October has barely started. Nevertheless, Meghan Markle has decided the countdown begins now. Her lifestyle brand As Ever opened preorders on the first of the month for its debut holiday advent calendar. The collaborator is Compartés, the Los Angeles chocolatier known for treating a chocolate bar like a piece of graphic design. Inside sit twenty-four handcrafted chocolates, one for each day leading to Christmas. The price lands at $148, while quantities remain limited and deliveries arrive in early November. Consequently the thing will probably sell out long before the pumpkins come down.

What’s Actually Inside the Box

The flavors borrow from the brand’s own pantry, echoing the fruit spreads that launched As Ever in 2025. Strawberry turns up, as does orange marmalade. One chocolate arrives finished with the brand’s Flower Sprinkles. Another is a dark chocolate ganache truffle from Compartés. Meanwhile the detail worth the ticket sits on the surface of each piece. Every countdown number appears in Meghan’s own handwriting, hand-painted in edible gold luster. The keepsake box, moreover, carries an illustration of the Montecito house and garden dressed for the holidays. Anyone expecting little jars of jam behind the doors should adjust expectations, since this is a chocolate calendar throughout.

A Tradition That Began With Cookies

As Ever, Advent Calendar, Preorder $ 148

Advent calendars have traveled a considerable distance from their origins. The first printed version emerged from Munich in the early twentieth century. A publisher named Gerhard Lang produced it after recalling what his mother had once made for him, twenty-four cookies sewn onto a sheet of cardboard. Luxury discovered the format much later. Beauty houses turned it into an annual event, and food brands followed shortly after. As Ever has now arrived with something closer to a present than a countdown, since the box outlives its contents by design. Whether $148 feels reasonable depends entirely on how you count, because twenty-four chocolates work out at roughly six dollars each. Somewhere in a Los Angeles kitchen, meanwhile, twenty-four small numbers are being painted in gold, one morning at a time.