Product Guide
Advent Calendars Worth Buying
Buy the one you'll still be using in six years.
Most Advent calendars are bought in a hurry in late November, used once, and thrown out in January. The ones families actually love are almost always the ones they have used for years, where the object itself has become part of December. That difference is worth thinking about before you buy, because the good version costs more once and the disposable version costs less every single year.
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Reusable Beats Disposable
The single decision that matters most.
A cardboard calendar with chocolate behind each door is genuinely fun and it is finished on December 24th. Next year you buy another.
A wooden calendar with small drawers, or a fabric one with pockets, becomes something else entirely. Children recognize it when it comes out of the box. It carries the memory of previous Decembers, and it is the same object their younger siblings will use.
You also control what goes in it, which means it can hold something other than sugar.
The economics favor it too, though that is the smaller argument. The larger one is that repetition is what turns an object into a tradition.
Browse wooden drawer calendars on Amazon →
Browse fabric pocket calendars on Amazon →
The Types, and Who They Suit
Wooden drawers or boxes. The most durable and usually the best-looking. Heavy enough to sit out as part of the room. Best if you want one object for the next decade.
Fabric pockets or a hanging garland. Cheaper, lighter, easy to store, and children can reach them. Good for smaller spaces and for households with several children who each need to take a turn.
Nativity-building sets. One figure added each day, with the scene assembling across the month and the baby arriving last. This is the type that carries the most meaning for the least effort, since the object itself is telling the story without anyone having to explain it.
Browse nativity calendars on Amazon →
Jesse Tree sets. Each day an ornament representing a story, from creation through the prophets to the birth. By Christmas Eve the whole arc of Scripture is hanging on a branch. Best for children old enough to follow a sequence, roughly five and up. Our piece on Advent activities for kids covers running one.
Browse Jesse Tree sets on Amazon →
Book calendars. Twenty-four wrapped books, one opened each night. Expensive to start and superb if you build it from library sales and secondhand copies over a couple of years.
Chocolate. Nothing wrong with it. Just know you have bought a countdown rather than a practice. Many families run one alongside something with content so the two are not competing.
What to Actually Put In One
The refillable calendar's advantage is only real if you fill it well.
Things that work:
- A slip with that evening's activity, ideally short on the nights you know will be busy
- A Scripture reference for the reading
- The name of someone to pray for that day
- A small treat, on some days but not all
- A question to ask at dinner
Mixing them is better than making every day the same, because unpredictability is most of what makes a child interested.
Fill it in November. This is the practical difference between a calendar that lasts the month and one that stalls on the ninth. Writing twenty-four slips takes half an hour once. Improvising one each morning does not survive contact with December.
Our family Advent devotional plan supplies the readings if you want the Scripture slips to follow a shape.
The 24 Versus 28 Day Problem
Worth understanding, because it confuses families every year.
Advent does not have a fixed length. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, so it runs somewhere between 22 and 28 days depending on where the calendar falls. Our piece on what Advent is covers why.
Nearly every calendar you can buy has 24 doors starting December 1st. That is a countdown to Christmas, not the liturgical season, and the two rarely line up.
Do not let it bother you. Either run the calendar from December 1st and treat it as a countdown, or start it on the first Sunday of Advent and accept that some doors go unopened or double up. Both are fine and nobody is checking.
Buying Well
Buy for the youngest child who will use it. Small parts, reachable pockets, doors that a four-year-old can open without help.
Check the storage. A calendar that will not fit back in a box is a calendar you resent every January.
Prefer plain over themed. A calendar tied to a particular franchise dates fast. A plain wooden one still looks right in nine years.
Buy in October or early November. The good reusable ones sell out, and by December you are choosing from what is left rather than what you wanted.
Family Discussion Questions
- Do we want a countdown, a practice, or both?
- Who opens each day, and how do we handle the turn-taking?
- What should be behind the doors this year?
The Bottom Line
Buy reusable. The object becoming familiar over years is most of the value, and the disposable one costs less each December and more overall.
Wooden drawers last longest, fabric pockets suit small spaces and several children, and nativity or Jesse Tree sets carry the most meaning with the least explaining.
Fill it in November, mix the contents, and keep the busy nights short.
Ignore the 24 versus 28 day mismatch. And buy it in October, because the good ones are gone by December.