{"id":50768,"date":"2026-10-14T15:51:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/i-tested-2026s-toy-advent-calendars-with-kids-these-were-the-big-hits\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T15:51:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:51:54","slug":"i-tested-2026s-toy-advent-calendars-with-kids-these-were-the-big-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/i-tested-2026s-toy-advent-calendars-with-kids-these-were-the-big-hits\/","title":{"rendered":"I Tested 2026&#8217;s Toy Advent Calendars With Kids \u2013 These Were The Big Hits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content-list-component text\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/news\/advent-calendars\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Advent calendars<\/a> have really come on in leaps and bounds.<\/p>\n<p>While they tended to be mainly chocolate-filled back in my day (big up the <a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=44681X1760406&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.asda.com%2Fgroceries%2Fproduct%2F5635176%3F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Cadbury Dairy Milk classic<\/a>), nowadays you can get them stuffed with all manner of things \u2013 from toy cars to Lego sets to books, magnetic tiles, collectible characters and even fidget gifts. Whatever your child\u2019s interest, chances are there\u2019s an advent calendar out there for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Given that there are<em> so<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n<p>We staggered it out over a period of three weeks to <span>save my fingers from the ordeal of opening each cardboard door<\/span>\u00a0get an idea of which ones stood the test of time (aka, which ones my kids returned to again and again).<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the best we opened.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The best toy advent calendars<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- start relEntries --><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-entries related-entries--thumbs related-entries--recirc yr-related-entries\">\n<h3 class=\"related-entries__head\">Related&#8230;<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"related-entries__list\">\n<li class=\"related-entries__list__item yr-related-entry\"><a class=\"related-entries__image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/best-food-drink-advent-calendars-wine-tea-matcha-chocolate_uk_6ab28cd7e4b043d6b56891f3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-entries__image__src\" src=\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/6ab28df21800000e45f14b0a.jpeg?cache=R55BOyyZB2&amp;ops=480_270\" aria-label=\"The 15 Best Food And Drink Advent Calendars For Chocolate, Cocktails, Cheese And Festive Treats\" \/><\/a><a class=\"related-entries__title entry__link--omit yr-card-headline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/best-food-drink-advent-calendars-wine-tea-matcha-chocolate_uk_6ab28cd7e4b043d6b56891f3\" aria-label=\"The 15 Best Food And Drink Advent Calendars For Chocolate, Cocktails, Cheese And Festive Treats\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The 15 Best Food And Drink Advent Calendars For Chocolate, Cocktails, Cheese And Festive Treats<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"related-entries__list__item yr-related-entry\"><a class=\"related-entries__image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/sentier-fragrance-advent-calendar-review_uk_6ab633dfe4b0a4e394056918\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-entries__image__src\" src=\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/6ab6380f18000020b3f14f17.jpeg?cache=UsDKHubXwR&amp;ops=480_270\" aria-label=\"Perfume Lovers, This Fragrance Advent Calendar Could Be Your Dream December Treat\" \/><\/a><a class=\"related-entries__title entry__link--omit yr-card-headline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/sentier-fragrance-advent-calendar-review_uk_6ab633dfe4b0a4e394056918\" aria-label=\"Perfume Lovers, This Fragrance Advent Calendar Could Be Your Dream December Treat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Perfume Lovers, This Fragrance Advent Calendar Could Be Your Dream December Treat<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"related-entries__list__item yr-related-entry\"><a class=\"related-entries__image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/papier-advent-calendar-review-stationery_uk_6abb7d3fe4b075cb0a40dc93\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-entries__image__src\" src=\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/6abb80bb1c0000360695fa7e.jpeg?cache=GHMA1BwIDT&amp;ops=480_270\" aria-label=\"Papier&apos;s Advent Calendar Is A Stationery Lover&apos;s Dream\" \/><\/a><a class=\"related-entries__title entry__link--omit yr-card-headline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/papier-advent-calendar-review-stationery_uk_6abb7d3fe4b075cb0a40dc93\" aria-label=\"Papier&amp;apos;s Advent Calendar Is A Stationery Lover&amp;apos;s Dream\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Papier&#8217;s Advent Calendar Is A Stationery Lover&#8217;s Dream<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- end relEntries --><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u2013 from toy cars to Lego sets to books, magnetic tiles, collectible characters and even fidget [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 15:42:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}