3 Holiday Activity Advent Calendars Compared: Crayola, Play-Doh and Bob Ross

Introduction

Activity advent calendars have quietly become one of the more charming ways to count down to Christmas, giving kids a small creative task to complete every day rather than just another piece of chocolate. We opened three of them back to back: the Crayola Activity Advent Calendar, the Play-Doh Advent Calendar, and a Bob Ross advent calendar built around daily wisdom and small keepsakes. The results were surprisingly uneven, and the differences matter if you are deciding which one to buy.

Crayola Activity Advent Calendar: Best Overall

The Crayola calendar is an activity-first design with 24 numbered doors, each pairing a small art supply with a themed task. Day one starts with a silly-scent strawberry marker and a search-and-find sheet, and the daily pairing continues from there: paint with a brush and paint-by-numbers winter scene, glitter glue for a paper ornament, metallic crayons for colouring, and simple prompts like writing a letter to Santa.

What makes this calendar stand out is how well every door connects to something to actually do. There are stickers to scribble on, a foldable mini Christmas tree to decorate, gift tags to colour with metallic crayons, Model Magic for a Santa hat ornament, googly eyes for penguin, snowman and mouse finger puppets, and a pipsqueak sharpener near the end so the crayons stay pointed. Even the final door brings it all together with a sculpting project that reuses supplies from earlier days.

Small touches add to the appeal: special colours like Sonic Silver, Steel Blue and Illuminating Emerald rather than just standard shades, and mostly holiday-themed hues throughout. There are a couple of rough edges, such as a greeting card printed upside down on one day and a window marker that most parents may want to ration carefully. Even so, at roughly $30, this is the calendar that delivers the most complete daily experience, and the easiest one to rate a full 10 out of 10.

Play-Doh Advent Calendar: Best Budget Pick

The Play-Doh calendar sells for around $20 and focuses on modelling clay rather than activities. Most doors contain a small pot of festive-coloured dough, often paired with a mold such as a candy cane, snowflake, wreath, Christmas tree, bell, star or train, plus a how-to booklet for building a snowman or a reindeer.

The core idea is cute, and the clay pots are a generous size, but the execution is confusing. Accessories for early builds, like the reindeer’s eyes, nose and cutting tool, only show up many days later, which means you cannot really finish the featured projects without waiting. Some days have instructions while others do not, and there are a lot of duplicate colours, with three pots of brown appearing for a single reindeer build. Our review unit also arrived with items shifted between compartments after being stored for a couple of years and two house moves, though the sliding issues clearly stem from the packaging design rather than the contents.

Despite the frustration, the value is hard to argue with. There are still small builds kids can do with the basic molds each day, and at $20 it is a reasonable impulse buy for a Play-Doh fan. It simply cannot match the Crayola calendar’s polish.

Bob Ross Advent Calendar: Most Charming Concept

The Bob Ross calendar is the odd one out, and in a good way. Instead of daily art supplies, the box opens to reveal a printed scene of Bob Ross style paintings, with 25 doors delivering a mix of small flat ornaments, daily quotes and activity prompts. Day one sets the tone with the line about moving mountains, rivers and trees, and the wisdom doors continue throughout with gems like “we don’t make mistakes, we just have happy accidents” and “it’s the imperfections that make something beautiful.”

The activity doors are genuinely thoughtful. There is a suggestion to throw a holiday painting party and recreate a favourite winter painting, a gingerbread cabin build with pretzel-stick log cabin and powdered-sugar snow tips, sugar cookies coloured to match a painter’s palette with named shades like sap green and van dyke brown, and a prompt to get outside and observe nature. Several doors contain small ornaments, including a squirrel and miniature painting designs, which would suit a dedicated fan’s tree nicely.

The standout is the final door: a Bob Ross holiday reflections journal filled with quotes and writing prompts. It is the single best item across all three calendars. Pricing is worth checking, since the calendar retails around $29 but has been found at discount retailers for considerably less. It is a lovely, different kind of calendar, but the $29 list price is harder to justify than a discount.

Which Advent Calendar Should You Buy?

If you want a calendar that keeps a child genuinely entertained every single day, the Crayola calendar is the clear winner, packing real activities and a wide variety of supplies into each door. If budget is the priority and your child loves modelling clay, the Play-Doh calendar at around $20 still delivers festive fun despite its confusing sequencing. For an adult fan or a family that prefers quotes, prompts and keepsakes over craft supplies, the Bob Ross calendar is a charming alternative, ideally picked up at a discount.

Conclusion

Across all three, the Crayola activity calendar earns the top spot for sheer variety and thoughtfulness, the Play-Doh calendar takes the value crown at $20, and the Bob Ross calendar wins on personality and its excellent final journal. Whichever fits your household best, each one turns the countdown to Christmas into something a little more creative than a piece of chocolate a day.