Christmas
Advent calendars
Twenty-four little doors, from beauty minis and chocolate to LEGO and dog treats. These are the advent calendars the most shops stock this year, price-compared so you can see who has each one cheapest before 1 December.
Tip: The most wanted beauty calendars often sell out in November, while chocolate and toy calendars tend to come down in price once December starts. If one is on your list, watch its price now and decide when it moves.
Cadbury Gifts DirectCadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Chunk Advent Calendar 258g (Bundle of 2)
Cadbury Gifts Direct
Choosing one
Start with who it's for and what they'll actually use. A beauty calendar is good value only if they'd buy those brands anyway: the "worth £…" figure on the box adds up full-size prices for what are mostly minis, so weigh the price against the products they'd really use.
For children, LEGO and toy calendars give a small build or figure each day, and a chocolate calendar is the cheap, safe choice.
Dates to know
Most calendars run from 1 to 24 December; some have 12 doors and a few have 25. Order by mid-November for the widest choice, because the popular ones go first and deliveries slow down nearer Christmas.
Not only for children
There are calendars for dogs and cats, with a treat behind each door, and grown-up ones with gin, wine, beer, tea or cheese. The chips above the picks sort them by type.
How we pick
We rank by how many shops stock each item — a far better signal of a genuinely good gift than a headline discount, which is the easiest number to fake. Every price is the lowest we can find across the shops that sell it, and we send you straight to that shop. We never take payment to rank something higher.