Awesome Advent Calendars for 2018

 It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas  … no? It soon will be, once December 1st arrives and we start to open the doors of our advent calendars 🙂 PackThePJs love advent calendars. There is so much choice now, deciding which one to get is quite daunting. Hopefully we can help you narrow down your search, with a selection of our favourites for 2018. Enjoy x

Advent 1: Adnams Beer Advent Calendar from Prestige Hampers

Partial to a beer? Know someone who is? Or do you have relatives and friends visiting over the festivities and you’re not sure what they drink? This advent calendar from Adnams, our favourite Southwold brewery, contains an assortment of 24 speciality craft beers. Surely something for everyone, unless you choose not to share! Available from Prestige Hampers.

RRP: £79.99

Link to purchase: AdnamsBeerAdventCalendar

Advent 2: 24 Days of the Enchanted Advent Calendar by
The Body Shop

I love beauty advent calendars, and deciding which one to buy this year was really difficult. In the end it simply came down to a birthday voucher sent to me from The Body Shop! Even then the decision was difficult as this year they have THREE beauty advents. I spent my £5 voucher on the least expensive, because I love the colour and imagery on the box. The beauty haul will be split between myself and Millie-Mae x

RRP: £45.00

Link to purchase: 24DaysoftheEnchantedAdventCalendar

Advent 3: Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game Advent Calendar

Now this is one for the football fanatics! Match Attax is the world’s most successful football trading card game. Rather than tasty treats behind the 24 doors, here you have sealed Match Attax packets, including a Superstar Limited Edition player … Now who wouldn’t want a Premiership footballer in their Advent Calendar this year?!

RRP: £20.00

Link to purchase: MatchAttaxAdventCalendar

Advent 4: Green & Black’s Advent Calendar from Debenhams

Yum … I do love Green & Black’s chocolate. 10 years ago, when I was in hospital having Toby, I had some luxurious G&B muesli bars packed in my hospital bag – they were SO lush! Shame they discontinued them. So I’ll have to make do with this chocolate fix instead! A mixture of milk and dark ethically sourced chocolate – what’s not to love?

RRP: £10.00

Link to purchase: GreenandBlacksAdventCalendar

Advent 5: Countdown to Christmas Festive Wine Advent Calendar 

This is one of the most exciting advent calendars this year, as I’ve never opened a wine one before! Inside there are 24 small bottles of wine, ranging from Prosecco to Pinot Grigio and Mulled Wine to Malbec. We’ll certainly be enjoying these over the festivities!

RRP: £55.00

Link to purchase: CountdownToChristmasFestiveWineAdventCalendar

Advent 6: Schleich Horse Club Advent Calendar 2018

This is a ‘must buy’ every year for Millie-Mae as she’s an avid collector of Schleich model horses. She must surely have them all by now. She uses them as artist models in her quest to draw horses, and she’s getting pretty good at it. This advent calendar is the perfect one for any child who loves horses.

RRP: £24.99

Link to purchase: SchleichHorseClubAdventCalendar

Advent 7: W7 Extravaganza 2018 Advent Calendar 

This is a fabulous-looking beauty advent calendar. Behind the 24 doors are full-sized and mini eyeliners, mascaras, lipsticks, highlighters and bronzers. All W7 products are cruelty-free and of really high quality – so what’s not to like? This advent calendar would be perfect for any teen or young adult.

RRP: £19.95

Link to purchase: W7Extravaganza2018AdventCalendar

Advent 8: The Real Advent Calendar by Traidcraft 

Now here’s an Advent Calendar that keeps in touch with the true meaning of Christmas. The Real Advent Calendar is a nativity advent calendar. This is a way for adults to share the Christmas story with young children. The 2018 calendar also includes a 24-page Christmas story activity book designed to be used daily. Behind each window is a line from the Christmas story. The 25 chocolates are high quality Fairtrade ones with with 35% cocoa. They are palm oil free, and foiled for freshness. The box and tray are completely recyclable. Each purchase of the calendar results in a charitable donation. It is made, designed, and produced in the UK.

RRP: £3.99

Link to purchase: TheRealAdventCalendar

Advent 9: The Flavoured Gin and Gin Liqueur Advent Cracker from The Pip Stop

This really is a cracker! A very large, very heavy … and totally awesome cracker! Pure luxury comes to mind when I read down the tasting notes – a good balance of gin liqueurs (alcohol content around 28%) and flavoured gins (up to 43%). I can’t wait to try some of them … Sicilian Lemon Gin, Cucumber Gin, Quince Gin … my gin glass is ready and waiting!

RRP: £124.99

Link to purchase: TheFlavouredGinandGinLiqueurAdventCracker

Advent 10: Personalised Chocolate Advent Calendars from
Vanilla Reindeer

These personalised advent calendars from Vanilla Reindeer make me smile whenever I look at them. Millie loves sloths (and she’s fast turning into a typically lazy teenager) and the Merry Slothmas standard advent just suited her perfectly. It is filled with 24 milk chocolate shapes – what’s not to like! There’s so many different designs in the range – all you do when going through the checkout is add a photo, name and message.

Of the truffle-filled advent calendars, many are aimed at an older audience (as in a bit rude for a 10 year old!) so I picked the Have You Been Naughty or Nice design. I chose a photo of Toby posing, trying to look cool – he loves it! This calendar is filled with a mixture of Christmas Pudding milk truffles, smooth milk truffles, prosecco flavour truffles, gin and lime flavour truffles, fudge brownie truffles, sweet mandarin truffles and intense dark truffles. I’ll be trying my best to trade with Toby over these!

RRP: £11.99 and £22.99

Link to purchase: SlothmassStandardAdventCalendar and NaughtyTruffleAdventCalendar

Advent 11: Limited Edition Webbox Advent Calendar for your Dog

We mustn’t forget our four-legged friends this advent! This Webbox, Limited Edition, advent calendar for dogs will have them on their best behaviour I’m sure! Behind each door are six different meaty treats. These include duck cubes, chicken chips and tuna sticks. 

RRP: £4.00

Link to purchase: LimitedEditionWebboxAdventCalendarforyourDog

Advent 12: Thorntons The Snowman and the Snowdog Advent Calendars available at Morrisons

Christmas isn’t Christmas, in my eyes, without watching either the original ‘The Snowman’, or the more recent ‘The Snowman and the Snow Dog‘ (I like both equally). In fact I was driving home this evening and listening to Aled Jones being interviewed on the radio – of course I started to sing! Both stories are so beautiful (yet sad), they are Christmas classics. Combine this with Thorntons Chocolate, and well, you can’t go wrong! 

RRP: £3.00 / £10.00

Link to purchase: TheSnowmanandtheSnowdogAdventCalendars

Advent 13: Swizzels Matlow Advent Calendar 2018

It’s not all about the chocolate you know! In the PackThePJs household we have a candy fiend, and he’s 10 years old. This is his advent calendar, and he won’t be sharing! Behind the doors he’ll find an assortment of family favourite sweets. It’s also very colourful!

RRP: £7.94

Link to purchase: SwizzelsMatlowAdventCalendar2018

Advent 14: Magical Christmas Elf Door and 2018 Advent Letters from Elf for Christmas

This is one of the sweetest Advent calendars ever. It’s a perfect way to enhance the build-up of excitement for young ones. It starts with the appearance of the Magical Elf Door … this is how the elves get in and out of the home each night to leave an Advent Letter. The door lights up (a useful night light). Each day a letter appears from the North Pole. Inside are messages from the elves, detailing what they are doing on the build-up to Christmas … for example on Day 1 Pip the elf talks of auditioning for a Christmas show, and wanting to get the part of a polar bear. Over 24 days it brings the North Pole to life, capturing your child’s imagination. We love this! 

RRP: £29.00

Link to purchase: MagicalChristmasElfDoorand2018AdventLetters

Advent 15: Pokemon Advent Calendar from Kinnerton

We have been huge Pokemon fans for a few years … especially since Pokemon Go appeared on our phones – we’ve toured European countries looking for elusive characters; even going to the US knowing we could find a Tauros! So it comes as no surprise that this advent calendar appeals to all of us! And for just £2, it’s a bargain!  

RRP: £2.00

Link to purchase: PokemonAdventCalendar

2018 has seen the launch of so many new advent calendars – we have barely scratched the surface of what’s available in this round up. This list is just a sample of advent calendars that we liked, based on theme, content or uniqueness. We hope it’s given you some inspiration? We would love to know what advent calendar (if any) you’ll be opening this December. Please tell us about it in the comment box below.

During December we will be posting ‘daily reveals’ for some of our advent calendars to our instagram and twitter feeds – pop along and see what we find behind each door!

A couple of the items above have been gifted to PackThePJs in exchange for our opinion (we only include things we really like though!)

End note: Would you like your products included in our future Gift Guides? Please add us to your mailing list tracey@packthepjs.com and huw@packthepjs.com x