It's Christmas! Playing countdown with festive numbers

Gone are the days when advent calendar doors opened to reveal a picture of a donkey or, if you were really lucky, a small and slightly waxy chocolate. Here are three of this year’s finest calendars for the foodie in your life.

Divine Fairtrade Milk Chocolate Advent Calendar, £4, Oxfam, Bridge Street, Sidney Street and Burleigh Street, Cambridge

This calendar - also available in vegan-friendly dark (£5) - comes with plentiful feelgood factor: co-owned by the farmers of Kuapa Kokoo, a co-op in Ghana, Divine was set up specifically to support its cocoa growers. The chocolate is as spirit-lifting as the backstory; each door reveals a melt-in-the mouth heart, made with 100% pure cocoa butter and zero palm oil or artificial nasties.

Popcorn Shed Jingle Bell Pop Popcorn Advent Calendar, £16, John Lewis & Partners, Grand Arcade, Cambridge

Billed as “the UK's first super-premium gourmet popcorn brand”, Popcorn Shed doesn’t simply flavour its corn, it incorporates scrummy chunks of everything from chocolate and nuts to dried fruit. There’s a dinky bag of deliciousness behind all 24 doors of this calendar, with stand-out flavours including Pecan Pie (caramel and roasted pecan pieces) and Butterly Nuts (caramel with roasted peanut pieces).

Snaffling Pig Advent Calendar, £19.99, Bury Lane Farm Shop, A10 Bypass, Melbourn

One for the carnivores, yes, this is a pork crackling-filled advent calendar. Back for a second year after a sell-out debut in 2018, it contains Snaffling Pig’s signature snack in a whole menu of flavours, including Great Taste award-winning Salt 'N' Vinegar, Marvellous Maple and Low & Slow BBQ.