Custom Advent Calendar Boxes
Custom advent calendar boxes with 24 doors or 24 drawers, from 250 units. Each cell built to the thing that goes in it, doors that open once and stay open, and a structure that survives a month of daily handling on a kitchen counter — ordered in spring, because everyone orders in September.
Twenty-four cells, twenty-four openings, one month of daily use
- Board
- 20–24 pt SBS front panel over a celled tray; rigid chipboard for drawer sets
- Formats
- Die-cut doors, 24-drawer grid, pouch or tube set, book style
- Cells
- Cut to your items; mixed sizes laid out to read as a grid
Get a price for Advent Calendar Boxes
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Doors or drawers
The door calendar is what most people picture and what most budgets reach. The drawer version is a keepsake and priced like one — 24 wrapped rigid drawers is 24 boxes, and it is quoted as such.
| Die-cut doors | Doors cut in a front panel over a celled tray; flat, cheap, the classic |
|---|---|
| Drawer grid | 24 small drawers in a rigid frame; premium, reusable, much more expensive |
| Tube or pouch set | 24 sealed pouches or tubes in a printed tray; easiest to fill |
| Book style | A hinged cover over a celled tray, the doors inside; a gift format |
Cells sized to what goes in them
This is where advent calendars are won or lost. The cell has to fit the product with almost no play, or the item rattles to a corner and the door will not close. Twenty-four identical cells only work if all twenty-four items are the same size; where they are not — a mixed beauty or food calendar — the tray is cut to a plan, with different cell sizes in a layout that still looks like a grid from the front. Send us all twenty-four items, or their dimensions, before the die is made.
Filling is the hidden cost. Twenty-four different items placed by hand into numbered cells takes minutes per calendar. A layout that groups the same item in a row makes hand-filling several times faster.
Doors that open once and stay open
- A perforated or kiss-cut door hinged on one edge, cut so it tears cleanly the first time and does not spring shut.
- A door with a small thumb notch, because a flush-cut door on a coated board is very hard to start.
- Numbers printed large and scattered rather than in order, which is the tradition and is also more forgiving of a mis-cut.
- A backer sheet behind the doors so the contents are not visible through the cut lines before the day.
Shipping something large, flat and full of loose items
A filled advent calendar is a large, flat, fragile thing full of loose items, and it ships in a fitted corrugated outer with the calendar snug inside; loose in a big box, the cells shift and doors pop open in transit. We size the outer to the calendar and check it against carrier bands using the method in our note on parcel size and shipping cost.
Order it in spring, not in September
An advent calendar is a tooled product — a die, a celled insert, a printed front and a long hand fill — that sells in a six-week window and then stops selling entirely. Briefs that arrive in spring get the calendar they designed. Briefs that arrive in September choose from what is still possible, which is the same seasonal trap that catches the client programs on our corporate gift boxes for client programs page.
The fill is the part that surprises people. Twenty-four cells filled by hand, checked and closed, is minutes per calendar before a single one is boxed, and that time has to be in the schedule as well as the print.
Advent Calendar Boxes — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Board
- 20–24 pt SBS front panel over a celled tray; rigid chipboard for drawer sets
- Formats
- Die-cut doors, 24-drawer grid, pouch or tube set, book style
- Cells
- Cut to your items; mixed sizes laid out to read as a grid
- Doors
- Kiss-cut hinged doors with thumb notches, printed backer behind
- Sizes
- Typically 12 x 16 in to 16 x 20 in; depth to the tallest item
- Outer
- Fitted corrugated shipper sized to the calendar
- Minimum
- 250 calendars
On every job
- Print process
- Digital below about a thousand, offset above it. Both sides as standard on cards, tags and leaflets.
- Color
- CMYK with spot colors for a brand match. Uncoated and cotton stocks print noticeably lighter than coated ones.
- Tolerance
- Trim plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut. Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding.
- Tooling
- A die only where the piece is shaped, perforated or drilled, made once and kept. A plain rectangle needs none.
- Food contact
- Food-safe inks on menus and counter print that will be handled where food is served.
- Sustainability
- Uncoated and unlaminated stocks recycle without separation, and FSC papers are available across the range.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build advent calendar boxes on
Sheet print is judged in the hand more than a box is: the weight, the surface and whether a pen works on it. These are the stocks we run for cards, folders, leaflets and stationery.
Coated card 300–400gsm
The workhorse. Sharp full-color print, matte or gloss, laminated where it is handled. Does not take a pen unless the finish is matte.
300–400gsmUncoated card
No clay coat. Colors read softer and warmer, a deboss goes deeper, and it writes on with anything. Photographs lose punch.
300–400gsmCotton and textured card
Soft, thick and fibrous. Takes a deep blind deboss and reads as an invitation. Foil sits beautifully; four-color does not.
400–700gsmDuplexed card
Two sheets bonded, often with a colored core, for a very thick card with a visible colored edge. The heaviest thing we print.
600–900gsmText paper 100–170gsm
Leaflets, folder inners and booklet pages. Folds without cracking and takes a full-color print on both faces.
100–170gsmManila and kraft paper
Unbleached, tan, and cheap. One or two colors read well; white ink gives a light mark. Envelopes, folders and tags.
90–300gsmSynthetic stock
Polypropylene sheet for tags and cards that get wet, torn or handled outdoors. Prints like paper and does not soften.
200–400 micronBoard-backed
A printed face laminated to grayboard, for a rigid card, a folder back or a display that has to stand up on its own.
1–2 mm boardNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Sheet print takes the widest range of finishes of anything we make.
Matte lamination
Soft, fingerprint-resistant, and it still takes a pen. The default on anything handled.
Gloss lamination
Maximum color depth. Shows every fingerprint and refuses a ballpoint.
Hot foil
Gold, rose gold, silver, holographic or a color. The block is small so the die is cheap.
Emboss and deboss
Deepest on uncoated and cotton stocks; shallow and prone to cracking on gloss coated.
Spot UV
A gloss shape on a matte laminate. Best on a dark ground where the contrast reads.
Edge paint and colored core
Color on the cut edge of a thick or duplexed card. Only seen when the card is picked up, which is the point.
Soft-touch
A velvet laminate on a cover or a folder. Marks on white; excellent on dark.
Uncoated and textured
No film at all. Writes on, debosses deeply, and reads as considered rather than cheap.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing printed sheets, folds and the grain: advent calendar boxes
A printed piece is specified flat and finished folded, and the difference between the two is where mistakes live. Send the finished size you want and we work back to the flat.
- Finished size
- The size after folding and trimming. A6, A5, A4, DL, US letter and legal are standard; anything else is cut on its own die.
- Bleed and safe area
- 3 mm of artwork past every trim edge, and nothing important within 4 mm inside it. The guillotine drifts by a fraction on every stack.
- Grain direction
- Paper folds cleanly along the grain and cracks across it. We set the grain to the fold, which is why a sheet is not simply cut from the biggest sheet available.
- Fold allowance
- On a roll fold or a gate fold, the inner panels are cut a millimeter or two shorter so the piece closes flat.
- Creasing
- Anything over about 170gsm is creased before folding. Without it the fold cracks and the coating flakes along the line.
- Trim tolerance
- Plus or minus 1 mm guillotined, plus or minus 0.5 mm die-cut.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Spec your Advent Calendar Boxes
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a stock and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about advent calendar boxes? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What do you need to quote one?
All twenty-four items or their dimensions, the format you want, and the quantity. The cells are cut to the products, so the products come first.
Can the cells be different sizes?
Yes, and for a mixed calendar they have to be. We lay them out so the front still reads as a grid.
Will the doors open cleanly?
Yes — kiss-cut and hinged on one edge with a thumb notch. A flush-cut door on coated board is very hard to start, which is the usual complaint.
Can you see the contents before the day?
Not with a printed backer sheet behind the doors, which we include as standard.
Do you fill the calendars?
We make the packaging. Filling twenty-four different cells is slow, so we lay the grid out to make hand-filling as fast as possible.
Can I have drawers instead of doors?
Yes, 24 small rigid drawers in a frame. It is a keepsake format and it is priced as twenty-four small boxes, because that is what it is.
How big is a typical calendar?
12 x 16 in to 16 x 20 in, with the depth set by the tallest item. Beauty calendars run larger and deeper than chocolate ones.
How does it ship?
In a fitted corrugated outer sized to the calendar. Loose in a large box the cells shift and doors pop open.
When should I order?
Spring. It is a tooled product with a die, an insert and a long fill, selling in a six-week window; September briefs are limited to what is possible.
Why is the minimum 250?
The die and the insert tooling are the cost, and they need a run to spread across. Below that the tooling dominates the unit price.
Can it be recyclable?
The paperboard version is, entirely. A drawer set with ribbon pulls and a rigid frame is a keepsake rather than a recyclable.
Will you send a sample?
An unprinted calendar with the cells cut to your items, so you can fill it and open every door before print.
Same range
