The Best Food Advent Calendars 2023

I thought last year that people might be starting to switch off from the luxury advent calendar trend, after all the cost of some of these is more than you might spend on an actual Christmas present for someone.

But it seems that retailers and brands are still backing this trend. Most of the advent calendars I wrote about last Christmas (read the blog post here) are back again this year, and there’s some incredible new ones too.

Here are my favourites…

Fortnum’s Feasting advent calendar* makes the cut every year - it's simply amazing. I created it when I was the grocery buyer there 5 years ago. At the time there was nothing else like it.

This year it's back, and it’s had a stunning redesign. There’s a new fill too, with products such as a mini Christmas pudding, mint humbugs, fig preserve, and a quarter bottle of champagne to enjoy on Christmas day.

The Farmshop Advent Calendar is new from Daylesford this year, and is a mini replica of their flagship store in the Cotswolds.

This contains some of Daylesfords delicious organic food and drink products, including honey, coffee, and chocolates. And there are also some non-food items too, with a selection of their homeware, bath & body products.

This is a big price point, but it's also a real showstopper packed full of wonderful products.

Melt’s Portobello Advent Calendar is another new launch this year, and the design is so beautiful. They’ve recreated the famous Portobello Market and the iconic coloured houses.

This advent calendar opens up to reveal a design showing inside the shops and homes of Portobello, and contains 24 milk chocolates. The hand-painted design has so much detail, and although it doesn’t feel very ‘Christmassy’, it's still a spectacle.

The Just Spices advent calendar is perfect for someone who loves to cook from scratch. It contains 24 full size spice mixes, seasonings and toppings, including a chinese spice, madras curry blend and a banana bread spice mix.

You also get a cookbook with this, and a £5 voucher too.

I can’t decide if I love this, or if I’d be bored of eating panettone after the first few days. I know if you get a chocolate advent calendar, it's just 24 pieces of chocolate. But I do feel a bit like 12 panettone is just too much, even though they are mini size.

I thought I’d include this though because it's new, and I know a lot of people love panettone. Selfridges 12 days of panettone advent calendar* contains four different flavours… classic, double chocolate & Vin Santo, chocolate glazed, and chocolate & orange.

Behind each of the 12 doors is a fun fact about panettone too, for example did you know that the largest one ever recorded weighed in at over 332kg!

This is another one with a 12 day theme, and is new from Fenwick this year. Previously they’ve had a full 24 day advent calendar, but it’s a smaller product selection this year. Behind the 12 doors there are 16 different products that have been picked from the Fenwick foodhall range.

The 12 days of delicious advent calendar* has been designed by Fenwick’s artist in residence, Rob Draper. And it contains some full-sized products too, not everything is a mini version. There are brands including Tony’s Chocolonely, Rosebud Preserves, Charbonnel et Walker, and Durham Distillery.

Pierre Marcolini’s advent calendar contains 24 individually boxed chocolates. The packaging is beautiful.

The fill includes some of your favourite Pierre Marcolini chocolates, along with some new creations too. There are hearts, pralines and caramels. And Christmas flavours include the gingerbread truffle, and a cinnamon frosted truffle.

I love that there is such a variety of different chocolates in this advent calendar, it’s like a selection box. This is currently available for pre-order.

If you want an alternative to chocolate, check out these cute advent biscuits from Honeywell Bakes. This jar contains 24 hand-decorated Christmas-shaped ginger biscuits. Every biscuit has a number on for each day.

And the biscuits come in a larger kilner-style jar that you can keep and reuse.

Product links followed by * are affiliate links.