How It Works

Alternative advent calendars 2025

by · 03/11/2025

Image credit: Thames and Kosmos
Image credit: Thames and Kosmos

Science advent calendar

Thames and Kosmos

Add some festive science experiments to your Christmas countdown with this interactive advent calendar by Thames and Kosmos. Each day you’ll discover instructions and equipment for 24 new and exciting science experiments. Each of the creatively illustrative boxes are filled with instructions for experiments across chemistry, biology and physics. Some of the experiments may also require some commonly found household items to complete.

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Image credit: Build Your Own
Image credit: Build Your Own
Image credit: Build Your Own
Image credit: Build Your Own

Pinball advent calendar

Build Your Own

Behind each door of this advent calendar, you’ll find a new set of instructions to build an arcade classic: the pinball machine. After 24 days, the final construction will be a tabletop pinball machine equipped with a spring-loaded launcher, elastic-band-powered flippers and a glass marble. Come Christmas Day, you’ll have a marble zipping around the machine with the aim of hitting five targets and racking up the highest score. The cardboard construction is made from 100 per cent sustainable card and has 68 press-out parts for you to assemble.

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Image credit: Eight Innovation
Image credit: Eight Innovation
Image credit: Eight Innovation
Image credit: Eight Innovation

Retro radio advent calendar

Eight Innovation

For retro technology fans, this advent calendar lets you construct your own FM radio over 24 days. Behind each door is a different electronic component, allowing you to build a new circuit every day. Along with each piece of the circuit puzzle, there’s a full-colour, day-by-day instruction booklet to help you put the pieces together. By Christmas Day you will have assembled a fully functional FM radio equipped with digital tuning and volume control. However, you’ll need a pair of AA batteries to get the festive tunes flowing.

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Image credit: The Little Trees Bees & Seeds Company Store
Image credit: The Little Trees Bees & Seeds Company Store

Grow your own advent calendar

The Little Trees Bees and Seeds Company

Great for those with a green thumb, this advent calendar is packed with 25 gift-wrapped seed pouches inside. The calendar includes vegetables, herbs and salad seeds that can be grown all year round. There are also five metres of jute rope and wooden clips to display your seeds, along with a handy grow guide filled with gardening tips and tricks. If you’re looking to grow a kitchen garden, this calendar might be a good way to start.

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Image credit: Thames and Kosmos
Image credit: Thames and Kosmos
Image credit: Thames and Kosmos
Image credit: Thames and Kosmos

EXIT The Game: Advent calendar – Silent Storm

Thames and Kosmos

As a combination of an advent calendar and escape room game, The Silent Storm is a 24-day adventure to solve a mystery set in Santa’s workshop. The game centres around a snowstorm that rages around your Christmas workshop, where you find yourself trapped inside and alone. In order to escape, you must answer a riddle hidden behind each door of the calendar, each one bringing you closer to your goal of saving Christmas.

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