6 Cheap Mini Gadgets That Are Great For DIY Advent Calendars

Have you ever considered making an Advent calendar for the holidays? You can always buy pre-made ones, but you never know how good the trinkets or toys inside are until, well, you open them!

Making someone their own Advent calendar lets you tailor it to their likes and make every day until Christmas a little special. Of course, coming up with 25 gifts can be hard — and expensive if you don't watch the price tag. At the same time, you want the calendar to be unique and fun, and filling the days with just chocolates or other trinkets ruins the point of making one yourself.

If you have someone techy in your life, you can pick up some neat mini gadgets they likely won't have. But what mini gadgets are worth buying? The little ones below are cheap, fun, and useful. Anyone would love these for the holidays.

The fun thing about making an Advent calendar is that you can add neat little novelties someone wouldn't think to buy for themselves. One is an LED drink coaster, a great mini gadget that can upgrade a home bar. You can get a 12-pack of LED coaster sticker lights for about $16, and then gift them as-is, or make a unique gift by sticking them onto a gift glass or homemade coasters.

The lights create a really neat effect on any glass, and they're also helpful. In a dark room, the light helps you find your drink, and it can also help you find a tabletop, so you are less likely to spill. With a dozen lights available, you can deck out a whole set of glasses and coasters and add a fun touch to a room or a party.

Sometimes, the best gifts are the useful ones, especially when you have 25 Advent calendar slots to fill. Since the holiday season is chillier for many, rechargeable hand warmers make a fantastic, practical gift. A variety of rechargeable hand warmer brands are available, and you can easily get a two-pack for under $20. You can keep the mini gadget in your pocket or hold it in your hand, and it keeps both hands warm without any waste.

Of course, these hand warmers don't have a ton of extra features, but they have enough to make them better than disposable hand warmers. Most rechargeable hand warmers offer different heat settings, so if you only need to warm your pockets, you can choose a lower setting. If it's incredibly cold outside, you can use the higher setting. That level of heat control makes it well worth the price, plus the money your giftee will save by not using disposable warmers.

If someone in your life prefers taking notes in a physical notebook but struggles to organize them, a smart notebook can be one of the best gifts. Rocketbook is one of the best-known smart notebook brands, and the Rocketbook New Mini is the perfect size for an Advent calendar (and your pocket).

What sets the Mini apart from an e-ink tablet is that it is an actual notebook. You get 48 pages in a small, flip-top format, so it feels less like a gadget and more like a different way to keep analog notes. When you're done, the Rocketbook app lets you upload and save the pages, so your notes stay organized in one place. Finally, the pages are reusable, so you don't need to worry about filling them up and getting another notebook. For $15, it's a fantastic gift.

If you think the Mini is too small, other Rocketbooks are available, including one the size of a standard notebook. However, they likely won't fit into your DIY Advent calendar slots, so keep that in mind.

Gamers always need more controllers, but they're expensive, which makes them a bit harder to gift than, say, other gadgets you can find on Amazon. But instead of getting them a new Switch Pro Controller, you get them a controller that fits in their pocket?

This is exactly what the 8Bitdo Micro Bluetooth Controller is. For $25, you can pick up this extremely small controller and fit it into any Advent calendar slot. As small as it is, this controller isn't a trinket; it connects to Android phones, Raspberry Pis, and Switch consoles and works fully. Granted, its size might make it a little hard to use during more intense games, but it's still worth adding to your collection.

Think of the 8Bitdo Micro as a halfway gag gift — it's a bit funny to use, but it's also useful when you need something tiny to play games on the go.

The Kodak Charmera keychain makes a fun gift. Available for $35, this blind box has a retro-style camera small enough to hang from a keychain. But this isn't just a retro bauble; this is a fully functional digital camera.

It isn't a bad camera, either. The Kodak Charmera takes 1.6-megapixel shots at 1440 x 1080 resolution. You won't get 4K resolution, but this tiny point-and-shoot camera makes that trade-off common. The keychain camera also has a microSD slot that supports up to 128GB, so you can take and save a fair number of pictures before you need to clear it out.

Perhaps most importantly, the Charmera is just fun to use. Taking photos the old-fashioned way, without trying to get the perfect shot on your phone, is a really nice novelty. $35 might be on the higher end for an Advent calendar gift, but it's well worth it if you have someone who loves retro gear.

Is your giftee the type that never seems to have a lighter when they need it? This mini kerosene lighter will do the trick. A three-pack of lighters is $17, while a single lighter is around $7, so these are extremely affordable and fit even the smallest Advent calendar setups.

The lighters can easily attach to keyrings via the rugged O-ring on the end, and the screw-on top won't come off easily, so you won't lose the lighter. From there, it works as a fully functional kerosene lighter. It's perfect for anyone who needs a light on the go and a useful mini gadget for campers. It's also useful in emergencies, so if you think someone needs a few extra supplies for their emergency kit, these lighters are a solid addition.

Of course, this isn't the type of gift you'll want to include in a child's or teen's DIY Advent Calendar, so it is an adult-only gadget. However, there are plenty of other fun mini gadgets and gift ideas to look into!

For this article, we drew on a variety of criteria to find some of the best mini gadgets available. First, and most importantly, we made sure the gadgets fit the average DIY Advent calendar size, so you won't have trouble slotting them in. 

Then, we wanted to make sure the gadgets make good gifts. What counts as a good gift will, of course, vary from person to person, but we chose small, fun presents that nearly everyone can use, even if they aren't as novel. Once we set the criteria, we looked on Amazon and in some of our own mini gadget gift guides to find great options for your DIY Advent calendar.