Six LEGO sets you can use as alternate LEGO advent calendars this Xmas

Tired of traditional LEGO advent calendars and their tiny builds? Here are six much bigger LEGO sets you can use as alternate calendars this Xmas, from Home Alone to the Batmobile.

While 75418 Star Wars Advent Calendar 2025, 76456 Harry Potter Advent Calendar 2025 and the rest of this year’s line-up include 24 separate mini-models or minifigures to assemble in the run-up to Christmas, the build experience each day is pretty fleeting. If you want something you can really sink your teeth into, what you need is a fully-fledged LEGO set that just so happens to include 24 bags, so you can build one per day.

The LEGO Group officially kicked off that trend with 21330 Home Alone in 2021 (more on that further down), but it’s certainly not the only set that fits the bill. Here are six alternate LEGO advent calendars you could crack the seals on this December, with a mix of new, current and retired sets on the table…

6 – 76437 The Burrow Collectors’ Edition

Fancy conjuring up a little festive magic this Xmas? Set your sights on 76437 The Burrow Collectors’ Edition, 2024’s flagship LEGO Harry Potter set, which includes 2,405 pieces split across 24 bags. You don’t need to be a mathemagician to realise that’s almost exactly 100 pieces per bag (on average). That’s the kind of build you can commit to in December without setting aside hours every day.

This one’s still available to buy right now from LEGO.com for £219.99 / $259.99 / €259.99, and includes 10 exclusive minifigures – which is also more than you’d find in a regular LEGO advent calendar…

5 – 76139 1989 Batmobile

If you’re prepared to start hunting down sets on the aftermarket, you could do much worse than 76139 1989 Batmobile, which is arguably still the best LEGO Batmobile ever released. It’s also not too much more expensive on the secondary market than it was to buy at retail – and if you happen to have one stashed away in the backlog, consider this your calling to crack it open on December 1.

Like the rest of the sets featured here, the 3,306-piece LEGO 1989 Batmobile spreads its elements across exactly 24 bags. And while it’s considerably cheaper used, you’re really going to want a new copy to make the most of that specific number of bags.

4 – 41843 Family Christmas Tree

The LEGO Group couldn’t pass up an opportunity to make its flagship festive set of 2025 into an advent calendar by stealth, and so it goes that 41843 Family Christmas Tree – the biggest LEGO Christmas tree of all time – is comprised of precisely 24 bags. This set is billed specifically as one you can build with friends and family, but if you want to turn it into an advent experience, best to keep it to yourself, eh?

41843 Family Christmas Tree debuted at the beginning of October and is available now at LEGO.com. You can check out our hands-on review here.

3 – 75059 Sandcrawler

Another one from the archives, 75059 Sandcrawler is not your traditional LEGO advent calendar. But if you can find one on the aftermarket, this 2014 Ultimate Collector Series set should add a level of spice to your seasonal builds like no other, mostly because it hails from the era of brittle brown bricks. Will you manage to assemble each bag before the pieces crumble to dust in your hands?

That’s a question you’ll get to answer 24 times in December thanks to the two-dozen bags in the Sandcrawler. Think of it as a really expensive endurance challenge…

2 – 21330 Home Alone

The O.G. alternate LEGO advent calendar, 21330 Home Alone was the first set to be specifically split over 24 bags for the festive period, as confirmed by the designers at the time of release. And aside from the Christmas tree, it’s also the only set on this list that’s explicitly designed to get you in the holiday spirit. Build one bag per day while watching Home Alone in 10-minute chunks for the full experience.

The first and only Home Alone LEGO set is available right now at LEGO.com and through select third-party retailers. Order through the official online store to qualify for 40774 Classic Animation Scenes and earn 5% back in Insiders points (and an extra 3% when purchasing through the Brick Search app as a Plus member), or snap it up from Zavvi for a direct £20 discount.

1 – 76300 Arkham Asylum

Of all the marketing taglines attached to 76300 Arkham Asylum, the two most surprising were easily its 65 stickers being touted as a selling point, and the idea that it was designed as a DC advent calendar. More likely the team coincidentally split its build across 24 bags and dreamt up the advent concept after the fact (there’s nothing else tying this LEGO Batman set to Xmas), but the point remains that you can use it as an advent calendar if you like. Doing so in Calendar Man cosplay is entirely your call.

The biggest LEGO Arkham Asylum set to date is out now, and with its 16 minifigures also means you’re getting a new character every two days out of three when used as an advent calendar. Can’t say fairer than that.

If these alternate LEGO advent calendars are too far out of reach (or you just don’t have time to commit to this level of build every day in what’s already a very busy month for many people), head here for our guide to this year’s regular LEGO advent calendars, from Disney, Minecraft and Friends to Star Wars, City and Harry Potter.

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