Advent calendar filler ideas for adults

Why not put a mini advent calendar for travelling or for the office inside the first day of the advent calendar?

• Follow our free instructions to DIY a bubble wrap advent calendar
• You could make your own paper chain advent calendar and put a joke or festive quote on each day:

• or you can buy A5 paper advent calendar cards such as these:

• Make your own little advent book where you write a love note, stick a photo in or attach a voucher to each page – you could use a little scrapbook like this one:

• Tea advent calendar:

• Make a bubble wrap advent calendar, instructions here
• Make a mindfulness jar, or find one here:

• Follow our instructions to make a ‘reasons why I love you’ glass – fill it for one reason for each day of advent
• Get a small chocolate advent calendar from your local supermarket or buy one on Amazon:

• Make your own advent candle:

• or buy one like this:

We have made some PDF vouchers for you to print off:

• Cinema voucher
• Theatre voucher
• R&R voucher
• TV control voucher
• Vacuum cleaning voucher
• Washing up voucher
• Sunday brunch voucher
• Spa day voucher
• Massage voucher
• Concert voucher
• Garden centre voucher
• Mulled wine voucher
• Cooking voucher
• Breakfast in bed voucher
• Mulled cider voucher
• Ice off the car voucher
• Making the bed voucher
• Tea voucher
• TV night voucher
• Homemade popcorn voucher
• Favourite sweet voucher
• Favourite cake voucher
• Favourite food voucher
• Movie night voucher
• Cocktail voucher
• Candle light dinner voucher
• Monopoly voucher
• Ice skating voucher
• Hot chocolate voucher
• Roasted chestnuts voucher
• Mince pie voucher
• Crêpe at the Christmas markets
• Baking cookies voucher
• Baking gingerbread men voucher
• Baking a cake voucher
• Homemade dinner voucher
• Car washing voucher

Here are some cute ways to package your vouchers:

• Simply roll them up and tie them with a pretty ribbon
• Attach them to a suitable gift, for example attach the manicure voucher to a nail polish and attach the massage voucher to a small bottle of massage oil
• Roll them up and put them in little glass bottles, such as these:

• Stick them on the back of a postcard
• Place them in decorated matchboxes
• Slide them into Christmas crackers or make your own:

• Put them inside balloons
• Put them in voucher capsules like these:

• Carefully unwrap a Kinder Surprise egg and put the voucher inside – follow our instructions on how to do this

You can also buy voucher books:

• Book of love tokens:

• Blank ticket book:

• I loaf you so much coupon book:

• Floral blank coupon book:

• Gift voucher book with stub:

Give them a gift that is entirely unique – here are our personalised advent calendar filler suggestions:

• Follow our tea light bases instructions to create some unique candles 
• You can make personalised mugs, aprons, bags and t-shirts at moonpig.com
• You can make personalised calendars, diaries, wall art, wine glasses, books, jewellery, cushions and more at gettingpersonal.co.uk (they even sell personalised cheese boards!)
• Etsy has a large range of personalised gifts, such as this pretty ring dish:

• or this personalised star map:

• Check out snapfish.co.uk for personalised fridge magnets, coasters, Christmas ornaments, blankets and more
• Make a personalised puzzle with your photo at myphotopuzzle.co.uk
• Personalised Thornton’s chocolate:

• Personalised Nutella label to stick on a jar of Nutella:

• Personalise your own Cadbury’s chocolate bar:

• Personalised Marmite jar:

Here are some advent calendar filler ideas for those who love to travel or are often away on business trips:

• Ear plugs
• A map of their next travel destination or dream holiday setting
• A small transparent liquids bag to go in their hand luggage
• Print out some top tips for their next trip or list of things to do at their dream holiday destination
• Power bank:

• Microfibre towel – these dry quickly and can be rolled up very small, making them perfect for travelling with:

• Toothbrush protector
• Lens kit for their iPhone so they can take great photos without having to carry a heavy and expensive camera:

• Universal adapter plug
• Mini first aid kit
• Luggage scales
• Mini dictionary for the language of their next travel destination
• A book of phrases in the language of their dream holiday destination:

• Travel guide for their next holiday
• Travel cushion
• Travel journal:

• Sleeping mask
• Scratch map:

• Travel-size toiletry containers
• Luggage tag and passport cover set:

Don’t let them lose their keys! Keyrings are a great gift to go in an advent calendar:

• Small knife
• Light
• Keyring strap
• Keyring with an attraction from their favourite holiday destination:

• Mini lighter
• Heart-shaped keyring:

• DIY a keyring
• A crystal keyring:

• Badge Holder keyring:

• Alarm
• Mini tools, e.g. this beard comb keyring:

Advent calendar fillers for those who love to solve puzzles and mysteries:

• Print off a crossword puzzle or make your own
• Escape from the grand hotel puzzle game:

• The big puzzle test:

• Cluedo grab and go:

• You can often find Sudoku and crossword puzzles at the back of newspapers, which you can cut out
• 3D wooden puzzle:

• Sudoku book
• Online puzzles – just write down the website on some festive note paper

• Lord of the Rings – Middle Earth map heat changing mug:

• Star Wars – Yoda face mask:

• Game of Thrones – Water bottle:

• Harry Potter – Magic notebook and pencil:

• Pokemon – winter hat:

• Marvel – Thanos gauntlet stocking:

We have found a selection of the best Christmas and advent poems and songs for you to read and print off:

• ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ by Clement Clarke Moore
• ‘Talking Turkeys’ by Benjamin Zephaniah
• ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ by Roger Whittaker
• ‘Little Tree’ by E. E. Cummings
• ‘I Saw Three Ships’ by William Sandys
• ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ by Dr. Seuss
• ‘The First Noel’
• ‘The Dreaded Christmas Fruitcake’ by Kelly Roper

We have also found a few Christmas poem books which are available to buy:

• ‘Twelve Poems for Christmas’:

• ‘Christmas Crackers’:

• ‘The Christmas Song Book’:

Here you will find links to Christmas stories that you can print off and read for free:

• ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ by Margery Williams
• ‘The Little Match Girl’ by Hans Christian Anderson
• ‘Some Christmas Stories’ by Charles Dickens
• Personalise a Christmas story with your name

We have also selected a few books which you could buy to go in the advent calendar:

• ‘Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas’:

• ‘A Vintage Christmas’:

• ‘Star over Bethlehem’:

Here are our suggestions for all coffee lovers:

• Voucher for your local coffee shop
• Their favourite coffee
• Cafetiere:

• A special coffee
• Coffee tasting set
• A nice mug:

• Espresso mug
• Espresso spoon
• Chocolate espresso beans:

• A funny mug:

• Collapsible coffee cup:

• Coffee chocolates:

• Iced coffee (have a look here for how to make):

• Coffee cake
• Milk frother:

Here are some sweet advent calendar filler suggestions:

• Take a look at our DIY hot chocolate page for free instructions
• Fill a Kinder Surprise Egg with a small gift of your own – check out our DIY instructions
• Speciality chocolates, like this bag of strawberry dreams:

• Cookies
• Make your own gingerbread men with an online recipe and these cookie cutters:

• Haribo
• Lindt heart:

• Chocolate coins
• Chocolate Santa
• Chocolate coated raisins or nuts
• Bake a Christmas cake – this can be done well in advance and you can use a free online recipe such as this one:

• Christmas pudding
• Mince pies
• A selection of hot chocolates (these can be spread out over a few days):

• Sweet popcorn
• Mini Nutella
• Get some fudge from your local market
• Jelly babies
• Ferrero Rochers:

Here are some salty alternatives to the abundance of sweet treats that surround us at Christmas time:

• A small packet of crisps
• Pretzel crisps:

• Twiglets
• A bag of Doritos
• A mini tube of Pringles
• Crackers:

• Dried fruits and nuts:

• Breadsticks with hummus (you may wish to keep the hummus in the fridge and just leave a note with the breadsticks to say it’s there)
• A jar of olives or some fresh ones from the market
• Bombay mix:

• A jar of pickles
• Salted peanuts
• Salted popcorn
• Cheese balls
• Wasabi peas:

These are our advent calendar filler suggestions for all foodies and culinary masters:

• Download and print off our free recipe for roasted chestnuts
• Put together a small collection of ingredients, such as honey, olive oil, soy sauce, chutney and more
• Nutella fans will love this customised Nutella spoon:

• or this Nutella t-shirt:

• Some special pasta
• Ingredients for homemade pizza and a printed off recipe
• A vegan recipe book for the vegans in your life:

• A selection of herbs and spices, such as thyme, cumin and nutmeg
• A recipe for mince pies:

• A recipe for gingerbread men:

• A recipe for a chocolate Yule log:

• Spices for mulled wine
• A selection of nuts
• A citrus sprayer:

The best gift is always the one on Christmas day! Here are our suggestions for the final advent calendar filler:

• A pair of cosy Christmas socks:

• or these mince pie socks:

• Some Christmas pyjamas
• A Christmas jumper
• A Christmas game for the family to play – you can print out and make your own festive bingo game here:

• or buy a game such as this one:

• A box of Christmas crackers
• A Christmas hat, like this knitted Santa hat:

• Some Christmas slippers
• A funny or cute bauble for the Christmas tree
• Some fairy lights, such as these ones:

Here are our suggestions for places to go where you will find the best small presents to fit in an advent calendar:

• Supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and ASDA always have a large selection and they have websites which offer delivery
• Poundland is great for small and inexpensive gifts
• Wilko is great too, especially if you are looking for craft items
• Paperchase has a great selection
• Shops like Boots and Superdrug are great for travel-size toiletries which fit perfectly in an advent calendar