Made from 30% recycled material and with 100% plastic-free outer packaging using certified FSC cardboard, Nivea’s ski lodge-themed advent calendar is one of the better ones for the planet. The calendar contains 24 pamper-centric treats, including both full and travel-size Nivea essentials, to ensure your beauty regime doesn’t go “off-piste” this Christmas (groan).
Wake up to shortbread each December morning with the Walker’s Shortbread advent calendar. Each window contains a bite-size, individually-wrapped shortbread product, including pure butter shortbread fingers and mini chocolate chip shortbread.
Sock and hosiery retailer Sockshop has partnered with Emmaus UK for its 25 Days of Socks calendar and will be donating 10% of each sale to the homelessness charity. Available in women and men’s sizes, this calendar contains a pair of high-quality bamboo socks in fun and festive prints for every day of December in the run-up to Christmas Day.
Indie tea company Bird & Blend has launched a new advent calendar which features almost 50 tea bags and some rather unusual flavours (I’m curious, what do you imagine a “Fairytale of NY” tea to taste like?), as well as classic Christmas blends. This tea advent calendar is extra special as opening each door reveals not one but two tea bags, the idea being that you can catch up with a loved one, friend or colleague over a cuppa.
Behind the doors of this enormous Beer Hawk calendar are 25 different beers from both offbeat and big-name breweries, brewed exclusively for this Christmas creation. From traditional wheat beers to more modern IPAs – and spanning 14 countries from France to New Zealand – this varied selection of beers is any hop lovers’ dream.
London-based start-up Cheesies, which makes crunchy, 100% natural cheese-based snacks, has brought out its first advent calendar – which is sure to delight the fromage fans. “Better than a Cheese-Bored” contains 24 20g bags of Cheesies in six different varieties including “sharp and punchy”, “creamy and bold”, “strong and tangy” and a special-edition “tongue-tingling chilli cheddar”.
This limited-edition advent calendar features 12 best-selling pieces by designer jewellery brand Scream Pretty, including stud earrings, ear cuffs and charm hoops. Available in both sustainable recycled sterling silver, and gold plated recycled sterling silver, this calendar is designed to make your ears truly stand out at the office Christmas party.
Countdown to Christmas with 24 specially selected craft gins from some of the world’s best distilleries, presented in generous 30ml wax-sealed drams. This gin advent calendar, from Drinks by the Dram, has been awarded an editors’ choice award by Which?.
The makers of the world’s first gourmet marshmallow advent calendar (there’s a first for everything) are back with a boozy version for adults. Behind each door, you’ll find a piece of handmade marshmallow in a selection of cocktail-inspired flavours, from peach bellini to pina colada. For £3.95 extra, you can add a marshmallow toasting kit to roast each sweet treat to gooey perfection.
007Store, the franchise’s official online shopping site, has launched its debut James Bond advent calendar – a perfect present for that Bond fan who can’t get enough of No Time To Die. This luxury, limited-edition calendar features 12 drawers of Bond-inspired gifts including a money-can’t-buy Casino Royale prop and a special collaboration with Swatch.
Vegan sweets brand Candy Kittens, co-founded by Made in Chelsea star Jamie Laing, has partnered with UK-based social change and reforestation charity TreeSisters. This unique, 3-D advent calendar is packed with gourmet gummies – and to make things even sweeter, TreeSisters is planting a tree for every one sold.
Say Joyeux Noël with jams this Christmas thanks to French conserve specialist Bonne Maman’s adorable jam-based advent calendar. The calendar contains 23 mini jars of jams and marmalade as well as two “surprise gifts” (no, we’re not giving the surprise away) – one to open on 1 December and the other on Christmas Eve.
Featuring 24 20ml glass bottles of premium rum – including rare offerings from Madeira, India, Thailand and Germany – this advent calendar is great for rum lovers or the rum-curious. Also included in the box are two tasting glasses and tasting notes, to enhance the rum-drinking experience. This calendar is available to buy online or from various retailers including Harvey Nichols.
This cider-centric advent calendar contains 24 bottles and cans of ciders made by Sandford Orchards, the craft cider maker based in rural Devon. Every door reveals a different drink, including many well-known favourites from Sandford Orchards’ award-winning range.
This award-winning advent calendar contains 24 individual miniature wheels of cheese, encased in recyclable, fridge-door-friendly packaging. Members of So Wrong It’s Nom – the online community of cheese lovers – even voted to select one of the featured cheeses: a limited-edition “Ilchester Apple, Onion & Sage”. Since it first came out in 2017, almost 750,000 of these calendars have been sold – now that’s a lot of miniature cheeses.
L’Occitane’s “Classic” advent calendar features some of the French beauty and skincare brand’s best-loved products, including items from the Verbena and Almond shower range, youth-boosting Immortelle skincare solutions and shea butter hand cream. These calendars recently underwent a climate-friendly update; in 2020, L’Occitane replaced its plastic interiors with cardboard sourced from sustainable forests, saving 22.5 tonnes of plastic waste.
’Tis the season to indulge – with thanks to Cartwright & Butler. The maker of luxury biscuits and cakes has produced a gigantic new advent calendar, featuring all sorts of sweet and savoury treats, including hot drinks, preserves and confectionery.
Spice up your December with 12 Days of Sriracha, the UK’s first sriracha sauce calendar. Behind each door (designed to open every other day), you’ll find a bottle of Flying Goose sriracha, with flavours including original, super hot, yuzu and smokey sriracha.
The HIDE advent calendar is a wonderfully decadent Christmas treat curated by Michelin-star chef Ollie Dabbous. This calendar contains all the luxuries you might need during the festive season including Mariage Frères tea, Le Labo candles, white truffles, a yule log, mince pies, lobster rolls and 50-day aged ribeye.
Kate Samuelson is The Week's former newsletter editor. She was also a regular guest on award-winning podcast The Week Unwrapped. Kate's career as a journalist began on the MailOnline graduate training scheme, which involved stints as a reporter at the South West News Service's office in Cambridge and the Liverpool Echo. She moved from MailOnline to Time magazine's satellite office in London, where she covered current affairs and culture for both the print mag and website. Before joining The Week, Kate worked at ActionAid UK, where she led the planning and delivery of all content gathering trips, from Bangladesh to Brazil. She is passionate about women's rights and using her skills as a journalist to highlight underrepresented communities. Alongside her staff roles, Kate has written for various magazines and newspapers including Stylist, Metro.co.uk, The Guardian and the i news site. She is also the founder and editor of Cheapskate London, an award-winning weekly newsletter that curates the best free events with the aim of making the capital more accessible.
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