Dairy Free / Vegan Advent Calendars – Top Picks for 2014

Once again, Christmas has sneaked up on me. I thought I’d misheard someone this morning when they said it was 5½ weeks until the big day. Seriously, how did that happen? I really need to get myself organised, make some lists, start thinking about gifts and festive foods. However, first things first… we need to get some advent calendars. Preferably one each, and definitely chocolate calendars. What a wonderful excuse to have to eat chocolate every day for a whole month 😉

There seems to be more choice than ever this year of dairy-free / vegan calendars and especially calendars designed for children, which is really lovely to see. These calendars use rice milk instead of dairy, and are suitable for any milk chocolate lovers.

Whether you’re a milk or dark chocolate lover though, I have a wonderful selection for calendars for you. Here are my top picks for 2014…

For the Milk Chocolate Lovers

Moo Free Organic Dairy Free Advent Calendar
This award winning calendar is made in the Moo Free dairy free UK factory, and is filled with organic, fair-trade, dairy free rice milk chocolate. A full list of UK and worldwide high street and online stockists can be found here. It’s great to see that Moo Free has made it all the way across the globe to Australia and New Zealand!

120g / RRP £4.75

Moo Free Advent Calendar 2014

Holland & Barrett Dairy Free Alternative to Milk Chocolate Advent Calendar
These calendars are filled with organic, fair-trade, dairy free rice milk chocolate and come in two different cute designs, one blue and one pink.

125g / £3.99 (currently buy one get one half price)

Holland & Barrett Dairy Free Advent Calendar blue

Plamil Organic Fairtrade Milky Dairy Free Advent Calendar
This fun, brightly coloured dairy free milk chocolate advent calendar is made in the Plamil factory which never uses dairy, gluten or nuts. It’s available to buy directly from Plamil. You can get 10% off your first order by entering the code FIR14 at checkout.

125g Price: £4.95

Plamil Dairy Free Advent Calendar

Tesco & Sainsbury’s ‘Free From’ Calendars
It is really encouraging to see that UK supermarkets have started selling ‘Free From’ calendars made with rice milk. Hopefully more will follow suit in the future. So far I’ve spotted dairy free calendars in Sainsbury’s (72g / £2.69) and Tesco (72g / £3.25. Currently on a ‘3 for 2’ offer until 23/11/14)

Tesco Free from advent calendar

For the Dark Chocolate Lovers

And for the dark chocolate lovers, I have two beautiful high quality advent calendars.

Montezuma’s Organic and Vegan Dark Chocolate Advent Calendar
This calendar is filled with 240g of Montezuma’s organic house blended chocolate. New for 2014, each window has a picture behind it! It’s available from the Montezuma’s high street shops  and online.

240g / £9.99

Montezumas-Christmas-Advent-Calender

Hotel Chocolat Dark Chocolate Advent Calendar
This high quality, super stylish calendar is filled with 24 Christmas sculptures, including reindeer, snowmen, penguins and enchanted Christmas trees, cast in smooth 70% dark chocolate. It’s available from Hotel Chocolat shops or you can order online. If you’d like to send the calendar as a gift, a personalised message card can be included for free when ordered online. Use the code VNOV10 at the checkout to receive 10% off (expires 23/11/14)

125g / £12.50

Hotel Chocolat Dark Chocolate Advent Calendar Collage

 

Have you bought your advent calendar yet? If so, do you tend to go for a chocolate calendar or do you prefer the more traditional wooden or cardboard ones?

 

19 thoughts on “Dairy Free / Vegan Advent Calendars – Top Picks for 2014

  1. I used to buy chocolate advent calendars for the children every year and I received a fantastic surprise last year when my husband bought me a Hotel Chocolat one – I was over the moon 🙂

    My next favourite would be the Montezuma’s calendar. I’ve tried dairy free milk chocolate and I wasn’t keen but they’re fun for the children and the ones above look so cute!

    1. Wow that is one kind, thoughtful husband! I wonder if he’ll follow up this year and get you another one. I hope so 😉 I was in Hotel Chocolat last Friday admiring that dark choc calendar. The little figures in it are simply stunning ♥

  2. This post makes me think of Bad Santa, a funny movie we always watch during the festive holidays (but I wouldn’t recommend this to kids) – the cute red-headed kid’s chocolate calendar was devoured by a Bad Santa but in the end the Santa gave him a new one, it was so sweet. The illustrations are all gorgeous and stylish – I love all of them, I like the Christmas sculptures, so impressive! I want an advent calender, can you please send me one?! I don’t mind going for the more traditional wooden ones!

    1. I’ve just checked out Bad Santa & it sounds really funny but you’re right, it’s definitely not one for lil’ kids 😉 Are chocolate advent calendars popular in the US? I wasn’t sure if they were popular worldwide or more of a UK thing. What’s your favourite kind of chocolate? Milk or dark?

      1. That’s a good question! I haven’t seen them before, but I’ve seen them in Hollywood movies though! I bet it’s more popular in the UK. I like chocolate with something else such as caramel, dried fruit, spicy flavors, etc. I can’t eat on its own unless it’s a cup of hot chocolate! 🙂 How about you? 🙂

  3. These look delicious! Although I must say I’m not a fan of Moo Free although I know it’s probably great for kids and can’t be worse than the standard milk chocolate you get in ordinary advent calendars. My fave is the Hotel Chocolat I think!

    1. I’d definitely say that Moo Free is designed for children. Lil’ L absolutely loves it, especially the mint and bunnycomb bars. I’m with you on the Hotel Chocolat calendar. I’ve never had one myself… just admired it a lot on the store shelf. One year I might have to splurge & treat myself 😉

    1. I remember you had the Montezuma’s one last year. It looked amazing! I wish we had a Montezuma’s shop in Bath. I might have to start campaigning them to open a branch. It would definitely go down well here 😉

  4. This is great, thank you for sharing this and for the large selection. I don’t suppose you know of any that are nut free? The last few years I have been buying the cardboard and glitter ones, which I love, but are less appreciated by the rest of the family!!

    1. Hi Nicola. Lovely to hear from you! The Plamil calendar is definitely nut free as they don’t use nuts in their factory. The Holland & Barrett and Sainsbury’s calendars also appear to be nut free. The only allergen advice is re. soya. I imagine Tesco will be the same as Sainsbury’s, but I’ll check and update this comment later.
      It’s lovely to see that businesses are responding to the need for allergy friendly chocolates and calendars. The selection seems to grow bigger each year!

  5. I haven’t had chocolate advent calendars since I was a child (and even they then were patchy, as my Mum wasn’t always keen on the chocolate before breakfast routine that eventuated!) but these might entice me back 🙂 I love the sound of the Montezuma one in particular, but am also really pleased with the amount of ‘free from’ vegan products in the main supermarkets.

    1. I think you should definitely go for it and get yourself a Montezuma’s calendar 😀 Why should the kids have all the fun eh? My mum treated to me a calendar last year (my first one in decades) and I loved it! It made the build up to Christmas even more exciting. I definitely want to join in again this year. And what a fab excuse to eat chocs every day for a whole month 😉

    1. So cool that you’re doing food-free advent calenders this year 😀
      Lil’ L was really sweet and bought me a Moo Free calendar as a surprise. I’m pretty sure I’m not in the target age range for Moo Free but bless him for including me in the advent fun 😉

  6. I’m not going to lie…I STILL get an advent calendar every year. I tried Moo Free chocolate in New Zealand, and I know their advent calendars were around, too. I wish I had picked one up but my suitcases were already maxed out!!!

    1. Yay! So pleased to hear you still get a calendar too! 😀 I’ve loved the Moo Free Calendar that Lil’ L bought me… mind you, opening those windows sure made me realise how quickly this month’s gone. One window left to open GULP!

Leave a Reply to Sharon Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.