Christmas is full of traditions. The feasts, the trees, the elves on shelves—everyone has their collection of holiday mainstays they enjoy annually. 

However, the Advent calendar is one tradition for folks who enjoy giving themselves a little treat for 24 (or 25) days that remains extremely popular.

Advent calendars are so much a part of Christmas that we find enough examples to highlight annually. However, the excess packaging inherent in creating a month’s worth of goodies isn’t great for the environment (apologies for the Scrooge-level yucking of your yum). Advent calendars add more plastic and trash onto the already enormous heap we’ve amassed, impacting the environment in significant and harmful ways. I’m not saying you shouldn’t participate in the Advent calendar tradition. Do you. Indulge a little; it’s the time of the year for that, and you can be better for the next 11 months. And if there was ever a time for a bit of joy in life, it certainly is now.