About us

The Advent Calendar Shop is a Christma-subsidiary of Shoppydays Limited, better known as, Carousel - www.carouselshop.co.uk

Carousel was founded in August 1998 by entrepreneur extraordinares,
David and Clare Turvey.

Their then-fledgling business started life as “The World’s Biggest Little Toy Shop”
- a small, jam packed, traditional children’s store in heart of the lovely village of Shalford, near Guildford.

Offering classic brands and timeless toys, along with party wear, play equipment, garden games and hundreds of unique gifts and goodies sourced from around the globe, Carousel became known as a local Aladdin’s cave - a treasure trove full of magic and wonder.

Carousel Shop Shalford

No more so was this true than at Christmas, when the shop would somehow squeeze in even more stock; its mini customers would be giddy with excitement; and huge full-sized Santa decorations shipped over from the French Alpes would scale Carousel’s roof, delighting all who passed by.

Each and every Christmas season for the best part of two decades, a range of the most magical advent calendars would adorn the shop windows and displays of Carousel, having travelled all the way from the north west of Germany.

These gloriously detailed luxury paper advent calendars came in scores of stunning intricate designs, taking inspiration from iconic Christmas markets, traditional towns and villages, the majestic natural world, Victorian Yuletides of yore... and more!
When Clare and David finally retired in 2017 and Carousel Shop closed its doors for the last time, we knew we had to keep the ‘advent doors’ open and continue offering these marvellous advent calendars via our online store.

Such was our love for Advent calendars, we even ended up creating them their very own website, and so, the Advent Calendar Shop was born.