Real stories · Advent without the chocolate

We've given up sugar this year — so our advent calendar has no chocolate in it

Advent without a single square of chocolate — and, to my surprise, nobody's missed it. I'm 67, Malcolm is 68, and since the spring we've been cutting out sugar together, so our kitchen has quietly become a sugar-free zone. Which was fine until I thought about December: twenty-four little doors of chocolate on the windowsill every morning, in a house where neither of us is meant to have a single one. The old calendar would have been a daily torment for him — and, if I'm honest, a daily excuse for me.

What I wanted was the little morning ritual of advent, without anything to eat behind the doors.

Then I found the Corvinor from a British label called York Boutique — a capybara advent calendar in a deep green and gold box that looks like a storybook.

Behind each of the 24 doors is a little capybara ornament instead of a chocolate — flat and printed, with a loop to hang it on the tree, not a 3D figure. Each one is a character: a chef, an astronaut, a detective with a magnifying glass. So there's still something to open every morning, but it goes on the tree instead of in us — which is why the calendar has become our breakfast ritual rather than Malcolm's daily temptation.

Twenty-four doors, twenty-four little capybaras for the tree and not a crumb of chocolate — which is why it's the first advent calendar Malcolm can actually enjoy.

At £24.95 — half the usual £50 — it costs about what we'd have spent on two chocolate calendars, and lasts considerably longer than the 6th of December.

Malcolm has appointed himself in charge of opening the doors, starting on the 1st and not a day before, and our granddaughter already wants to know why Grandpa's calendar is better than hers. I did check before ordering that I could send it back if it looked cheap in real life — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free.

If someone in your house has had to give up sugar too — or you simply fancy an advent calendar that won't end up on your hips — do have a look. The Corvinor is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 210 buyers, and it's a limited Christmas release, so it won't be around for long once December's here.