If you want to expand your gift-giving game to days this holiday season, check out these advent calendars

The advent calendar phenomenon is growing every year and there are so many exciting, fun, beautiful and delicious options available. When it comes to food and drinks alone, there really is something for everyone. Prices range from impulse purchase to extravagant. If you want to surprise a family member or friend (or treat your own family) with 12 to 24 days of pure fun, don’t miss this holiday season. These limited edition calendars may sell out quickly!

Chocolate

If you know a chocolate-loving advent calendar fan, you have so many excellent choices! The Winter Foxes Chocolate Advent Calendar from Compartés is beautiful, a winter wonderland with playful foxes and festive landscapes. Behind the doors you will find chocolates in innovative flavors such as cinnamon roll, blackberry crumble and sticky toffee. $109.95.

Bean-to-bar chocolate maker Dandelion Chocolate has created their impressive calendar in tribute to the constellations, including a star wheel to identify what you can see in the night sky. There are 24 ornaments, each with a chocolate from an artisan chocolate maker in the US. Each ornament is accompanied by a story about the astral events of the day of the month. Chocolate and astronomy, what a cool combination. $185.

The theme of Delysia Chocolatier this year is Ultimate Cookie Swap with 25 handmade chocolate truffles inspired by seasonal cookies. Flavors include beloved classics like gingerbread and snickerdoodle, along with unexpected treats like hamantaschen and pizzelle. $79.95.

Tony’s Chocoloney Countdown Calendar has the same graphic look as their candy packaging, with cheerful, eye-catching colors. The 25 “Tony’s Tinys” include dark chocolate almond sea salt, milk chocolate hazelnut, dark milk pretzel toffee and more. $19.99.

Sweets

See’s 2024 Advent Calendar features 24 days of premium See’s sweets, from truffles to their famous lollipops and more, nestled in a charming wintery hideaway. Sturdy pull-out drawers provide easy access to sweets and fun pop-up illustrations that unfold like an enchanting storybook. $75.

With the Sugarwish advent calendar you have a number of options. You can choose your assortment of treats from an arsenal of candy choices (think M&Ms, Swedish Fish, gumballs, and so on). Or you can send someone a calendar as a gift online and let them pick out their own treat.$79.

If you know a licorice lover, you’re about to rock their world. Lakrids by Bülow Danish Gourmet Licorice Calendar is a unique collection of classic varieties mixed with limited edition flavors of chocolate-covered licorice, all crafted in Copenhagen. Inspired flavors include Frozen Mint, Salt and Caramel, Double Chocolate and Milkshake. $59.99.

If your kitchen will be a focal point for holiday baking this December, then Sweetapolita’s 24 Magical Days of Sprinkles and Decorative Candies are for you. A pretty pink box contains 24 little drawers, each filled with a jar of cute sprinkles. Each calendar comes packaged in a custom cotton drawstring pouch for added gift giving. $99.

Dylan’s Candy Bar has two choices, ranging from a huge Countdown Candy Tree with a glitter tree and stand containing 24 shiny round ornaments filled with seasonal sweets ($110) to a small tree-shaped box with small perforated doors that hide 24 small Christmas treats. $10.

Snacks

Cheese virtuoso Murray’s has their 12 Days of Cheese Advent Calendar, the perfect gift for the turophile (cheese lover) in your life. It’s filled with a whole range of items including nine cheeses, oat biscuits and some mini jams. You do have to keep it refrigerated, but who wouldn’t want a ready-made grazing board in the refrigerator during the holidays? $78

Uncommon Goods has a lot of affordable options, like 12 Days of Gourmet Nuts. Each 2-ounce reusable can has a different flavor or blend of nuts to enjoy, such as Salted Pistachios, Honey Sea Salt Almonds, Cranberry Nut Mix, and Coconut Curry Peanuts. $55

12 Days of Hot Sauce is for the heat lover in your life (and we all have one). Twelve small bottles of liquid heat range from mild to spicy, sweet to savory, and will turn up the heat all month long. Flavors include Sweet Onion Habanero, Garlic Reaper, Plum Reaper, Chipotle BBQ and Smoky Horseradish. $55

If you really want to make an impression, or gift a calendar to a family, go big! The Best of Harry & David Advent Calendar consists of not one but two festive-themed boxes of snacks ranging from their famous Royal Riviera Pear, Moose Munch Premium Popcorn varieties, yogurt-covered peppermint tree-shaped pretzels and blackberry galettes. $199.99

Drinks

For the tea lover, try a collection of 24 of Palais de Thes’ best-selling and herbal teas for $38, or 12 days of tea from Harney & Sons for $29.95.

Coffee lovers will enjoy Onyx Coffee Lab’s journey through the world of specialty coffee with a 24-day exploration of beans. A box opens with an accordion containing 24 packs of pure coffee from all over the world: beans ready to grind and brew. $175.

Flaviar presents a substantial suitcase-inspired box containing high-quality whiskey samples plus 2 collectible and exclusive Glencairn glasses. Travel through the whiskey world for 24 days with Starward Nova Single Malt from Australia and Sekk Sato Shiki from Japan, and a host of bourbon offerings from the US, including Haven Hill, Jaywalk, Rye and Milam & Greene Triple Cask. Includes interactive tasting notes. $250.

A company called Give Them Beer offers you the chance to help someone…. Well, 12 days of beer. But also 12 days of jerky, 12 days of bourbon, 12 days of red wine, 12 days of moonshine and many more adult-oriented treats. Prices start at $80 and up, and there are some 24-day options as well.

A final international offering: Tokyo Treat Slice of Japan: 24 Days of Adventure Advent Calendar takes you to the land of the Rising Sun. Inspired by slice-of-life manga, this advent calendar includes exclusive Japanese treats like Matcha Latte and Peach KitKats, as well as collectibles, figurines and anime keychains. $150.

Oh, and for those who celebrate Hanukkah? You don’t have to miss the fun. Harry and David are offering an 8 Nights of Hanukkah gift, an attractive Star of David-shaped box containing treats such as gel mints, macaron brownies and cinnamon donut muffins. $109.99.

So how do you choose to countdown to the holidays? These calendars make truly thoughtful gifts (and how many other gifts can you give someone that’s guaranteed to make them think of you every day from 12 to 24 days?)

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Katie Workman regularly writes about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks that focus on family-friendly cooking: ‘Dinner Solved!’ and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.” She blogs at She can be reached at [email protected].