The Best Luxury Advent Calendars for 2026 (and Who Each One Is For)

Every year the same thing happens. The advent calendars arrive, we put them on the website, and by early November the ones people actually want have gone.

This year Meri Meri has made more beautiful advent calendars than ever - ten of them, from a £23.99 gingerbread sticker calendar to a Liberty print keepsake box - so rather than show you all ten at once, here they are sorted by who they are for. ✨

Every calendar below is chocolate-free, every one is made to be kept, and almost all of them turn into a jewellery box, a storage case or a toy once December is over.

Why luxury advent calendars sell out in October 🎄

Meri Meri makes one run of each advent calendar. The shops get their allocation, and when it is gone there is no second delivery before Christmas. The collaborations with Liberty and Ladurée go first, then the charm bracelets, and by the time Halloween is over the choice is a lot smaller. If one of these is on your list, October is the month to order it - we have already sold our first Ladurée calendar and it is still September.

The best advent calendars at a glance 📋

Advent calendars for little ones 🍪

The Gingerbread Sticker Advent Calendar is the only one suitable from age three, and it is the best value on the list. Twenty-four envelopes of different sizes build up a kraft gingerbread house, gingerbread people, a gingerbread truck and trees that slot together, with yarn pompoms, a silver star and eleven sheets of stickers to decorate it all.

By Christmas Eve it is a decoration for the mantelpiece, and the box stores the whole thing for next year.

Pair it with the Gingerbread Christmas Party Garland and the theme carries across the room.

For slightly older children, the Railway Train Wooden Advent Calendar is the one we would have wanted as children.

Each numbered door hides a printed wooden train piece or accessory, and by Christmas there is a whole railway scene to play with. It all lives in a mini suitcase with a leather handle and brass closure, so it is played with long after December.

Advent calendars for ballet lovers 🩰

The Nutcracker Theatre Christmas Advent Calendar is the showpiece.

Open the box and a theatre unfolds, with dusky pink velvet curtains, an orchestra pit and three scene changes. Each day's envelope adds a character or prop, several on wooden dowels so they can be moved across the stage, and on day 24 there is a gold tone charm bracelet with charms, tassels and bells.

It sits on a shelf looking like a decoration all month. The Nutcracker Christmas Garland adds to the theme.

For a smaller budget, the Winter Ballerina Charm Bracelet Advent Calendar opens to reveal three dancing ballerinas and a set of numbered trays holding a gold tone bracelet and a charm for each day - butterflies, hearts, stars, moons, flowers, tassels and little bells. By Christmas Day there is a finished bracelet to wear.

Charm bracelet and jewellery advent calendars 💍

This is where Meri Meri has really outdone itself this year, and where the calendars go fastest.

The Meri Meri x Ladurée Charm Bracelet Advent Calendar is made with the Paris tea room famous for its macarons, and it is the prettiest box we have ever stocked.

It opens to a festive scene with gold foil and a tiny peach tassel, and inside are a gold tone bracelet and twenty-three charms, each wrapped in white tissue paper. It works for grown-ups as well as children, and the box becomes a jewellery box afterwards.

The Meri Meri x Liberty Charm Bracelet Advent Calendar is a suitcase-style house with a Liberty floral roof, a green velvet ribbon handle and a brass closure. A gold tone bracelet is behind door one, then twenty-one charms and tassels behind the rest.

The Enamel Charm Necklace Advent Calendar is a mini pink gingham suitcase with seventeen enamel charms - a unicorn, a sausage dog, a kitten, cherries, a mushroom, a rainbow - and six tassels to hang on a gold chain or a pale pink cord necklace.

It is the one to choose for a child who would rather wear a necklace than a bracelet.

A hair accessories advent calendar 🎀

New this year and already a favourite, the Hair Accessories Advent Calendar Suitcase is a pink case with gold foil, a leather handle and numbered trays holding a hair accessory for each day - iridescent pompom ties, felt-backed glitter slides and enamel design slides on gold or silver tone clips.

It is the calendar that actually gets used every morning of December, and the suitcase keeps everything tidy afterwards.

A luxury advent calendar for grown-ups 🌿

The Meri Meri x Liberty Festive Gifts Advent Calendar is the one to buy for your mum, your sister or yourself.

A large box in a red-toned Liberty floral print, tied with a dark green velvet bow, opens to twenty-four printed boxes on velvet ribbon hinges.

Inside are Liberty print notebooks, notecards, gift tags, a brooch, a pocket mirror, a key chain, gift ribbons and mini garlands. It is suitable from 14, and it is the calendar that sells out first every single year.

Christmas crackers to match your advent calendar 🎉

If a Liberty calendar is going in your basket, add the Meri Meri x Liberty Velvet Bow Christmas Crackers x 6 to the same order - velvet bows, Liberty print and a proper gift inside each one.

The Meri Meri x Liberty 12 Days of Christmas Small Tray finishes the set for Christmas morning. Both sell out on the same timetable as the calendars.

Capture the advent calendar memories 📸

The first door on 1 December is one of the best photos of the year. Set the calendar out the night before, let them open door one before school, and take the picture. Tag us on Instagram at @littlebigpartyco - we love seeing your Christmas mornings! ✨

Shop the luxury advent calendar collection 🛒

All ten Meri Meri advent calendars are in our Christmas Advent Calendars collection, with crackers, garlands and tableware in the full Christmas collection. Free UK delivery over £40, which every calendar here except the gingerbread one reaches on its own. Halloween is still very much on - it is just that these do not wait.