Brio Advent Calendar

Brio Advent Calendar 2026: a Christmas village in 24 wooden pieces

The Brio Advent Calendar 2026 (ref 36165) swaps last year’s gingerbread theme for a snowy Christmas village. Behind the 24 doors sit 24 wooden and plastic pieces, one a day, and the front of the box folds down to become the play surface: a little Christmas street with its own track running through it.

This is the first year Brio has shown the full line-up instead of keeping it a surprise, so you know what you are getting. A green engine, a red tipping wagon with a load of hay, four lengths of track, Mr and Mrs Father Christmas, a spotted horse, a tree, a wreath, a bench and a handful of signposts and fences. The countdown and the playset are the same object.

The spirit of BRIO World

Brio has made wooden railways in Sweden since 1884, and everything it sells runs on one idea: BRIO World is an open system, so every piece clicks onto every other piece you already own. That matters more than it sounds. The engine, wagon and track from this calendar aren’t a closed novelty set, they drop straight onto an existing Brio layout and keep going long after 24 December.

What’s inside the calendar

Twenty-four pieces, no chocolate, no filler. The confirmed line-up runs from the green engine and the tipping wagon through to the smaller scenery: two figures, a white spotted horse, a Christmas tree, a wreath, a park bench, three present-shaped cases, white and brown fences, and three signs (‘North Pole’, a roadworks sign and a sleigh sign). The four wooden tracks, curves and a ramp, are what tie the engine to the rest of the layout.

Everything is made from FSC-certified European beech wood (FSC-C111262) and good-quality plastic, and it suits children from age 3. Brio doesn’t publish a content value for this calendar, and the pieces are exclusive to it, so there is no honest way to price the box beyond the obvious one: divide the £34.97 launch price across 24 doors and each day works out at about £1.46.

=> The full day-by-day list of the 24 pieces is in the SPOILER tab.

How the 2026 edition compares with last year

The previous edition (ref 36100) was built around gingerbread: a gingerbread train, a gingerbread Christmas tree, a gingerbread pig, four tracks, a few presents, and the same Mr and Mrs Father Christmas. The 2026 edition keeps the four tracks and the two figures, then changes almost everything else. The biscuit train becomes a proper green engine and a tipping wagon; a horse, a bench, fences, signs and a wreath fill out the scene.

So the trade is clear. You gain more characters and a richer village, and more to actually play with once the track is down. You lose the sweet charm of the gingerbread pieces, and families who loved that look will miss it. The box art changes too, from the baked-goods palette to a bright snowy street.

My verdict on the Brio Advent Calendar 2026

What wins me over is that this one doesn’t end up in a drawer on 25 December. The engine, the wagon and the four tracks join whatever Brio layout a child already has, and the open system means they keep earning their place through the year. A toddler who gets this in December is still rolling the green engine round the lounge in March.

The move from gingerbread to a village scene is a smart call. A biscuit train is a nice image, but two figures, a horse, a bench and three signs give a child far more to build a story around. For the 3 to 6 age group, and for any family that already owns a Brio track, it lands.

Where I have to be honest: Brio tells you nothing about what the box is worth, and because the pieces are made for this calendar and sold nowhere else, I can’t check it either. As I’d put it, ‘you’re buying 24 small Brio pieces at about £1.46 a door, and whether that’s fair depends entirely on whether the child already lives in BRIO World.’ That’s the one real question before you buy.

• Not for you if you want a surprise each morning or a keepsake that stays on a shelf: this is a working toy, and the contents are already published.
• Worth it if you want a Christmas toy that outlasts Christmas and plugs into a set you already have, for a child aged 3 and up.

Other versions of this calendar:

• BRIO Advent Calendar (Christmas village, ref 36165), the 2026 edition reviewed here.
• BRIO World Advent Calendar, Railway Accessories and Add Ons, a separate Brio listing built around train accessories, not the festive village. Same open system, different contents.

Voucher and delivery:

• Voucher code: no code is available at the time of writing.
• Delivery: through Amazon, with free, fast delivery for Prime members.

Where to buy the Brio Advent Calendar 2026

The Brio Advent Calendar 2026 is sold at Amazon. Compare the live offers at the top of this page. There is no voucher code at the time of writing.