crafts in this city-shaped 24-day Advent calendar.

Another one for the crafty set, with materials to make a tiny roast turkey, gingerbread house, and more.

This slim Advent calendar comes with 12 days of adorable Miffy sticker sheets.

Transport your kid to Tokyo with this extra-large 30-day Japan-themed Advent calendar featuring snacks, accessories, toys, stationery, and home goods.

Except for the first one, the doors on this Advent calendar aren’t numbered. Instead, each day, you must solve a new riddle, the solution to which will tell you which door to open next in an intergalactic race to celebrate Christmas.

Similar to the Exit calendar above, to solve the mystery at the end of this Clue-themed Advent calendar — and move on to the following day — you must solve riddles and crack codes behind each door. This is an excellent collaborative Advent calendar for families who love murder mysteries.

But if Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games are more your kid’s speed, this polar-bear-themed Advent calendar is full of festive dice that’ll make any gamer smile.

A Strategist favorite, the Bonne Maman Advent calendar contains 24 limited-edition spreads and jams to share and discuss each morning with family.

For tween and teen baking enthusiasts, this calendar is full of cookie cutters, spatulas, piping bags, and more tools to make professional-grade holiday cookies.

This six-day calendar is a great intro to makeup for tweens and teens who love Snoopy. It comes with a freckle pen, highlighter stick, scented lip mask, scrunchie, compact mirror, and Snoopy plush keychain.