Off Campus Advent Calendar 2026

The Off Campus Advent Calendar 2026 brings those two relationships together through 24 small references to campus life, hockey and romance. Garrett & Hannah and Dean & Allie share the box with books, coffee, roses, hearts, ice skates, jerseys and other details that feel familiar to readers of Elle Kennedy’s Off-Campus series. The line “Same campus. Different love stories. Always you.” gives the design its clearest organizing idea: these couples come from different books and follow very different relationship arcs, yet they belong to the same interconnected social world.

Off Campus Advent Calendar 2026 featuring Garrett and Hannah, Dean and Allie, hockey skates, books, coffee, roses, hearts and Briar-inspired campus romance imagery.

Two romances begin in very different ways

Garrett Graham and Hannah Wells lead The Deal, the first novel in the series. Garrett is the captain of the college hockey team and wants a professional career after graduation, but a falling grade threatens the academic standing he needs to keep playing. Hannah has the grades he needs, while she wants help attracting another guy, so their relationship begins with a practical exchange: tutoring in return for a pretend date.

That setup is why books, study imagery and hockey work so naturally together in this calendar. Academics are not just generic college decoration around Garrett and Hannah; studying is the circumstance that repeatedly puts them in the same space, while hockey represents the future Garrett is trying to protect. What begins as an arrangement built around two separate goals gradually becomes more personal, which allows ordinary objects such as coffee cups, notebooks and hearts to feel as relevant to their story as skates or jerseys.

Dean Di Laurentis and Allie Hayes enter the romantic center of the series differently in The Score. Allie is nearing graduation, uncertain about what comes next and recovering from the end of a long-term relationship. Dean already has a reputation as a successful hockey player who treats relationships casually, so what Allie intends as a rebound quickly becomes more complicated when Dean decides that one night is not where their connection ends.

The contrast between the two couples gives the calendar more range. The Deal begins with an explicit bargain and fake dating, while The Score begins with two people attempting to keep something temporary from becoming serious. Roses, hearts and date-night imagery can therefore belong to both stories without meaning exactly the same thing in each one.

Hockey connects the couples, but campus life fills in the world around them

Briar hockey is one of the strongest visual links between Garrett and Dean. Jerseys, sticks, ice skates and rink imagery immediately place the collection inside the sports-romance world shared by the books, even when none of the four lead characters appears directly on an ornament.

Hockey, however, is only part of why the setting works. The characters are still university students managing classes, friendships, graduation and decisions about what their lives will look like after Briar. Books and coffee therefore soften the louder sports imagery and give the calendar a more everyday rhythm. They suggest study sessions, conversations and ordinary time spent together—the less dramatic moments through which the relationships develop.

This combination is important because Off-Campus would feel narrower if every ornament were a puck, skate or jersey. Its recognizable atmosphere comes from the overlap between college life, friendship, hockey and romance. When those motifs appear side by side, the set begins to resemble the world of the novels rather than simply a hockey-themed Christmas collection.

Off-Campus 2026 collectibles combining hockey imagery, books, coffee and romantic details inspired by the shared Briar University setting.

The shared setting is what allows two separate books to belong on one box

Elle Kennedy structures Off-Campus around different central couples while keeping their friendships and university environment connected. The Deal follows Garrett and Hannah, The Mistake moves to Logan and Grace, The Score shifts to Dean and Allie, and The Goal centers Tucker and Sabrina. A reader can move into a new romance without completely leaving the social group established in the previous book.

That structure is exactly what the line “Same campus. Different love stories.” captures. Garrett & Hannah and Dean & Allie are not being paired because they share identical plots; they work together because their relationships occupy different parts of the same fictional community. Hockey provides the most obvious connection, but friendships, campus routines and the transition toward adult life keep the books feeling continuous.

The series later reinforces that continuity through The Legacy, which returns to the original four couples after graduation. By that point, Briar is no longer the center of their daily lives, but the relationships formed there continue into weddings, proposals and other major decisions. In that context, the final part of the calendar tagline—“Always you”—fits naturally with a series that eventually follows its couples beyond the campus stage.

Close-up of Off Campus Advent Calendar ornaments featuring couple references, hockey equipment, books, coffee, roses and heart-shaped campus-romance motifs.

The 24 ornaments work best as relationship cues rather than literal scenes

The calendar does not need every piece to reproduce a specific chapter. A book can point toward Garrett and Hannah’s tutoring arrangement while also representing Briar student life more broadly. A pair of skates can connect both Garrett and Dean to the hockey circle around them, while coffee, roses and hearts provide quieter relationship cues that work across the two romances.

That looser approach makes the countdown more readable. Someone who has only read The Deal can still recognize Garrett, Hannah and the combination of academics with hockey. A reader farther into the series can understand why Dean and Allie occupy the same collection without needing every ornament labeled by book.

Once all 24 pieces have been revealed, they can also be regrouped rather than kept in countdown order. Garrett-and-Hannah references can sit together, Dean-and-Allie pieces can form another group, and the hockey and campus objects can remain between them as the common setting that connects both relationships.

Off Campus Advent Calendar 2026 displayed with 24 acrylic ornaments inspired by Garrett and Hannah, Dean and Allie, hockey romance and Briar University life.

That completed arrangement explains the product more clearly than any individual ornament can. The calendar is not trying to reduce two novels to 24 exact scenes; it collects the small visual signals that make the stories feel as though they belong to the same place. The couples are different, the circumstances that bring them together are different, but Briar University and the people around its hockey team keep their stories connected.

Written by Nadia Marsh, Collectibles Specialist at DoesignUs.