We love advent calendars for the holidays at my house. The kids always get very excited when we get the new one for the year. For them that is the true kick off for Christmas. This year we went with the Lego City Advent calendar. 24 gifts for the 24-day countdown and something they could build and play with later. They can be pricey ranging anywhere from $29-$39. Over all we really enjoyed it though. One of the things we thought was lame was that for one of the days you would get something so tiny and very little building involved (for example a gift, you just smash two bricks together). Another thing we have noticed is that each year they are generally the same surprises in the count down.  If you can pick one up on the lower price range do it they bring lots of excitement each day.