6 Premium Advent Calendars Worth Gifting This Christmas

Introduction

Advent calendars have changed. The old grab-and-go format, where every door hid exactly the same chocolate in a slightly different shape, has given way to calendars built around a daily moment: toasting a marshmallow, savouring an award-winning truffle, tasting a rare dram. For this year’s comparison, six premium calendars were put to the test, each bought at full price: a toasted marshmallow calendar, a handcrafted chocolate calendar, a traditional German lebkuchen calendar, a gourmet licorice calendar, a chilli condiment calendar, and a premium whiskey calendar. Here is how each one performed, plus a final ranking for anyone shopping for a genuinely memorable Christmas gift.

Naked Marshmallow Company Toasted Marshmallow Advent Calendar

This was the first-ever toasted marshmallow advent calendar, and it is back by popular demand with new flavours. Instead of simply eating a sweet each day, you light the included flame and toast the marshmallow, which turns the daily ritual into a small event. Flavours tested include cookies and cream, salted caramel, s’mores, mint choc chip and a very sweet bubble gum, and toasting genuinely made them taste better. The cookies and cream flavour carried through the toasting process, and a hidden middle treat turned out to be a milk chocolate enrobed salted caramel marshmallow bar, described as thoroughly indulgent. The calendar costs 24 pounds on its own, or around 29 pounds with the full extras kit, so the accessories are a modest upsell. As a gift, especially for families with children who enjoy marshmallows, it is playful and hands-on rather than just artisanal.

Chococo 25-Door Advent Calendar

Chococo is a husband-and-wife chocolatier that has been making chocolates for 23 years, and this is their first advent calendar. Behind the 25 doors sit 25 different flavours, including 11 that hold Great Taste Awards from their regular range, plus traditional Christmas assortment favourites and some completely new creations. Standouts include cherry bakewell, Dorset sea salt caramel, spiced rum, elegant Earl Grey, Scallywag whiskey, purely pistachio cream, festive chai spice, and a Victoria sponge with jam. Day 25 brings the fan favourite fizzy pudding, a play on figgy pudding with popping candy, which delivers Christmas spices with a tingle and was called sensational by the panel. The sourcing story is strong: cocoa from specific plantations such as one in Ecuador using panela sugar, plastic-free packaging since day one, and efforts to reduce palm oil in the wider industry. At 37.50 pounds, it feels pricey for an advent calendar, but the quality of what you get justifies it.

Lebkuchen Schmidt Advent Calendar

Lebkuchen are German biscuits that smell of Christmas markets: warming spices with a chewy, honey-molasses character, said to have been invented by mediaeval monks in Franconia in the 13th century. This calendar delivers 25 individually wrapped sweet treats made with age-old German recipes, including chocolate-dipped elisen and a sour cherry variant, and some of the biscuits are genuinely large. The company behind it, Lebkuchen Schmidt, has been around for 99 years, having begun when Frank Schmidt sent his brother a rail carriage full of lebkuchen taken as payment in 1926. Today they still sell Nuremberg gingerbread with a focus on traditional recipes and high quality ingredients. The eating experience is a slow, warming build towards Christmas, and it whips up nostalgia in both smell and taste. At 55 pounds it is noticeably more expensive, but it brings a welcome taste of Christmas from the continent.

Lakrids by Bulow Advent Calendar

This was the biggest surprise of the entire test. Lakrids by Bulow produces some of the world’s finest licorice from its Copenhagen factory, which runs on 100 percent green energy, and the company has been B Corp certified since 2024. The calendar itself is striking: a cool, unusual shape with thick, glossy premium cardboard and 24 days of licorice treats, each day offering four pieces perfect for sharing. The range includes classic caramel licorice balls, dark truffle, golden orange, an ultra licorice, and unreleased flavours that have not yet hit the regular range. The orange variety reads like clementine or tangerine before the licorice arrives, and the salted caramel with chocolate coating was called amazing. Day 24 is four individual bags, so four people get a bag each. At 70 pounds, divided by four people, this works out as the most affordable calendar per person on the list, and a genuine game changer for anyone who has never had proper gourmet licorice.

Chilli No. 5 Advent Calendar

For the condiment lover, Chilli No. 5 offers 24 days of gourmet chilli sauces, chilli oils and spices from around the world, presented in small vials and all carrying Great Taste Award credentials. This is not purely about raw heat: the range runs from a two-out-of-five Jamaican jerk spice and hot and spicy ketchup up to a 600,000 Scoville habanero, with the emphasis on bold flavour over blowing your head off. The hot and spicy ketchup was praised for its balance of tang, sugar and spice, while the flagship sauce delivered an acidic hit followed by a real chilli burn at the end, with complex, deep Tabasco-like character. Behind door 24 sits a limited edition pure Chilli No. 5 sauce in a Chanel No. 5 style bottle. A practical caveat: the vials are packed so tightly that the doors can be difficult to open and the contents tricky to remove. Founded during lockdown by Rumble Romagnoli with the goal of making healthy sauces for home-cooked meals, the brand also supplies recipe suggestions for each product. At 124.99 pounds it is expensive, but the contents will keep earning their place through summer barbecue season.

Drinks By The Dram Premium Whiskey Advent Calendar

The most luxurious calendar of the six: 25 wax-sealed drams aimed squarely at the whiskey connoisseur. A dram is a measure of whiskey, and the full bottles of these whiskies range from 100 to 300 pounds each, meaning this is a chance to taste whiskies most people would never justify buying by the bottle. The lineup is Scottish and Irish, including a Glenfiddich 18-year-old, a 21-year-old Gran Reserva, a 23-year-old Grand Cru described as so smooth, an Aberlour 18-year-old that is much thicker, an 18-year-old Jameson, and Yellow Spot from Ireland, with some drams aged as much as 30 years. Door 25 holds a single cask Old Particular 75th anniversary 15-year-old with an individual cask number. Drinks By The Dram also makes rum, vodka and a 100-pound whiskey calendar, but this premium version costs 199 pounds and represents the same logic as a wine tasting: the six samples cost far less than buying the bottles. For a whiskey lover, it is a genuinely special gift.

Overall Buying Advice

If you are buying for a family, the Lakrids by Bulow calendar divides its 70 pound price across four people, making it the best value per person, and it converted even self-declared licorice sceptics. For chocolate purists who also care about ethical sourcing and plastic-free packaging, Chococo is the pick, though expect to pay a premium for the quality. The Chilli No. 5 calendar suits anyone who genuinely cooks, since it doubles as a sample pack that helps you discover which full-size sauces are worth buying later. The whiskey calendar is the definitive choice for a serious whiskey enthusiast, while the Naked Marshmallow calendar is the friendliest option for kids and shared after-dinner moments. Only you know which of those daily rituals would land best in your household.

Conclusion

This year’s top three finished as follows: third place went to the Chococo chocolates, a luxury chocolate calendar with spectacular flavour and strong ethical credentials; second to the Drinks By The Dram premium whiskey calendar, an unbeatable experience for the connoisseur; and first to the Lakrids by Bulow licorice calendar, which delivered the biggest surprise, the most distinctive packaging, and remarkable shared value. Any of the six would make a memorable gift, but matching the calendar to the person matters more than matching it to the price tag.