ADVENT CALENDAR IDEAS FOR ADULTS

My husband never celebrated Christmas when he was a kid, neither did I. For Russians, the biggest holiday of the year was New Years' Eve night. My husband grew up in Egypt and catholic Christmas wasn't a big part either. When we moved to the USA and discovered this wonderful advent calendar tradition, I jumped on it as another reason to celebrate and have fun. Advent calendar ideas for adults is an ultimate date night, surprise calendar to make your partner feel special.

Over the last 5 years, I made multiple advent calendars for my husband. Some years I was kind of "cheating" since both of my daughters were born in winter and in the last months of pregnancy, I didn't feel very creative.

On the "cheating years" I got him craft beer advent calendar. It was super easy to make, I just went to Trader Joe's and got 18 different beers and topped it up with 6 craft beers from the craft store. Why did I get only 6 craft beers? Because one on average costs about $10-15 and it adds up to get to 24 😬. To present it nicely, I got this awesome beer opener and little Santa hats for bottles. It looked super cute. Needless to say, honey was happy. Although it took him over 2 months to finish all of them 😄

Last year, which I also consider one of the "cheating" years, I ordered him this amazing bourbon advent calendar which consists of bourbon samplers and even has few rare drinks. This one doesn't need much of an extensive presentation because it already looks soooo amazing. That was an absolute hit and M still likes to offer small bottles to our guests 😄 yes, it's been a year but he still didn't finish it. I guess it's a good sign!

First, two advent calendars didn't require much preparation, but there was a year when I went wild and made him an EPIC advent calendar for adults. And I'm going to share with you how I did it.

If you need an idea how to decorate it you can check out this simple handmade advent from 2017 and this one from last year (my all-time favorite, I'm even thinking to do it again but feel my other countless ideas would get offended)

Advent calendar ideas for adults

So here go 25 ideas to do for your sweetheart for Christmas countdown. Basically each filling is a prop for an activity later that night. M would open the advent calendar in the morning and try to guess what we will be doing that night. It is a month of date nights of the sort.

Please, bear with me, it's probably not your usual "advent calendar for him" list, but if you pull it off it's a lot of fun! I'd call it a ROMANTIC ADVENT CALENDAR FOR COUPLES

Day 1: Xmas Jammies

This has become a tradition of ours by now that every year on Dec 1st each member of our family gets a set of PJ. I usually get it in Old Navy since they have awesome matching options. Obviously, it's matching 😄 that night we cuddle on the couch, watching some Christmas classic movie, to set up the mood for the whole month.

Day 2: Truffle oil

The evening where M comes back from work to handmade Truffle oil pizza. He actually came earlier that night and we made it together. As an alternative, you could add another unusual food ingredient to the stocking as a hint to what the dinner will be.

Day 3: Handmade hat and scarf

I found an easy pattern on how to make a hat and a matching scarf. Later that night we went ice skating.

Day 4: Massage oil

As you can guess it follows with a massage 😁 for that day I actually found a YouTube video of an hour Tai massage. When my husband laid down I took out my laptop (on silence) and gave him a proper Tai massage. Imagine the shock when he though I actually did it by myself? haha it was worth every minute

Day 5: Tickets for "phantom of the opera"

That was obviously planned in advance.

Can you imagine how excited at this point he got for my advent calendar? Hehe, I bet if you use some of the advent calendar ideas for adults that I listed here, your partner will love you forever.

Day 6: Honey

He was guessing all day what it will be about, and at night we made hot toddy and watched a movie. The recipe is quite easy.

Ingredients

1½ ounce brown liquor such as brandy, whiskey or rum
1 tablespoon honey
½ ounce lemon juice
1 cup hot water
Lemon wedge, cinnamon stick and star anise, for garnish (optional)

Directions

Combined the first four ingredients into the bottom of a warmed mug. If desired, garnish with the lemon, cinnamon stick or star anise. Courtesy of Winemag.

If you want to take it a step further you can get this Hot Toddy kit.

Day 7: Advanced night repair serum

Fine, I actually wanted this one for myself but could fit it as "after all this drinking, you need one"😄

Day 8: Sushi making kit

Yep, we made sushi that night and it was delightful

Day 9: Socks

We cozied up at home and watched a movie.

Day 10: Hot chocolate kit

Another night at home, watching "Love actually". We watch it every year in December

Day 11: Handcuffs

Let your imagination run wild

PIN THIS

Day 12: This super adorable ornament with a couple from Willow Tree.

I just love it and love the company, so I thought it's a nice occasion to give it to him

Day 13: A bag of spices

M guessed throughout the day that we were making gluhwein that evening. So so amazing. Ali from Gimme Some Oven has a very good recipe.

Day 14: Eye cream serum

Another thing I wanted for myself but could spin it as he needed it after the night before 🤪

Day 15: Robe

To be honest, that was just an excuse to get him a robe since I didn't like his previous one that much.

Day 16: Just one simple word: "babysitter"

That year was our last year living in NYC and we just had a baby. We don't have any family here and no help, so for us to go out was a big thing. I found a babysitter that could just stay home while our baby is sleeping and we went for drinks to some posh place. I still remember paying $50 for one round of drinks and if you are asking, nope, we didn't go back there again. But it was delightful haha

Day 17: Game of Phones

We had a couple of friends coming over that night and oh my, wasn't it the perfect game to play? You basically draw a prompt card and do some simple tasks on your phone, like "Show a photo from your camera roll that could be cover for your next solo album". Fastest and funniest wins.

Day 18: Tea candle

Yep, it could be anything, but it was a hot bath together kind of thing. Just add tons of bubbles and a lot of candles and you good to go. What can be better after a cold day outside?

Day 19: This tea set

That was a night of quite Netflix and chill

Day 20: A book

I remember I got him one of my favorite books "The Counterfeiters" by Andre Gide. And the plan was to go to a book store "Strand" to search for more, but we never went since our 1-year-old daughter wasn't cooperative;-/

Day 21: Irish stout beer brewing kit

Yep, it is as awesome as it sounds. It took us so much longer to make it though. Make sure you read instructions clearly and have about 4 hours.

Day 22: Breakfast in bed

He didn't even get a chance to open the calendar yet but there it was.. hot freshly brewed coffee, bagel with lox cream cheese, served on a handmade serving tray. Don't forget, we had a baby around, so no time to do gourmet anything 😁 so we opted for a classic NYC bagel option.

Day 23: A blindfold

To have a blindfold dinner in the dark. That's a funny one. Funny because it's very quite a strange feeling to eat food when you don't see it

Day 24: Bathtub pillow

Fine, I got it mainly for myself but we had a wonderful time in the bathtub, with wine and Sinatra playing.

That's all. Now I get a feeling that my Advent calendar ideas for adults are very heavily based on alcohol 😄 It wasn't my intention 😀

More gift guides

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Till next time!

xoxo,

April