Get ready for the holidays with LEGO Advent Calendars. Countdown to Christmas with 24 buildable mini LEGO sets featuring your favourite characters. Available in a variety of themes including LEGO Friends, Marvel, Harry Potter and Star Wars, these advent calendars are perfect for kids and adults. Discover a new surprise every day as you celebrate the festive season.
Behind each door of these advent calendars is a minifigure or a small buildable piece of Lego. These include vehicles, seasonal items and accessories. Each calendar belongs to a different Lego theme and contains models relating to it. There are twenty-four gifts in all to cover each day from the 1st December up to Christmas Eve. One of these advent calendars can be a great buildup to a bigger Christmas gift from the Lego collection when the big day finally comes.
The first Lego advent calendar was launched in 1998 and made up of basic Lego items. Along with a Santa Claus-themed minifigure, they usually contain a couple of small structures, animals and vehicles. These can be placed together to create one large set. By 2001 the more complex Lego Creator advent calendar was released, followed by a Clikits calendar in 2004 and the Lego City version in 2005. Since this time Lego has released multiple advent calendars, the most popular of which are Lego City and Lego Star Wars.
Typically included in each Lego advent calendar is set of miniature figurines that suit the theme of whichever advent calendar you bought. There are a range of themes available, which we explore a bit further on in this buyer's guide.
You'll end up with 24 separate Lego items each day that you can add to your existing collection. What you don't get is larger pieces that you gradually assemble together, which is what many might expect as this is how Lego sets usually work. There is still some minor assembly involved in putting together each of the 24 pieces, although nothing more than putting together around 10 bits of Lego together. This makes for a nice little bit of fun during the Winter mornings – but don't expect to have a big complex Lego project to invest into each day or a big piece that comes together at the end.
With such a wide range of Lego Advent calendars available, it's important to think a little bit about which one you should buy for yourself or for your child, niece or nephew. While it may not make much of a difference to you which advent calendar you can buy, for someone who is young and passionate about Lego, buying the wrong calendar could cause an upset.
Of course, it's not rocket science. There are basically two things to consider when buying your Lego advent calendar:
Age – While Lego aims most of its calendar at ages 5-14, there are a few calendars that are more designed for those at the younger end of this spectrum. While there are sure to be some older children who just can't get enough of the Lego Friends collection, they're more likely to want something a bit more grown-up like Star Wars or Harry Potter.
Particular Interests – If the person you're buying for is enough of a Lego fun to want their own advent calendar, it's likely that they already have particular series they're particularly interested in when it comes to their Lego collection. Think about previous Lego gifts you've bought for them or think about the series that they're interested in more generally.
Lego tends to rotate the line up of advent calendars that it releases each year. Series with a major release coming out are far more likely to feature in the line up than those that have no release due this year, although there are a few old reliables that tend to get a release each year.
There are 4 different Lego Advent Calendars available to buy for the 2019 Christmas Season, with some notable series like Lego Batman and Lego Marvel not making the cut this year. Let's take a look at each one in detail:
Lego City Advent Calendars - Lego City is a well-loved advent calendar theme. The first-ever version was released in 2005 but there have been many more. Each calendar has a selection of items and minifigures which can be added to a Lego City set - these include boats, trains, buses and buildings. Although the exact items can vary from year to year, some pieces, like the snowman figure and the streetlamp are included regularly. Other pieces which are found in a Lego City advent calendar include a rocking chair, a fireplace, a candle, a Christmas tree and a sleigh. Minifigures include snowboarding characters, a storyteller and Santa Claus. To complete the festive look, there is also a range of accessories such as snowballs, hot chocolate mugs and a sack filled with presents. The fold-out scenes have been designed to look like a cosy home decorated for Christmas, an ice skating rink and a toy shop.
Lego Friends Advent Calendar - Designed for younger children, the Lego Friends series has been a smash hit ever since its release. They feature very colourful builds and minifigures the majority of which have a festive theme. Past boxes have folded out to reveal a snowy garden scene, but the focus is now on buildable decorations. These all represent something from the Lego Friends Heartland City world and include a cake, snowflakes, ice skates and a gingerbread house. They can be placed around a child’s bedroom or hung on the tree. The minifigures from this collection are mini-dolls from the sets in winter clothing, they are joined by hamsters, penguins and zoo animals.
Lego Harry Potter Advent Calendar - Harry Potter is one of the world's biggest franchises, so the Lego Harry Potter advent calendar naturally includes many of the best-known elements from the films and books. There’s a tiny Hogwarts Express train, a Great Hall table complete with numerous accessories and a large decorated fireplace. The minifigures are Albus Dumbledore, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and the architect of Hogwarts. Along with these, you’ll get a Hedwig figure and a pedestal displaying crests from the four Hogwart houses. The buildables can be used to create Christmas play scenes and also adapted for play at other times of the year.
Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar - The Star Wars Lego advent calendar 2019 UK release will be a major event for fans of Lego and the Star Wars series. This annually released calendar tends to contain characters from all eras of the Star Wars universe and lots of fun additional items. In 2019, the box folds down to reveal a rocky Ahch-To Island scene which can be used when playing with the characters and items. The minifigures include a First Order Storm Trooper, a Rebel Trooper, a Cloud Car Pilot and Chewbacca, these are joined by festive-themed minifigures and an exclusive Luke Skywalker minifigure in his Ahch-To Island outfit. The buildables include an Order Star Destroyer, Poe's X-wing, a Death Star Cannon and a Twin-Pod Cloud Car.
Lego advent calendars are uch more expensive than standard advent calendars, so what makes them so popular with children and adults? For most kids, getting a new toy each day adds to the excitement of waiting for Christmas, but for collectors, each calendar offers the chance to get hold of rare minifigures and parts. Some are completely unique to a certain calendar. These include the Santa Boba Fett and the Porg with a Christmas hat in the Star Wars version, and the Friends minifigures in unique winter outfits in that version.
In some themed calendars including Star Wars, Harry Potter and City, there are six or more minifigures, most of which are unique to that set and won’t be reproduced elsewhere. Collectors can put these with their existing figures and sets to make an original display. The same is true of the accessories in a Lego advent calendar, as most are unusual and cannot be obtained separately through the Lego store.
If you do buy the calendar for a child who eventually loses interest, it’s worth remembering that as these figures are rare, there is a definite resale value attached. Along with eBay, Bricklink is a great place to find a Lego advent calendar sale and also to sell rare figures. Although it’s based in the USA, there are UK sellers on Bricklink which ask less for postage.
Lego advent calendars have been growing in popularity since the late 1990s, so what makes them a better choice than traditional advent calendars and are there any drawbacks to buying one?
Pros
A great choice for fans of certain Lego themes – Most advent sets contain a good balance of figures, accessories and extra items. In film-themed calendars, these are drawn from the older titles as well as the latest releases.
The minifigures standout – As well as being very colourful and detailed, the minifigures are highly original.
Lego advent calendars are light and compact – Although they contain at least 24 different toys and numerous individual parts, the Lego advent calendars are not much larger than standard advent calendars are.
A healthy alternative to chocolate – Christmas is a time of indulgence, but if you’d like to limit the amount of chocolate your kids are eating, a Lego advent calendar could be a good solution. They'll probably be so excited about the new toys that they’ll won’t miss the chocolate anyway.
The chance to obtain collectables – Lego Advent calendars contain figures and buildable items which are otherwise difficult to come by. If you know you want the entire Star Wars or Harry Potter collection, or even if there’s a specific piece you’ve got your eye on, it's easy to pick up the calendar.
Cons
Lego advent calendars are expensive – Compared to a chocolate calendar, Lego calendars are priced far higher. You can expect to spend at least £30 per calendar (at full price).
Can be fiddly – Adult assistance will likely be required for the building of some items. They can be very small and like all Lego sets, the pieces are easy to lose.
Easy to push over – The addition of a playmat is inspired, but as the entire box is made from cardboard it’s really easy to knock them over or squash them if they are on the floor.
With most lego items being sold by the same standard resellers, you're unlikely to find great price difference between them. You may get luck with a sale though. You can shop for Lego advent calendars at Asda, Tesco and John Lewis, as well as Amazon, eBay and Argos.
Like most advent calendars the Lego versions are released in the run-up to Christmas, some years this can be as early as August. This tends to be the most expensive time to buy, as shops are in no rush to sell Christmas items. Another good time to shop for cheap Lego advent calendar offers could be at the end of November, during the Black Friday weekend. At this time stores are hoping to attract as many Christmas shoppers as possible. Lego advent calendars could be reduced by up to 30%, so they can be sold before 1st December. Check the Lego Black Friday page for deals which often include limited-edition extras. Finally, you can also find reduced Lego advent calendars after December 1st (as this is the first date on the calendar) and in the weeks after Christmas. Waiting this long for a specific calendar can be a bit of a gamble however, as they tend to sell fast.
For any fan of Lego (be they young or old), a Lego advent calendar is something that will be sure to brighten up those gloomy Winter mornings and build up some extra excitement for the Christmas giving season. There's no need to break the bank when buying one of these advent calendars, you'll find all the latest deals and offers on them right here on the hotukdeals listings.
