The 15 best chocolate advent calendars for Christmas 2022

The best chocolate advent calendars are far too good to save for the children.

While beauty advent calendars and alcohol advent calendars may be a grown-up December indulgence, nothing beats the thrill of eating chocolate for breakfast after opening a daily door. There’s no need to steal the kids’ chocs this year either. There are now several luxury chocolate advent calendars to satisfy every adult’s sweet tooth, whether you prefer gourmet truffles, hand-crafted treats or surprising flavors.

Our round-up includes chocolate advent calendars for every budget so you can decide if you want to keep costs down with big-name brands like Cadbury or splash out on a luxury offering from the likes of Charbonnel et Walker and Pierre Marcolini. Just remember that most of these won’t still be on sale in early December so it’s worth buying early and resisting the temptation to tuck in if you can.

From Lindt to Hotel Chocolat, we’ve tested all these products to find the very best chocolate advent calendars for 2022. Just don’t tell the kids.

The best chocolate advent calendars 2022

If you’re a committed chocoholic, there’s no better chocolate advent calendar for 2022 than this enormous one from Hotel Chocolat. Beyond the festive red ribbon, there are 24 days of decadent delights aimed squarely at adults.

While chocolate advent calendars can get repetitive once you know what goodie to expect, this one will keep you guessing every day—but does have a steep price tag to match. No other calendar we tested had as much variety hidden behind its doors from two sachets of exceptional hot chocolate to a packet of pink champagne truffles. There’s even a cocoa-based lip balm for something completely different. We especially loved the fact gifts were generous and often festive-themed, from white chocolate penguins to salted caramel snowflakes. The three 50ml bottles of chocolate-inspired alcoholic drinks including cacao gin should guarantee a very merry Christmas too (though if it's gin you're after, head to our guide on the best gin advent calendars)

Anyone who knows good chocolate will attest to the fact that Belgian choccy is undoubtedly one of the best. This calendar from London-based UK confectionary brand Monty Bojangles features only the finest Belgian chocolates to gorge on throughout December.

Made from 100% natural ingredients, there are eight varieties of chocolate included in this calendar, though we’d have loved to see a couple more. If you want more variety, try the Pierre Marcolini Enchanted Forest calendar instead. This one is still packed with strong flavors that real chocolate connoisseurs will love including coffee, coconut and orange. Our favorites were the silky white truffles and rich hazelnut pralines in a milk chocolate shell, which we would happily eat every day. No need to feel glum when Christmas Eve approaches either – the final door on this calendar hides no less than four chocolates for one final festive feast.

If (like us) you grew up on the sweet milky taste of Cadbury chocolate, a whole calendar full of the stuff is a real Christmas treat. True, there are no huge surprises hidden behind the doors here with three different chocs – Dairy Milk, Dairy Milk Wholenut and Dairy Milk Caramel – repeated randomly throughout December. Each one is wrapped in individual packaging, which is handy if you don’t want to eat it straight away (for reasons we can’t imagine) but we would have preferred if this extra packaging could have been recycled like the calendar’s carton and tray. 

Although you have a good idea of what you're getting every day, you still won’t be disappointed when you reveal a good-sized chunk of milk chocolate each morning to nibble with your coffee. Just the thing to get you in the festive mood before a day of gift shopping or writing those dreaded Christmas cards. This one is happily affordable at just £5.99 so it also makes a sweet Christmas gift idea for coworkers. 

Though we like peanut butter as much as the next person, we weren’t sure we could stomach a whole chocolate advent calendar devoted to it. Then we tried this one from West Sussex chocolatiers Montezuma’s and were truly smitten by its creamy peanut butter truffles wrapped in silky milk chocolate. We’d easily race through December with this to wake up to each morning.

Yes, there’s no variety of chocolate here—you’ll get the exact same truffle every day—but if you’re a peanut butter lover, you’ll soon admit that’s no real hardship. If you'd rather variety, choose the Charbonnel et Walker Chocolate Truffle Calendar instead.  However, this calendar might even inspire you to get cooking and whip up these heavenly peanut butter and chocolate blondies as another Advent treat. Plus as an added bonus, there’s a door to open on Christmas Day for one last luscious truffle.

Forget the smell of a real Christmas tree. Nothing says Christmas to us like the first glimpse of a gold-wrapped Lindt teddy. This oversized 3D chocolate advent calendar is a dream come true for any child—or Swiss chocolate lover of any age.

Inside, there’s a delightful variety of melt-in-the-mouth Lindt chocolates and we were never quite sure what to expect. Some—like the mini milk chocolate truffles—were on the small side, but that’s more than made up for on other days when we were chuffed to discover goodies like Lindt Mini Milk Chocolate Teddies, a Lindt Mini Milk Chocolate Santa and a cheery-looking Lindt Mini Milk Chocolate Snowman. It’s hard to imagine anyone disliking this substantial calendar, making it a great early Christmas gift for kids. All this and there’s a decent-sized 40g Lindt Milk Chocolate Teddy hiding behind the door on Christmas Eve too.

Who doesn’t love delving into a huge tin of Cadbury Heroes while watching a Christmas film with the family? If your favorites are always wolfed down before you get a look in, this chocolate advent calendar will finally give you a chance to eat the whole lot by yourself.

There’s a Hero behind every door so there’s no telling if you’ll wake up to a Crunchie Bits, Dairy Milk Caramel, Eclairs, Fudge, Twirl, Crème Egg Twisted, Dinky Decker, Dairy Milk or Wispa. All were delicious though we’d have gladly swapped a Fudge for another Twirl. The QR code behind the doors to join an interactive countdown to Christmas is a lovely additional extra and we think this would make a good gift for teenagers who are notoriously hard to buy for.

We all love chocolate advent calendars but few of us give much thought to the people who’ve made the choccie we’re guzzling. Tony’s Chocolonely aims to change that, using only Fairtrade, 100% slave-free chocolate while raising awareness of the reality of a cocoa industry that relies on illegal child labor and modern slavery.

This brightly colored calendar contains ten deliciously different flavors of Fairtrade milk, dark and white chocolate including raspberry popping candy and caramel sea salt. But each day also includes either a fun or useful idea (“Is there someone on your street you could do some Christmas shopping for?") or a hard-hitting fact about the chocolate industry such as the fact 1.56 million children currently work illegally in cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast and Ghana. There are also 25 chocolates but just 24 doors—spread unequally just like the profits from the chocolate industry—to really make you think this December. And if opening this calendar each day inspires you, why not consider buying one of our best charitable gifts this Christmas to make another festive difference?

Give the adults in your life an alcohol or jewelry advent calendar and leave the chocolate to the kids with this cute advent calendar from Lindt. They’ll love the packaging decorated with piles of presents and a smiling Lindt gold bear by the Christmas tree, and adore the silky Swiss chocolate inside. The calendar even comes with games on the back including spot the difference and connect the dots, which is a thoughtful extra.

While all the chocolates inside are can’t-go-wrong milk, there’s a good variety including Lindt Hazelnut Cream Mini Truffles, Lindt Teddy Milk Chocolate with White Filling and the coveted Lindt Milk Chocolate Teddy behind the 24th door. Most are in special Christmas wrapping to make every day even more special. This calendar is also part of Selfridges' Project Earth collection, supporting supply chains that prioritize worker wellbeing. 

We were completely smitten by this small but charming chocolate advent calendar, designed in the image of Cartwright & Butler’s first premises in Beverley, East Yorkshire. We’d happily keep this out on display as a nostalgic Christmas decoration, but it’s an added bonus it includes chocolate too. 

Every door reveals a mini Belgian chocolate that would be a daily delight for anyone. There are twelve different flavors so each one will only be repeated once which is more than enough variety to make each day feel new. The chocolate was some of the best we tasted too, so you’ll be wolfing down breakfast every morning so you can go see what's inside.

If you would always choose dark chocolate over milk, this is the calendar for you. Made by esteemed French chocolatier Valrhona, known for using rare cocoa beans, the calendar sneaks in the odd milk-based treat with almond and hazelnut chocs and fine milk squares, but really this one is devoted to dark.

The dark chocolate goodies inside include exquisite chocolate Christmas trees and gingerbread men, though some chocolates are on the small side. There’s also a whole mini bar of dark chocolate to look forward to on Christmas Eve. But if you’d rather stick with milk, choose the Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Chunks Advent Calendar instead.

Make sure this Christmas is kinder to the planet by choosing more sustainable Christmas decorations and picking an eco-friendly chocolate advent calendar to countdown to the big day. This cheery one from Love Cocoa is a great buy, with an eye-catching design by Munich-based illustrator Katharina Bourjau that would make us smile every morning.

The calendar has impressive eco-credentials too. The packaging is entirely plastic-free and can be recycled while Love Cocoa also plant one tree for every calendar sold. The single-origin, vegetarian-friendly chocolate inside is made without palm oil and is guaranteed slavery-free. Though we’d have loved a few more flavors to try, there are four inside, each repeated six times. We especially liked the 70% dark gingerbread for an unexpected festive twist but wished the Christmas Eve treat had been a little more generous.

This is easily one of the best Christmas food gifts you could buy for any keen foodie in your life this Christmas. Prestigious Belgian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini’s chocolate advent calendars are a work of art, both inside and out. This year’s version is modeled on a magical enchanted forest design we’d be proud to display in our home through December. Opening a box each day instead of just a door makes it feel extra special too.

Inside, expect seriously indulgent chocolate aimed squarely at adults. Handmade in Belgium, every one is a gourmet delight, with a range of 19 flavors included to sample as Christmas creeps closer. These include cashew praline, raspberry heart, marzipan and the obscenely good salted butter caramel.  If the price still makes them a little hard to swallow, try the equally tasty Cartwright & Butler chocolate advent calendar instead.

You might expect to see this kind of price tag on a jewelry or candle advent calendar but it’s possible to really splash the cash on high end chocolate if you have a demanding sweet tooth to satisfy. Bond Street chocolatiers Charbonnel et Walker have been making chocolate since 1875 and now hold a Royal Warrant, so you can expect only the very best truffles inside this spectacular-looking advent calendar.

Tied with an extravagant red ribbon, the smart box has a drawer rather than a door for every day. There’s even one for Christmas Day as an added bonus. Each one contains an exquisite truffle that Charbonnel et Walker is renowned for— think pink Himalayan salted caramel, dark caramel vanilla and sea salt billionaire. For a luxe calendar for less, try the Monty Bojangles' Magnificent MAGvent Calendar instead.   

When you've still got a mountain of Christmas presents to buy and a Nativity costume to make, the last thing you need to think about is how to get your hands on a chocolate advent calendar.

This one from Galaxy tastes almost as good as a premium calendar costing ten times as much, yet can easily be picked up from the supermarket when you're doing the weekly shop. It has a small chunk of Galaxy behind every door—though we would've loved them to be a little bigger—and a much bigger chocolate for Christmas Eve. We think anyone in the family would be happy to count down with this, but if you want more variety, you could opt for the Cadbury Heroes Advent Calendar as an alternative.

Even the fussiest child won't complain about this cheery-looking chocolate advent calendar. There are no unexpected surprises lurking inside, just straightforward pieces of delicious Malteser chocolate each day that our junior testers were big fans of. They also liked the fact every one came in a festive shape to add interest. 

Best of all, there's a Maltesers mini reindeer behind the 24th door which feels like a real Christmas treat and will be wolfed down in no time. If you want more after that, you could try making this Chocolate Malteser Cake with Malted Chocolate Frosting. 

What were the most popular chocolate advent calendars in the UK last year?

Chocolate advent calendars used to be reserved strictly for the kids, with a small festive-themed treat each day. As adults get in on the act, every year sees bigger and more elaborate chocolate advent calendars hit the shelves made by everyone from the big confectionary companies to gourmet chocolatiers. 

The most popular chocolate advent calendars last year all came from the biggest child-friendly brands including Cadbury, Galaxy and Malteser—with their Malteser Reindeer also coming out on top as the number one best-selling confectionary treat at Christmas. Lindt were also major sellers, thanks to their wide range of calendars that appeal to both adults and children and can be bought easily in supermarkets. 

How we tested the best chocolate advent calendars

We broke with tradition and started opening the doors on all these advent calendars long before the 1st of December. Our children also happily 'helped' us out with this testing to give their opinion on which advent calendars they would love to use to count down to Christmas Day. For every calendar, we considered its packaging and size, the element of surprise and the variety of treats inside, and how good the chocolate tasted above all else.