Arteza 24-Day Artist Advent Calendar Review: A Daily Dose of Art Supplies for the Holidays

Introduction

Arteza has quietly become one of the more reliable names in affordable art supplies, and its holiday advent calendars are a clever way to sample a wide slice of the catalog. The brand offers both a 12-day and a 24-day artist advent calendar, and the 24-day version is the one we spent time with here. Instead of chocolate, each door hides a genuine art supply, from acrylic paint and gouache to markers, gel pens, watercolors, and even 3D fabric paint.

The big question with any advent calendar is whether the contents justify the daily ritual, or whether you are paying for packaging and novelty. After opening all 24 doors and putting most of the supplies to work on paper, the short answer is that this one holds up better than expected, with a few clear highs and a couple of lows worth knowing about before you buy.

First Impressions and Unboxing

The presentation is genuinely impressive. The box looks like a traditional chocolate advent calendar, complete with gold foiling, a Christmas tree illustration, and a little bow on top. It feels solid and well put together, and the back of the box lists the contents so you can peek before committing if you want to.

One practical note: finding the numbered doors is harder than it should be. The numbers are not always easy to spot among the festive design, though oddly the task gets easier as more doors are opened. It is a minor frustration, but worth mentioning if you plan to gift this to someone impatient.

Unlike the smaller 12-day version, which included daily creative challenges, this 24-day calendar mostly just describes what is inside each door, with a handful of numbered challenges scattered throughout. Neither approach is better or worse, but if you liked the challenge format, it is worth knowing the difference.

What Is Inside the 24 Doors

The lineup leans heavily into festive finishes. The acrylic paints are almost all pearl and metallic varieties, including a pearl pink tulip, a pearl turquoise, a gold metallic tube, and a fiery red iridescent shade that reads closer to salmon in practice. There is also a small pearl space gray gouache and a pearl deep brown gouache, both with a pearlescent finish rather than the usual matte.

Markers feature prominently too. You get a gold acrylic marker, a silver acrylic marker, a white acrylic marker, a slim jewel-tip art marker in green, a dual-tip art marker in pink, and a final orange marker on day 24. The dual-tip markers carry both a chisel nib and a brush nib, similar in layout to a typical Copic marker.

Rounding out the calendar are two glitter gel pens (one red, one silver), a white gel pen, a water brush, a round paintbrush, two small pans of watercolor, a fluorescent frosty peach paint, a pearl cactus green gouache, a playful blue-white paint, and two 3D fabric paints in white and metallic pearl black.

One omission to note: unlike the 12-day calendar, there is no paper pad or wood slices included. This version focuses purely on the supplies themselves, so you will need your own paper ready, which is worth planning for if it is a gift.

How the Supplies Actually Perform

The gouache is the standout. It is intensely pigmented, and the pearlescent finish is unusual since most gouache leans matte. If you prefer an acrylic-like paint with a matte finish, standard gouache remains an option, but the pearl versions here are genuinely some of the better gouache we have used.

The gel pens were the biggest surprise. Gel pens often underwhelm, but these were smooth, vibrant, and had a beautiful glittery finish. They became the supply we reached for constantly, and they performed noticeably better on the pearl gouache surfaces than the paint markers did. The white gel pen was the exception: it was faint when layered over darker swatches and felt similar to the less impressive gel pens we had used before.

The acrylic markers have thin nibs, which is a genuine advantage since many paint markers ship with thick bullet tips. They handled fine details well, and the white one is a welcome addition given how quickly white paint markers tend to disappear from any collection. The dual-tip markers also worked nicely.

The acrylic paints were the weakest link. They are noticeably less pigmented than the paint in Arteza’s standard pouches, likely because of the pearlescent and metallic finishes, which means they need extra layering to build color. The watercolors were decent, though Arteza’s regular watercolor range is stronger. The 3D fabric paint performed well if that is something you actually use, but it is the least versatile item in the box.

Who This Calendar Is For

This is an easy recommendation for anyone who enjoys the daily ritual of an advent calendar but would rather unwrap art supplies than chocolate. It works well as a gift for hobbyist artists, beginners building a first collection, or experienced creators who enjoy sampling a brand’s range without committing to full-size sets.

The daily structure is part of the appeal. Each door gives you a small piece of inspiration to use that day’s supply, and the contents build on each other as the month goes on. If you are buying for someone who already owns a deep collection of professional materials, the sample sizes and festive color palette may feel redundant, but for most creative gift recipients it lands well.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The good news first: the box presentation is beautiful, the gouache and gel pens are genuinely excellent, the markers are well chosen, and there is not a bad product in the set. It is the kind of thing you would happily buy for yourself to open day by day rather than just for the unboxing.

The trade-offs are worth weighing. The acrylic paints need extra layers because of their pearlescent finishes, the white gel pen underperforms, the fabric paints may sit unused depending on your practice, and there is no paper or surface included. The door numbers are also fiddly to find. None of these are dealbreakers, but together they shape who this calendar suits best.

Buying Advice

If your priority is paint quality above all else, the gouache doors alone justify the calendar, and the gel pens are a pleasant bonus you would not otherwise pick up. If you primarily work in acrylic, temper your expectations and plan to layer. Anyone buying this as a holiday gift should pair it with a small pad of mixed media paper so the recipient can start creating on day one.

Availability can also be an issue. The 24-day version has sold out quickly in the past, so if it is in stock and you are on the fence, it is worth acting before the season runs away from you.

Testing Everything on Paper

To see how the supplies behaved together, everything was swatched on mixed media paper and used for a set of simple, child-at-Christmas-style illustrations: holly with glittery berries, snowflakes, a gingerbread man, and small 3D accents.

The three-section layout was created with washi tape, which did not perform particularly well, but the paints themselves behaved predictably. Gouache covered the first two sections cleanly, and the marker handled the bottom section.

A few practical observations came out of this session. The gel pens worked better over the pearl gouache than the paint markers did, possibly because of the metallic finish. The black fabric paint over the gel pen light string muddied the effect rather than enhancing it. And the color assignments felt slightly shuffled, with a green suited to a gingerbread man arriving on the garland challenge and the brown arriving on the garland door, a small quality-control quirk worth noting but easy to forgive given the rest of the set.

Conclusion

The Arteza 24-day artist advent calendar is a genuinely fun and well-made holiday product that delivers real, usable art supplies behind every door. The gouache and gel pens are clear highlights, the markers are thoughtfully specified with fine nibs, and the overall presentation makes it a pleasure to open each morning. The pearlescent acrylics need extra layering and the white gel pen disappoints, but as a festive gift or a self-purchase for daily creative motivation, it earns its place on the shelf. If you enjoy building a collection one small surprise at a time, this is one of the better art-focused advent calendars available.