It’s time to start stocking the fridge for the biggest foodie extravaganza of the year – but why save all the gourmet goodness just for Christmas Day? We’ve scoped out the most divine and delicious food and drink advent calendars in the UK to prove that every day in December can be filled with tasty seasonal treats. Whether you’re looking for gift ideas or a few daily snacks to enjoy yourself, read on to discover this year’s very best calendars for food lovers.
Cacao-rich, dense in nutrients and super-tasty, you won’t find just any chocolate tucked away behind the doors of Ombar’s snazzy new advent calendar – instead, you’ll find the vegan, Fair Trade, organic chocolate pieces of your dreams. Each cute-as-a-button mini Ombar comes in one of four moreish flavours: Smooth & Creamy Original, Hazelnut, Salted Caramel Truffle and Fruit & Nut. With less than half the carbon emissions of mainstream milk chocolate, you can bet this sustainable treat is on Santa’s good list this year. It comes in at an angelic £9.99 too.
Now here’s a chocolatey advent calendar that everyone can enjoy. From its charming ski village packaging to its slavery-free credentials, this plastic-free offering from the genius chocolatiers at H!P oozes goodness – and that’s before you’ve even got to the tasty, individually wrapped vegan chocs inside. Plant-based and made from single-origin Colombian cocoa, each sweet little oat milk-infused square tastes simply divine. It’s not a one-flavour wonder, either. There are four different varieties to open: Creamy Original, Gingerbread, Salted Caramel and White Chocolate. Its bargain £10 price is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.
With 24 wholly different flavours jam-packed behind its doors, this £13.99 star buy is a real smorgasbord of tea-based wonderment – and you can tell it’s been made with love. One day you’ll be sipping classic English Breakfast tea, the next you’ll be brewing a fruity Blackcurrant Burst, then you’ll be cosying up with a festive Rooibos & Cinnamon blend… the list goes on, and we can confirm they’re all delicious (we’ve tried them). Plus, who wouldn’t want to give some seasonal support to a company that donates 20% of its profits to projects that help communities in need?
This plant-based chocolate calendar promises you can have an eco-friendly Christmas this year, with a selection of 24 smooth oat milk chocolates to sweeten the countdown to the big day. Coming in at only £15, this calendar fills a gap in the saturated chocolate calendar market so everyone’s included, no matter their dietary restrictions. The vegan chocolates inside are made using single-origin Colombian cocoa, oat milk and 35% less sugar – and most importantly, they’re slave- and child-labour-free.
The latest company to join the calendar crew, Cannacoffee has just launched its first-ever advent-appropriate box of treats – and, coming in at just £17.99, it’s a humdinger. Each Nespresso-compatible pod contains organic, single-origin Brazilian coffee infused with CBD, and the taste really hits the spot. Sweet, smooth and nutty, with a few chocolatey notes thrown in for good measure, it’s the perfect vegan-friendly mug of Joe to start frosty December days with. As Cannacoffee says itself, it’s “your daily caffeine kick with an added dose of calm”. We’ll drink to that!
Available in both tea bag and loose-leaf versions, T2’s “Sip the Future Hello” advent calendar is a wellness-boosting countdown that’s here to help you achieve your self-care journey. Not only are the 24 teas and tisanes inside soothing and delicious, but the calendar invites you to take on one action for a brighter future every day, making it a reliable source of inspiration for setting up those New Year goals. We like the Sticky Date Delight and Packs a Peach flavours, and love the brightly illustrated box. One to gift to a dear friend. It costs £22.
On the first day of Christmas, my calendar gave to me... 25 handmade marshmallows to melt as I please! This £20 gourmet marshmallow advent calendar brings back joyful childhood memories we didn’t know we’d forgotten about with its ready-to-melt marshmallows, which come in 12 different flavours. There's even the option to add on a marshmallow toasting kit, designed to toast each marshmallow to gooey perfection, for a total of £23.95. Need we say s’more?
There are chocolate advent calendars, and then there are decadent, edible works of art. This one is definitely the latter! The brainchild of Birmingham-based chocolaterie and patisserie Soko – supported by Michelin-starred chef Andreas Antona – this magnificent Christmas collection is packed with delicate, imaginative bonbons and tantalising “Enrobed Chocolates”. For just £24 you can take your tastebuds on a festive journey well worth the indulgence. Golden Hazelnut Rocher, anyone?
Founded by James Cadbury, the great-great-great grandson of THE John Cadbury, you just know that Love Cocoa’s calendar is going to be good. Chock-full of rich and creamy chocolate truffles, this one’s a real class act, and it’s available online for a reasonable £25. Flavours include Giant Rocher, Hazelnut Praline and Dark Chocolate Ganache, and there’s a surprise mystery bar to open in the final run up to the big day. Slavery-free and made without palm oil, it’s chocolate that makes a difference – and for every calendar sold, a tree is planted. What could be more Christmassy than that?
Wake up every day feeling like you’re about to have breakfast at a fancy hotel with these tiny jars of jams, preserves and marmalades from the experts at Bonne Maman. Brimming with sumptuous flavours, this specially curated selection includes the outstanding fruit spreads we’ve come to expect from the brand, like Pear with Cocoa Nibs, Mirabelle Plum with Linden Blossom, and White Nectarine and Peach with Lemon Verbena. Plus, to sweeten the deal, the £25.99 calendar also includes two delightful surprises.
Talk about a show-stopper! Joe & Seph’s £30 Advent calendar is a whimsical feast for the eyes: its gorgeously designed box features a Christmastime popcorn kitchen that opens up like a storybook. And the magic doesn’t stop there – the calendar is full to the brim with 19 unique flavours of handmade, award-winning popcorn. Behind the doors you’ll find a mix of Joe & Seph’s classics, seasonal favourites and a few exciting exclusives, including Gingerbread popcorn, Banoffee Pie popcorn and deliciously decadent Toffee Apple and Cinnamon popcorn. There’s even some extra-yummy Milk Chocolate Popcorn Bites to enjoy on Christmas Eve.
One for the coffee-lover in your life, this Nespresso-compatible coffee pod calendar from conscientious coffee company Blue Goose comes filled with ethically sourced organic coffees to try. Not only do the 24 blends contained in the box taste wonderful, but they also come with compelling environmental and people stories. Just take the Sail Ship Pod, for example: it’s transported from Colombia to Europe in a 1920s sailing ship, saving the equivalent carbon emissions of an 11,000-mile land journey. Naturally, the capsules are home-compostable, so it’s eco-friendly too. Snag the calendar from the Blue Goose website for £30.
Forget snowballs. There’s only one round, frosty little parcel we want to play with this Christmas, and it comes filled with gelato! Say hello to Little Moons, the ice cream-stuffed Japanese rice flour doughballs the younger generation love. As tasty as it is on-trend, the Little Moons Mochi Advent Calendar is packed with 24 outrageously Christmassy flavours like Mince Pie, Nutcracker Candy Cane and Belgian Chocolate Hazelnut, and they’re less than 85 calories a pop. Visit the Little Moons website and get your hands on a calendar for £35 before they all sell out.
A whopping 48 cups of tea are hidden within the colourful boxes of this beautiful calendar. That’s right: 48! This seasonal selection has been specially designed so you and a loved one can share a moment indulging in a one-of-a-kind infusion each morning (though we won’t judge you if you decide to keep them all for yourself). Each mini box comes with instructions on how to brew its contents to perfection, and the variety of choices is truly spectacular: Birthday Cake with sprinkles, Pina Colada and Gingerbread Chai are just some of the flavours you can find inside. it costs £38, so less than £1 a cuppa.
It turns out you can have your cake and eat it too this Christmas, all thanks to this hand-baked, hand-decorated cake advent calendar from The Original Cake Co. We can't think of a better way to wake up every day in December than by tucking into a truffle cake or luxury fruit cake surprise made by the Lincoln-based artisan bakery. Grab yours for £39.95 (because life is always better with cake).
Gingerbread, sticky toffee pudding, chocolate orange… all in candyfloss form! The first of its kind, this candyfloss advent calendar packs 25 not-so-little tubs of spun sugar into its retro pink box, with more flavours than one could possibly imagine. Designed to share, the box can be yours for £39.99, and it’s sure to push the boundaries of your creativity as you figure out how to incorporate so much candy goodness into your December diet. Pro tip: use the candyfloss to top some Yuletide cocktails and watch as the sugar dissolves gently into your tipples.
Cutting down on alcohol but don’t want to miss all the fun? With one of Wise Bartender’s alcohol-free advent calendars, you can enjoy a tasty beer, cocktail or spirit each day in December – without the booze. The brand has put out two seasonal boxes this year: a beer calendar, which includes 24 hand-selected no- and low-alcohol beers, and a calendar filled with cider, cocktail, spirit and wine alternatives (including Binary, Gunners, Corrigans, Crafty Nectar and Lyre’s). The calendars are currently on sale at £39.99 for the first 250 sold, with the price reverting to £59.99 after that. Better hurry!
We all know that December is the most wonderfully hectic time of the year. So why not gift the busy foodie in your life – and yes, that includes yourself – an extra daily caffeine kick with a Nespresso coffee advent calendar? Whether you’re after Nespresso Original pods or ones designed for the Vertuo, there’s a calendar for you. Each box set includes 24 distinct types of coffee, including three co-created by the world-renowned pastry chef and chocolatier Pierre Hermé, plus a little treat for Christmas Eve. The ever-so-elegant collections are available for £41 (Original pods) or £45 (Vertuo pods).
Champions of sustainability, compostable packaging and delivering positive social impact, the folks at Chimney Fire Coffee have unveiled a £45 Christmassy collection that’s bound to get coffee connoisseurs in the party spirit. Introducing the 12 Days of Discovery Advent Calendar: a sensational selection of whole bean and pre-ground coffees from around the world, including blends with new and interesting origins, varieties made using alternative processes, and seasonal takes with unique flavour profiles. There’s even an information booklet and map so you can do some discovering of your own between sumptuous, snuggled-up sips.
There’s regular liquorice, and then there’s Lakrids by Bülow: amazingly decadent, imaginatively flavoured, chocolate-coated liquorice, made with love in Denmark. Oh-so-stylish in its elegant black box, the Lakrids Christmas Calendar (£49) is a sumptuous treat you’ll be positively springing out of bed for each December morning. Inside you’ll find a whole spectrum of heavenly flavours, from sugary delights like Butter Cookie to savoury sensations like Salt & Pepper, with a classic, slow-crafted sweet liquorice stick thrown in for good measure. With not one, but two bite-sized nibbles waiting for you behind each window, there’s no excuse not to share the goodness.
With all manner of sweet treats coming in bitesize advent calendar form these days, it was only a matter of time before everyone’s favourite snackable bake, the flapjack, got the Christmas treatment. Enter: this oh-so-tempting Flapjack Advent Calendar made by the award-winning artisan flapjack makers at Flapjackery. Priced at £50, it’s a real thing of beauty, with an array of individually wrapped, delightfully different flapjack flavours to try each day in December. Expect traditional favourites like yummy Milk Chocolate Flapjack and Millionaire Flapjack, as well as some all-new festive creations.
Start your “live-a-healthier-life" resolutions in December and welcome the New Year with a habit that will finally stick with the help of this one-of-a-kind matcha calendar. Contained within is a selection of pure-grade, hand-blended matcha – enough for two cups per tin – with some delightful flavour twists: think Peach Cobbler, or the magical, colour-changing Mermaid Matcha. With options to try the blends as a traditional cuppa, in a latte, iced or even as a lemonade, this is matcha like you’ve never seen it before. Get ready for a daily assortment of Instagrammable drinks, available for £52.
Fever-Tree's Advent calendar is the ideal gift for the gin-lover in your life, with 24 doors hiding either a perfectly crafted premium mixer, or a premium craft gin mini. Open them all up and you’ve got yourself 12 perfect tipples, all selected by the in-house experts at Fever-Tree, for only £60. That’s £5 per cocktail! You know what they say: a G&T a day keeps the cold nights away...
Beer52, better known for its beer subscription boxes, has knocked it out of the park with its beer advent calendar this year. Think: 24 craft beers from 17 different countries, and 18 assorted styles made at the world’s top microbreweries. The calendar also includes a tasting glass to enhance the drinking experience, as well as a scratch card (it’s the gift that keeps on giving!). This advent calendar is enough to delight any craft beer connoisseur, and it can be yours for a mere £64.99.
Owning an expensive, historic house in romantic Notting Hill may not be on the cards for everyone this year, but you can get a taste of some of that movie-like charm in the form of this gorgeous Notting Hill House Luxury Advent Calendar by Melt. The limited-edition, plastic-free calendar features 24 luxurious “Notting Hill houses” filled with delicious, fresh, organic chocolates. It really is a thing of beauty, and it can be yours for £69 (which is cheaper than a mortgage).
For those who know their drinks, these are some of the most coveted Christmas calendars out there. Drinks By The Dram’s Advent offerings include a choice of premium drink samples (expect the likes of Japanese whiskey, rum, gin, Bourbon, and vodka, to name a few). Its cheapest calendar, That Boutique-y Gin Company Advent Calendar, sells for only £69.95. However, if you’re feeling extremely generous (or ready to over-indulge), you can get The Old and Rare Whisky Advent Calendar for the small sum of £999.95. Keep the change!
Wishing for a very beer-y Christmas? The craft beer aficionados at family-run Seven Bro7hers Brewing Co. have the answer to your prayers: a seriously hefty beast of a £69.95 Beer Advent Calendar. Stuffed with a surprise mix of 24 different Seven Bro7hers 330ml and 440ml cans, plus a generous sprinkle of Yuletide joy, it’s the most swiggable seasonal treat out there. You can expect to unpack a bevy of treats from both the brothers’ core and special ranges, though exact varieties haven’t been revealed (just to keep us all on our toes). Remember: no peeking!
Know someone who’s passionate about their tea? Give their daily cuppa a serious injection of festive joy with this fabulous Christmas tea gift set from Vadham India. Individually packed in 24 red boxes containing sweet miniature tins, and presented in a beautiful vintage-style gift box, the set contains an exquisite selection of black, oolong, green, white and herbal loose leaf teas to enjoy throughout the festive season. Each tea is sourced, blended and packed in India, and 1% of all revenue is directed towards the education of Vadham’s tea-growers’ children. Nostalgic and sumptuous, the collection can be yours for £73.
‘Tis the season to be boozy and jolly! Make the wait for Christmas all the merrier by sitting back, relaxing and enjoying a daily beer all through December with Beerwulf’s Beer advent calendar. This almighty beer selection box comes complete with wolf-adorned packaging, and contains 24 beers from 24 different brewers. Everything’s included: IPAs, lagers, stouts, wheat beers – plus, there are some new and exclusive seasonal beers you won’t find anywhere else. Snag it now for a reasonable £74.99.
Why bother lugging home a real Christmas tree when you can buy this incredible tree-shaped craft beer box set from Bier Company instead? You can forget splashing out on gifts too, because this metre-high baby comes loaded up with all the seasonal treats you could ever want or need. There’s a fabulous beer-tasting glass, a pair of exclusive advent socks (so snug!), three cans of tasty Bier Nuts… oh, and 25 fantastic craft beers sourced from award-winning breweries around Europe to boot. Early birds can snag it for just £79.95. What are you waiting for?
Missed out on a Christmassy trip to Italy? Then bring Italy to you this December with Carluccio’s Luxury advent calendar, a fabulously festive collection that serves up the very best of Italian gastronomy. Behind each door you’ll find gourmet sweets, treats, classic ingredients, aperitivos, spirits and other authentic delights from this luxury brand. The coveted calendar is currently priced at £95. Buon Natale!
One for the oenophiles. Brixton Wine Club has brought back its joyfully packaged advent calendar so you can count down to Christmas in style with a stash of the very best cans of wine. The calendar includes a curated selection of red, white, rosé and sparkling wines, alongside a few tasty cocktails. Overall, you get 24 different cans – the equivalent of eight bottles of wine – for £125.
Known for its high-quality cheese boxes and cheesy subscription packages, Cheesegeek has got in on the pre-Christmas action this year by launching a gloriously yellow Cheese Advent Calendar. Coming in at £150, it’s on the pricier end of the scale – but with 24 unique artisan cheeses stuffed into three boxes (the calendar arrives in three separate deliveries so the cheese stays super fresh and the box fits in your fridge door) it’s well worth every penny. It even comes with extras like crackers and condiments for sophisticated Yuletide snacking.
With a whopping 4.2 kilograms of Welsh cheese crammed into four festively decorated triangular boxes – which all stack together to form a fabulous tree-shaped calendar over a metre wide – The Welsh Cheese Company’s GIANT Advent Calendar is every cheese-lover’s dream come true (and they’re not kidding when they say it’s big). Inside, there are 24 individual truckles of artisan Welsh cheese, from creamy soft cheeses and classic Cheddars to divine blue cheese offerings. Stash the boxes one-at-a-time in the fridge, consume daily, and congratulate yourself on £164 well spent.
Forget snacking on sample-sized Advent bites. Cartwright & Butler’s range of calendars includes full-size products to be shared and enjoyed with family over the entire festive season, with enough tins and jars to set up your own Christmas picnic (if you wanted to). There are three options to choose from: The 12 Days of Christmas Calendar (£135); the gigantic Cartwright & Butler Advent Calendar (£220), which features 24 full-size products; and The Cartwright & Butler Advent Calendar in Collaboration with Laithwaites (£250), which combines delicious Cartwright & Butler treats with fine Laithwaites wines.
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