Make your own LEGO® advent calendar: 24 days of building fun
14 October 2026
Would you like to make your own LEGO® advent calendar this year? With 24 numbered pouches or boxes and carefully chosen LEGO® pieces, you can create a personalised surprise for December. You decide on the theme, the contents and the size of the daily building challenge.
October and November are good months to get started. That way, you’ll have time to try out ideas, collect pieces and sort out the surprises. At ToyPro, you can choose individual LEGO® pieces for your homemade calendar.
Choose one story for all 24 days
An Advent calendar is even more fun when the contents come together to form something. Think of a small high street, an animal enclosure or a winter market. A new piece is added every day, so that by 24 December the recipient has built a complete scene.
For a winter market, you could start with a base and a simple stall. Next come a counter, a bench, decorations and small items for sale. You don’t have to hide a large build every day. A small accessory with a fun task can also be part of the story.
Make sure all the necessary parts are included in the calendar. For a task that builds on a previous structure, you can indicate on the card which part of the market is being expanded. This prevents the building fun from coming to a halt on day three due to a missing plate.
Small LEGO® pieces as Advent calendar fillers
Loose food items go well with a self-built market. A red apple and a yellow banana can form the initial stock for a fruit stall. A croissant also gives a small bakery something to sell straight away.
It’s best to include such accessories alongside a task. For example: “Build a crate for the fruit seller today” or “Make a counter for the baker.” Include the necessary building bricks with the accessories so that the recipient can get started straight away.
These small parts are examples of Advent calendar fillings. Together, they do not form a complete building set or a ready-made calendar.
Create a new market stall from just a few pieces
A second food stall gives the market its own character. Combine a LEGO® hot dog sausage with the matching bun and add bricks to create a small sales counter. A round tile with a biscuit pattern can then become the first treat from a biscuit stall.
Ideally, put parts that form a single accessory into the same bag. For example, the sausage and the bun together make a ready-to-use set. This feels like a complete surprise, even when there are only a few parts.
You can repeat the same idea on different days: first the stall, then the products, and afterwards a place where visitors can sit. This way, the story develops without every day becoming the same.
How to organise your Advent calendar over 24 days
First, write down all the surprises before you fill the little bags. A simple layout for a homemade winter market is:
- - Days 1 to 6: build the ground, a path and the base of the first stall.
- - Days 7 to 12: add the counter, stock and a second stall.
- - Days 13 to 18: create a seating area, extra decorations and small details for the square.
- - Days 19 to 23: add minifigures as visitors and expand the market with personalised building projects.
- - Day 24: add the final decorations or a specially chosen figure to complete the scene.
This is a framework for you to develop yourself, not a building guide with a fixed list of parts. Test each small structure beforehand and take a photo of it if possible. You can put that photo in the relevant bag as an example.
Keep the budget and contents organised
You don’t need 24 complete sets to fill a LEGO® advent calendar. Put the contents together using loose bricks, accessories and a few minifigures that fit the chosen theme. This way, you decide for yourself how many pieces each surprise contains and how you spend your budget.
Work out the total cost in advance, including the pouches or boxes. Then divide the contents across all the days. Alternate a building challenge involving several bricks with a smaller accessory, so you don’t realise halfway through that all the special surprises have already been packed away.
Make a note for each day of which pieces go in the bag. Then lay out the 24 portions side by side and check them before you seal everything up. That’s a lot more convenient than having to search on 12 December for the piece that’s accidentally ended up behind number 21.
Who are you making the LEGO® Advent calendar for?
Tailor the tasks to the recipient. For a beginner, small, clear examples are helpful. An experienced builder, on the other hand, might enjoy an open-ended task, such as designing a market stall using the pieces from the bag.
Start your own LEGO® Advent calendar in good time
A homemade calendar is especially fun because you can personalise it. Choose a favourite colour, include a recognisable shop or add a card with a small building challenge. Then the countdown can begin straight away on 1 December.
Browse the range of LEGO® food items and all loose LEGO® pieces at ToyPro. Put together the contents of your calendar and turn 24 little surprises into your very own building world.
Discover all Lightailing light sets here
Receive the weekly ToyPro newsletter and stay up to date on the latest news about ToyPro and LEGO®, MOCs and much more. Discover LEGO®
Successful! ToyPro will keep you updated from now on. Welcome to the club.
