Vegan Advent Calendars

As a vegan family that celebrates Christmas, we've felt left out in the fun chocolate advent calendars that we see in all the stores this time of year. Those cute little windows with chocolates hiding behind them are SO fun. Unfortunately, we just haven't been able to find any that are vegan (and I've been seriously looking every year for five years). I've been given the advice by well meaning people that I should just purchase a non-vegan version, empty it, then refill it with vegan chocolate. I'm not willing to do this.

Last year, I made up a strand of mini construction paper cornucopias, and with a bunch of little candies from Vegan Essentials I was able to construct fun calendars for my daughters. Vegan Essentials carries fun little chocolates, toffees, and suckers that can be nicely tucked into handmade calendars. I've seen much fancier homemade versions, but I'd been holding out until the last minute on getting something that was premade. This past Halloween season, I was able to find little boxes of individually wrapped Endangered Species chocolates (our favorite vegan chocolate) at our local Target stores (in the candy section, not the seasonal section). I'm hoping that these are a permanently stocked item. They would be perfect for advent calendars. Maybe Endangered Species will even come out with a vegan advent calendar some year! That would be fantastic!

The year before last, we tried two different Lego Advent Calendars. I've wanted to try one of the Playmobil or Polly Pocket ones, but my daughters haven't been interested. Here is a list of a bunch of potentially fun toy advent calendars. We've done them once, and so my daughters aren't interested in getting them again.

Our homemade versions and toy versions have been fun, but I want my kids to have a *pop* of excitement with their calendars every year. I've tried to get their input several times, but they always want the final advent calendar decision to be a surprise... Oh, the dilemma.

Stop reading now if you are a daughter of mine. :)

This year, after another extensive search, I narrowed down our choices to:

• Another homemade version with candies
• A slightly better reusable sewn handmade version with candies and/or toys
• One of these from Chinaberry
• An empty fabric, wood, or sticker calendar from Strictly Christmas
• The "Christmas Countdown Chest of Drawers" from Signals Catalog (complete with mini decorations in each drawer and a mini tree to put them on)
  
• An empty fabric or wood one from Target.com (the wood ones are actually quite nice for the price)
• An empty fabric or wood one from The Company Store
  

I've made the decision to get little packets of candy (probably some Endangered Species chocolate for the regular days and a chocolate Santa or chocolate trees from Vegan Essentials or Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe for the last day) and put them into a drawer type calendar for my daughters to share. They've always had their own calendar in the past, but I think they'll like this for a change. If not, we'll try something new next year.

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If you happen to live in the UK, I've found several vegan advent calendars with the little windows with chocolate behind them. These are seasonal, so if they aren't in stock now, check back again soon. Check out these companies if you haven't already (I've never ordered from any):

• Montezuma's
• A lot of Chocolate
• Dietary Needs Direct
  

Whatever you decide to use for your advent adventure this year, be sure and have a fun holiday season. It's not too early to start figuring out your Holiday menu. Pretty much all recipes can be easily veganized, even ones with ham, fish and steak! Vegan Essentials sells fantastic vegan scallops.