Adult Advent Calendar Fillings – 24 Creative Ideas for an Unique Surprise

Chocolate is delicious – but are you looking for more original ideas for adult Advent calendar fillings? These 24 ideas add variety and surprise to your Advent calendar!

A nice surprise every day that is also personal: these are the two most beautiful aspects of the Advent calendar custom. When you give an Advent calendar to a loved one, e.g. your partner or best friend, it makes a huge difference whether it is a bought calendar filled with chocolate (you can also get this as a company gift!) or an Advent calendar that you have lovingly made and filled yourself.

Greatime has several creative ideas with instructions for beautiful, decorative Advent calendars you can make yourself. For example, you can make an snowflake toilet roll Advent calendar. In this article, there are lots of tips on how to fill the 24 compartments, little bags, drawers, etc. of the Advent calendar with the most original, surprising and personal things possible that will bring a smile to the recipient every day from 1 December until Christmas Eve!

Let yourself be inspired here by 24 ideas for adult Advent calendar fillings! Most of them are easy to do, but are much more personal than the seventh or eighth chocolate candy. And if you can’t do without chocolate, you can also fill the Advent calendar with it… 😉

If you’re short on time but still want to make your own Advent calendar, you can find inexpensive craft kits with everything you need at amazon*!

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DIY itenga Adventskalender Komplettset V12 zum Selberbefüllen und Karton zum Aufstellen 24x Geschenkoxen aus Kraftkarton + ZahlenSticker (Motiv Z17 Pastell klassisch)

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24 Ideas for Unique Adult Advent Calendar Fillings

The following ideas for adult Advent calendar fillings are all suitable for adults. You can fill an entire advent calendar with each idea, but you can also mix and match them.

1. Compliments – You write down really nice, sincere compliments on small pieces of paper that you rarely or never give to the recipient of the calendar. An Advent calendar for your partner with 24 answers to the question What do I love most about you? is an incredibly romantic gift. And the best friend will also be delighted with heartfelt messages entitled Why you are so important to me.
2. Personal vouchers – By this I don’t mean mere purchase vouchers (although these can be part of the whole), but really vouchers for personal services or joint actions, e.g. fetching bread rolls on Sundays, breakfast in bed, a joint wellness day at home, massage (more for the partner ^^), going to the cinema together to a film of your choice, building a snowman together (also good for children!), freeing the car from ice etc.
3. Favourite food / drink in mini – example: your husband loves poppy seed stollen, you bake one secretly on the corresponding day. There is a small bag of poppy seeds in the Advent calendar. He will certainly ask you what kind of present it is, then you reveal his favourite cake. Also works wonderfully with noodles, coffee beans, fine mini spirits or with mini replicas made of plastic or wood, e.g. small wine bottle for fine wine, small roast chicken etc.
4. Riddle questions – The recipient of your advent calendar loves riddles? Great! Every day, a little riddle awaits him or her that he or she has to solve to a) find out the location of the day’s gift or b) receive it from you personally.
5. Caricatures & comics – If you can draw reasonably well, woohoo – jackpot! Draw little funny caricatures or short comic strips about him/her and you. Alternatively, find suitable caricatures and comic images on the web and print them out.
6. Happy biscuits with personalised text – Either make your own happy biscuits, e.g. using this recipe or order your personalised happy biscuits here.
7. Gedded biscuits with personalised text
8. Poems – Words are your thing? Write 24 of your own poems in your most beautiful handwriting on fine paper and make them into little rolls with a bow. Alternatively, you can collect 24 of your favourite poems and give the recipient a special literary Advent calendar.
9. Continuation story – For the particularly ambitious amateur writers: write a short story that you divide into 24 sections. Each section should preferably add a new twist or element to the story and make you eager to see what happens the next day.
10. Tea or coffee advent calendar – A different tea bag every day or, even better, a special blend you have mixed yourself. Or special coffee roasts for the fragrant lover.
11. Photo advent calendar – There are no limits to your creativity: whether you dig out old souvenir photos, make new prints and write loving sayings on them, whether you delight your sweetheart with 24 erotic photos of you or make funny collages in Photoshop – there are many ways to score points with a photo advent calendar!
12. Homemade sweets – Yes, I know I ranted about the standard content of advent calendars at the beginning of this article. But: things look quite different when the daily sweet surprises are homemade chocolates, biscuits or gingerbread!
13. Findings – Huh? Findings?? Yes, yes! Are you someone who likes to travel, hike or walk? Then you will have picked up a particularly beautiful shell, a piece of quartz or a feather or dried flowers and leaves between pages of paper. Finds can also be foreign coins, a funny printed matchbox, a piece of jewellery that someone has lost, a foreign sugar packet from the café, etc. The “finds” have to be of a certain quality. The “found objects” do not all have to have been found by chance. If you are particularly creative, combine this with tip 8 and invent a story around 24 small objects 😉
14. Crafts & Handicrafts – Do you like handicrafts, do you know origami, can you carve, knit or crochet? Then fill your Advent calendar with special crafts: the recipient’s favourite animal as origami (good instructions can be found here), a personal key ring, self-knitted socks etc.
15. Wellness Gift – A little relaxation every day: who doesn’t wish for that, especially in the hectic pre-Christmas season for many. So wrap up a scented candle, massage oil, bath salts, cold bath, face mask, incense stick, bath sponge, anti-stress cream, lip balm, etc. Ideally, each with a small personal card that says something like: Give yourself a hot bath today, now it’s getting cosy, off to relax! 😉 etc.
16. Childhood memories – This is especially useful if you and the person for whom the Advent calendar is a) come from the same generation and b) maybe you actually spent part of your childhood or youth together. Ahoy bubbles, toy cars, TKKG audio cassettes, marbles, old trading cards or complete insiders between the two of you. This Advent calendar ensures cosy nostalgia!
17. Mixtapes – or rather mix CDs or whatever medium you want to take for a personal compilation of awesome songs. Of course, 24 music mixes are quite a number, so either combine them with other ideas or have a song every day with which you have a special memory 😉
18. Wisdom & aphorisms – Advent is supposed to be a time of reflection. Whether you or the recipient are believers or not – a little food for thought every day through a wise quote from a great thinker is basically the spiritual equivalent of the wellness cure in item 14. Choose sayings and quotes that the recipient of the calendar can make good use of right now, e.g. those that give courage, comfort, motivate, or let him/her look at things from a different perspective.
19. A nip in honour: Alcohol in mini bottles – The person you are giving the Advent calendar to likes to have a drink at the end of the day? Or is it even a connoisseur and bon vivant? Then present them with 24 small bottles of various fine wines. You can also buy high-quality spirits in small bottles (20 – 50 ml), e.g. noble whiskey.
20. Fitness Tasks – Your partner or best friend constantly complains about not being fit? Find 24 fitness exercises that you can do at home without equipment from the internet or a good fitness book and print them out, preferably with illustrations. That way she/he has no excuse for at least 24 days! 😉
21. Movies – A clue to a film is hidden in each compartment, package or bag of the advent calendar, e.g. a film poster, a small action figure, a puzzle clue to the title, small cut-out photos of the main actors. this is the film you are watching today! Of course, it should be films that you either own yourself, have selected from Netflix or amazon Prime or can get from the video store and that meet the taste of the recipient.
22. Tickets for theatre, concert, cinema – Choose something special that the recipient is not expecting and will be particularly happy about. However, you probably won’t fill the calendar with 24 event tickets – these are more suitable as a special highlight, e.g. on 6 December for St. Nicholas or on 24 December
23. Games & Toys – Even adults are ultimately children of play: from mini Sudoku books, mini Rubikscube and tricky puzzle games via the popular themed quartets to the Traveling Yatzy, there are many small games with which you can ensure that the recipient never gets bored during Advent.
24. Plants & plant seeds – Not only passionate hobby gardeners will be happy about a small plant (via voucher / note in the Advent calendar). And those who have a balcony or garden will certainly be happy about seeds for spring.
25. Photo puzzle – You have a particularly nice photo of you printed on a puzzle with at least 24-1000 pieces and divide them among the Advent calendar. It’s best to do it in such a way that the recipient only gradually sees what the photo shows, or when and where it was taken. You can print the photo puzzle with or without a saying for a reasonable price.

And what are your most creative ideas for adult Advent calendar fillings?

On Greatime you will find many Christmas ideas and creative crafting ideas. The colourful leisure ideas portal offers inspiration for gifts and activities with children, friends and your partner for every season.

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