24 reasons to be cheerful

We all love a little advent calendar action, don’t we? If it’s not chocolate, it’s beauty – but before you splash out on 24 doors of divine temptation, check out the immense offering available this year.

Whether you fancy splashing out on an expensive box of biscuits or have a whopping 10K to blow on raising your spirits with, erm, spirits, there’s something for absolutely everyone.

1 Cheese advent calendar, £8, Asda

Cheese fans, your time has come. After all those years of chocolate advent calendars stealing the limelight, Asda has finally decided to hide a cheese-fest behind 24 doors. Pressed curds of milk every day in December? Bring it on.

2 Advent calendar, £300, Jo Malone

Ahh, here it is. T he one all women want but few can afford. If you have £300 to spend on an advent calendar, let it be this – though you’ll need to be quick as it will sell out. T here are 24 Jo Malone colognes and candles – and we want them all.

3 Beauty advent calendar 2017, £170, Liberty

Another renowned beauty buy, the Liberty calendar is a sell-out every year. Containing more than £500-worth of swag in one of the most beautifully designed advent boxes you’ve ever seen (a Liberty-print design adorns the inside, naturally), there are multi-brand treats inside, including 15 full-size products – which is a rarity.

4 Limited edition advent calendar by Susie Watson with advent biscuit tin, £99, Biscuiteers

For the country-cottage lover, nothing can beat this cutesy, handcrafted advent calendar, designed for inserting a Biscuiteers biscuit into each and every pocket. You can buy the cloth alone for £60, but the biscuits normally cost £48 and taste amazing so if you’re splashing out, you may as well go the whole hog.

5 The Beer Hawk advent calendar, £75, Beer Hawk

We all tend to put on a bit of weight over Christmas, anyway, so why not start on December 1 by sinking a beer every day of advent?! Now, the lovely people at Beer Hawk are keen to keep the contents a secret but you can expect to open up four exclusive beers you won’t find anywhere else – 17 different beer styles from seven countries and 23 different breweries, plus a £10 voucher. Cheers to that.

6 The Grand Advent Calendar, £68, Hotel Chocolat

Brand new for 2017, Hotel Chocolat have finally gone big and produced a super-duper calendar, bursting with massively indulgent chocolate treats. And we’re not just talking truffles. Hiding inside you’ll find salted caramel vodka, crackers filled with dizzy pralines and even their new treacle tarts, encased in 40% milk chocolate pastry sculpted from real paper. We need it now.

7 Drinks By The Dram Very Old & Rare Whisky advent calendar – Macassar Ebony (2017 Edition), £9,999.95, Master Of Malt

And the prize for this year’s most extravagant calendar goes to Drinks By T he Dram. For a cool £10K, your advent can be filled with 24 ‘wee drams’ of very old and rare whisky, from long-closed distilleries, highly sought-after limited editions and impossible-to-source liquid. T here’s even a 60-year-old single malt Scotch and a rare Japanese whisky that costs £19,000 a bottle. T he calendar is crafted by Kent cabinet maker Simon Jewell Designs and is available in walnut or finished in Macassar ebony.

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