Christmas Consumerism: The Rise of the Luxury Advent Calendar

Nov 7, 2024

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Image Description: Old large white building from outside lit up in the dark with shop windows in the bottom floor. Each window has yellow patterns above on the walls. Credit: Pixabay

As a child, the concept that for a whole month of each year, chocolate for breakfast was entirely acceptable was mind-blowing. But far from the traditions of counting down Advent with a candle – which some still do now – even far from those much-loved sweet treats behind paper doors is the need to make money. Companies have been lining up to take over yet another market and turn the once cute and wholesome indulgent start to a frosty day into the Luxury Advent Calendar.

The first Luxury Advent Calendars went on the market in the early 2010s and are still the most popular to this day. Selfridges launched theirs in 2010, at the time costing around £60, this year’s calendar is priced at £250. Liberty’s version first went on the market in 2013, now costing £260. Both calendars sold out within days of their launch in October this year. According to The Independent in 2023, the average Brit was predicted to spend £278.50 on Christmas gifts for their family and friends, total. That would get them one of these calendars with under £30 left to play with.

When entering most online stores, you’re often greeted with a pop up offering a generous discount code to of course, encourage you to spend some money. C. W. Sellors, a luxury jewellery retailer, is no exception, offering you a hefty 10% off their luxury advent calendar, bringing the grand total down to a much more affordable £19,795.50. Or, if that’s too much in one go, why not spread the cost because you have to hurry, the site says there’s only one remaining!

Image Description: Red and Christmas themed graph showing the price comparisons of various items with the C. W. Sellors Advent Calendar: C. W. Sellors calendar £21,995. ‘A deposit on a small home’ accompanies a picture of a gingerbread house at about £20k on the scale. ‘A second hand fiat 500’ at around £16k on the scale. ‘A round-the-world cruise’ at £10k on the scale. ‘A year’s university tuition fee’ just underneath the cruise. ‘1,250 iced lattes’ around £5k on the scale.

There’s an argument that Christmas itself is becoming entirely consumerist, with brands’ advertising getting more and more intense and buyers being encouraged to save and ‘spread the cost’ over the year. An article published earlier in November by My Weekly presents readers with eight ‘affordable’ Advent Calendars, promising not to dent

your wallet because each is ‘under £50’.

Student, Iona Leaf said, “That seems like a misuse of the word ‘affordable’. At my ripe old age of 20 I've been given a Bluey Advent Calendar.” Priced at £1.25 she beamed, “I can't wait to use it.” She added that for her, an Advent Calendar is a fun way to keep her and her sisters’ childhoods alive. “We still get so excited every morning in December,” She is however, outraged that most calendars now stop on Christmas Eve, aren’t we all.

Along with the evolution of Luxury Calendars, people are branching off and getting creative with their gifting to include a festive twist. Two years ago, Iona tried something a little different, “me and my best friend created online calendars for each other,” she said each day had a different mystery book’s blurb behind it. “On Christmas Day we chose our favourite and then gifted each other that secret book. It was so cute.”

Advent Calendars are evolving from what they once were. Iona thinks it could be a positive in that more people are getting creative, “there’s a lady in my crochet class, her and her mum make each other advent calendars with knitting supplies to open and make things together over the festive season.” She does not want to get it twisted that anything could replace her chocolate calendars though, “who would give up chocolate for breakfast?”