I Tested 2026’s Toy Advent Calendars With Kids – These Were The Big Hits

Advent calendars have really come on in leaps and bounds.

While they tended to be mainly chocolate-filled back in my day (big up the Cadbury Dairy Milk classic), nowadays you can get them stuffed with all manner of things – from toy cars to Lego sets to books, magnetic tiles, collectible characters and even fidget gifts. Whatever your child’s interest, chances are there’s an advent calendar out there for them. 

Given that there are so many out there nowadays, I decided to road test some of the newest releases with the help of two children under the age of six.

We staggered it out over a period of three weeks to save my fingers from the ordeal of opening each cardboard door get an idea of which ones stood the test of time (aka, which ones my kids returned to again and again).

Here are some of the best we opened.

The best toy advent calendars