You might think that late August is far too early to be talking about anything even remotely festive – but Christmas is clearly, already on many people’s minds.
Or, at least, the days leading up to Christmas. Because, as of now, the wait lists for some of the most sought-after advent calendars are now open. In some cases they’ve been open for weeks.
That includes those being sold by some well-known high street retailers, as well as a number of high-end and luxury brands.
But it’s not just the high end that is already preparing for December – some retailers are already displaying a wide range of kid-focused advent calendars too.
All of these are clamouring to take a piece of what is now a billion-dollar industry – one that’s emerged in a little over a decade.
Advent Re-Invented
The concept of an advent calendar is nothing new, of course. They’ve been around in some form or another for more than 500 years.
For much of that time, they tended to feature Christian-themed imagery as their reward, though eventually many began to offer chocolate too (often tiny, cheap ones).
And that was the norm until relatively recently – with perhaps just a handful of exceptions.
Some chocolate companies would have brought out more elaborate variations on the ‘chocolate-behind-a-cardboard-window’ theme – maybe with nicer chocolate or even full-sized bars.
There also would have been a handful of non-confectionary options too. For example Lego brought out its first advent calendar in 1998, with each window giving you a piece of Lego so you could gradually build some objects or vehicles.
But that was largely it for a long time. Advent calendars that went beyond chocolate and kids were, at best, a niche affair.
Then something seemed to change.
One of the first examples of this was the British luxury retailer Liberty, which brought out a beauty-focused advent calendar in 2014.
Instead of chocolate or Lego, it contained miniature mascaras, body lotions and perfumes. And it was a huge hit – with other retailers and beauty brands quickly following suit.
Boots launched its first No7 advent calendar the following year, while the soap shop Lush brought one out in 2019.
Taking Advent-age
Nowadays there are calendars from pretty much every retailer and beauty brand in the world.
Brown Thomas, Next, Harrods, Space NK, Sephora, L’Occitane and Benefit all now have offerings. So too do Chanel, Tiffany and Dior.
But while the beauty and fashion market have been pioneers in this new form of advent calendar, they are not alone. Today there are advent calendars catering to pretty much every taste.
Many beer, wine and spirits brands have their own advent calendars – containing everything from miniatures to full-sized cans and bottles. Brands like Bosch and Makita have sets that contain various bits and tool accessories for people who are into their DIY.
There are actually multiple calendars that contain 24 days worth of rubber duckies; there’s a Hot Wheels advent calendar with 24 dinky cars; or a FatFace one that offers you 24 different pairs of socks.
Meanwhile Lego, which was ahead of the curve on this whole concept, is offering five different advent calendars in 2026.
And all of that choice has combined to make advent calendar sales worth more than $1 billion a year globally – with multiple forecasts for sales to pass the $2 billion mark in the next six years.
Advent Event
Why consumers have embraced this trend is not too hard to figure out.
At a base level the appeal for the deluxe advent calendars is just the same as what makes the basic, chocolatey versions so attractive. Customers get to have a little present to look forward (every day, presuming they’re not sharing one with someone else).
More often than not, people are also buying them for themselves – which ties it into the little treat culture that has developed in recent years.
And while getting a bit of chocolate in an advent calendar is nice, these fancier calendars usually offer the added excitement of a surprise – as many people won’t know what’s inside until they open the door.
That only adds to the micro-excitement and mini-thrill of it all.
So, in shortly, they’re offering the buyer a daily endorphin rush – at a time of year when people don’t need too much convincing to treat themselves a little bit more than they normally might.
But there is an argument to say that these advent calendars have a more practical benefit, too.
Because they may, on paper at least, offer the buyer a decent saving on the products inside.
The Space NK calendar, for example, costs €316 this year. But the company claims there’s €1,350 worth of goods inside. Brown Thomas’ calendar is €150, but says the contents are worth €622.
There are some caveats to put on all of that, though.
Because, even if we take the sellers at their word and say that the contents are worth what they say they’re worth, it doesn’t automatically represent great value.
Just like a bog-standard three for two offer in the supermarket, a discount is only a saving if it’s on something you were looking to buy in the first place.
Otherwise you’re still down money.
And by their nature, even with a brand or retailer that you like, there is a risk that some of what’s inside will be wasted on you.
So while half of what you get might be products you like or would use, the other half might not by. In that case, the supposed value of the contents – to you at least – is suddenly a lot lower than what the box might claim.
Ad-vent
Why companies are so keen on advent calendars might be less obvious – especially if they truly are selling off products at a steep discount.
But really, even if the contents are going for below their recommended retail price, you can be sure they’re not being sold at a loss.
So advent calendars offer another way for them to package and sell their products so they can make a little bit of extra profit – in a category that simply didn’t exist a decade or so ago.
But they bring some other potential benefits that might be a bit harder to see on the bottom line – at least immediately.
For a start an advent calendar might help to pull a customer further into a company’s sales net. Presumedly they already like the brand enough to fork out for an advent calendar in the first place, but they’re probably not buying 24 or 25 different products from them on a regular basis.
And while the buyer runs the risk of getting some items that they don’t already use, for the retailer that’s a potential opportunity.
Perhaps that product was something the customer has assumed they wouldn’t like, or had decided it wasn’t worth paying for. But then they get a miniature in the advent calendar, give it a try and – maybe – end up a convert. Suddenly a new, full-price item has been added to their next shopping list.
Another upside for the retailer is the free buzz that these advent calendars can create if they become in-demand.
In previous years some of the most sought-after varieties have sold out in a matter of minutes. That is why so many brands now have wait lists open – in part to try to manage interest (but also as a way of ramping up the hype that bit further).
And there is now an entire sub-genre of social media content where people get their hands on various advent calendars and do ‘un-boxings’, opening the windows up in one go to show viewers what’s inside.
While that might seem to run counter to the excitement and anticipation that helps make these enjoyable to buyers, the unboxing videos tend only to happen after a calendar has gone on sale (and perhaps even sold out.
Often all it is really doing is creating FOMO for everyone who didn’t manage to get their hands on it – and they’ll likely be trying extra hard to buy one the following year.
Ultimately, all of that represents lots of free publicity and marketing for the brand in question.
Badvent
Of course, they’re not always good for business.
Many have bristled at the market’s growth – in particular because of the waste it creates.
Often companies are selling people products they may not need or even want – like tiny cosmetics that will sit at the bottom of a makeup bag for a year or two before getting thrown out. The calendars are also creating plenty of unnecessary packaging waste in the process.
Waste aside, some have also highlighted examples where the value for money aspect is questionable.
Last year chocolate company Lindt sold a giant advent calendar in Costco in the US and UK – it retailed for $250 or £180 and contained around 2.7kg of chocolate in various shapes and sizes.
Beyond questioning how many homes would need that much additional chocolate in the lead up to Christmas, some consumers worked out that it would have been considerably cheaper to buy the calendar’s contents individually in the supermarket.
And getting that value proposition wrong is where a lot of brands tend to face backlash for their advent calendar offerings. Because, while these are in many ways novelty items, consumers are often spending hundreds of euro on them – and won’t want to feel ripped off.
And that’s exactly what happened with some people who bought a $825 Chanel advent calendar in 2021.
There were some proper products inside – like nail varnish, a mini lipstick and a tiny tub of body cream – along with other items including a keyring, temporary tattoos, a flipbook and a sticker that looked like a wax seal.
Unsurprisingly Chanel’s efforts got roasted in numerous social media influencers’ unboxing videos.
Something similar happened to Sephora in the US in 2024.
They offered an advent calendar to users of their ‘beauty insider’ loyalty scheme, allowing them to cash in 2,500 points in return for one of the calendars.
What they got inside was a selection of beauty accessories – like make-up sponges, a scrunchie, a sleep mask and some hair clips… the kinds of things you might pick up for a few euro in a pharmacy.
Sephora is, of course, best known for makeup and skincare products – so consumers might have expected those kinds of items too – but nothing like that made its way into the box.
And this was particularly irritating to customers because, generally speaking, loyalty members got one point per dollar spent.
That meant many would have spent upwards of $2,500 on Sephora goods in order to qualify for this “free” gift.
Extreme Advent-ure
But even that may seem like good value compared to some calendars on the market. Because, of course, once a trend gets underway – there are always those that seek to take it to its most extreme, and expensive, conclusion.
Of course some of the mass-market, mainstream advent calendars are already expensive – but for those looking to spend even more money, there are plenty of companies ready to take their case.
For example, there are ‘old and rare’ whiskey advent calendars that offer 24 drams of spirit for upwards of €2,500. One cost closer to €13,000 – presumably because its contents were even older and rarer.
In 2019, Tiffany released a €120,000 advent calendar that contained pieces of jewellery and perfume.
The Guinness Book of World Records, meanwhile, claims the most expensive advent calendar ever was a 2010 release by a Belgian company called Octagon Blue GVC. It featured 24 glass tubes containing a small packet of diamonds wrapped in silver, and was supposedly worth €2.5m.
But even that is eclipsed by a calendar made by the self-declared ‘Queen of Christmas – a designer named Debbie Wingham.
She was commissioned to make a one-off calendar for a rich Swiss family, with the end result featuring being themed around the family’s travel plans for the year ahead.
Inside each window was a gift relating to the destination in question, like an $87,000 diamond and emerald-encrusted lamp to represent Dubai, or a clamshell purse and some pearls to represent Maldives. Each window was hand-painted with an appropriately-themed picture.
And Wingham claimed that, all-in-all, the advent calendar was worth more than $10m.
