Hollie Bond

For both children and parents, the run up to Christmas Day is often as exciting as the 25 December itself.

The anticipation of all the presents to come, the fabulous dinner and being surrounded by family and friends is wonderful and having an advent calendar to count down the days from the 1 December to 24 December only helps to make it all the more magical.

While there are always hundreds of pretty paper or chocolate filled advent calendars in the shops, it can be a lovely idea to buy a wooden advent calendar that can be filled with little toys or sweets and be used for years to come, making it a memorable part of your family Christmas.

As your children get older, the gifts can change to suit their age with toys for toddlers and young children and things like beauty products, jewellery and collectable characters or ornaments as girls and boys grow up.

A refillable advent calendar for kids can be a much more sustainable choice and it also allows you to really personalise your child's advent experience, with age appropriate gifts and toys behind each door that you know they will love.

And once you've bought one of these advent calendars they can be used as part of your Christmas décor for years to come so will be doubly useful.

These wooden advent calendars come in a beautiful designs, including a tree advent calendar or a wooden advent calendar gingerbread house.

We've rounded up the 10 best advent calendars that you can easily buy online and that come in a variety of designs and budgets so you can fill 24 drawers with heartfelt gifts for your little angels this festive period.

Each of these calendars starts on the first day of advent: 1 December, so if you're not one of those families who puts their tree up on the first day of Christmas month, make sure you keep your wooden advent calendar somewhere that's easy to find and not at the bottom of your Christmas decorations box in the loft!

If you're still looking for Christmas ideas, you might want to take a look at some of our other Best Buys articles, including the best outdoor Christmas decorations and the best Christmas Eve boxes for kids.

It's well known that children light up when they hear music, even when they're tiny babies, so toys that sing will always delight and excite kids.

Christmas is a great time to give the gift of a musical toy because song is a hugely important part of the season, with classic carols and many wonderful modern festive tunes being part of what makes Christmas feel so magical.

Singing toys are particularly exciting for kids too, because of the joy of finding out that not only have they got a lovely new teddy or toy, but it has a hidden talent that they can unleash themselves at the push of a button!

Musical Christmas toys can be brilliant educational resources too, as music is known to help your child's development with both motor skills and cognitive skills as they learn the words and dance along to the tunes.

Plus, it'll be so cute to see your child start to sing along with their new toy as they spend more and more time enjoying it.

And while you might pretend to find the endless renditions of 'Rockin Around The Christmas Tree' irritating, you'll actually find that a fun singing toy will actually bring the whole family together and end up being a key feature of your holidays.

Singing Christmas toys and Xmas characters can come out of the attic each year and will become a lovely part of a child's Christmas as they rediscover and remember their favourite singing toys from years gone by, so it's lovely to buy these animated figures when your child is young so that they are a key part of their Christmas experience as they grow up.

You can find novelty Christmas singing toys and animated toys in lots of places in the run up to Christmas, with garden centres being particularly good places to pick up a bargain animated figure, as well as plenty of online stores and high street shops also stocking them.

It can be a lovely idea to buy singing and dancing toys in the run up to Christmas to use as part of your décor too, to help the whole family get in the mood for Santa's arrival and the excitement of 25 December.

We've compiled an edit of the very best singing Christmas toys for 2020 that you'll want to buy as part of your Christmas décor, include in your baby, toddler or child's stocking or hide away under the tree for them to find on Christmas Day.

While you're here, you might want to take a look at some of our other Best Buys features for Christmas too, including the best train sets to go under the tree and the best soft toy presents for kids and toddlers.