Advent Calendars

[PersonaNonGarter]

Oh God I am sick of receiving ‘It’s Here!’ emails from beauty brands/garden catalogues/whatever telling me their advent calendar is now in stock.

Sod off with your over-priced, bad-for-the-environment tat. No, I don’t want a miniature candle, tiny sample size lip balm, or weird plastic trinkets. Why would I want your one-chocolate-a-day when I could just buy a box for a quarter of the price?

I like to shop but this vacuous consumerism is getting to me. Urgh. Sheep. When will it be over.

I love the reusable ones. Loving the idea of sewing a fabric one. Currently we have a wooden one, with little drawers.

I have a lovely yarn advent calendar this year. Never had an advent calendar since the standard chocolate one as a child.
I'm really looking forward to it and then using the yarn to make a blanket.

I get the Bonne Maman preserves one. Wee glass jars, recyclable AND great start to the day.

What are you on about? Some people have far too much money and time.

I only buy the Look Fantastic one so I can sell it on Ebay!

Ok it is wasteful and silly.
But buy yourself a treat one, save if for the dark days of January and then tell me you don’t like it

I would quite like to have one just as I did in the 80s, just a small window on a Christmas scene that you opened in anticipation of the magical day itself, no gift behind the door, no Christmas Eve gift just a magical time. Anyone know where I can get one?

I love getting my kids advent calanders full of tat, one is an adult already, another not far off it, as well as my little one, and I'm not looking to stop that tradition any time soon.

Op I'm sure you buy lots of shit that I would never dream of buying as well 😂😂 judge away I dont care one bit.

Pretty much everyone on my Facebook who does Bodyshop at home has been posting to either sell an advent calendar or buy a raffle ticket to win one.

I don’t want 24 random bodyshop toiletries that I will never use at the cost of £55.

Monthly boxes of all sorts of things are the fad I've just noticed.

@allthegoodusernameshavegone I've seen them in bookshops. They must be online too?

I love my beauty advent calendar! I'm happy they are now a thing

Thanks a greener shade, Googling now

You’re making me laugh loads, @NotPersephone! Especially the little twat under the cloche…

@Wazzzzzzzup

I am mid 30s and I always have Chocolate advent calendar. 😁

I'm mid 40s and my Hotel Chocolat advent calendar arrived today. I ordered early in case of shortages!

I've bought dd the Holland and Barrett advent calendar for the 3rd year running! She absolutely loves it (well, she obviously hasn't seen this years yet!) and there are some really fab things in there. Last year the one they posted out got really damaged so they posted out another one for free which meant I got one too 😁. This years was delivered in pristine condition so no freebies for me ☹️🤣.

We have a lovely (and free) kids kindness advent Calender.

We made it last year and it was so well received; simple and fun things to do each day, which is not about chocolate or gifts. Rather about thinning of others.

The fabric ones some of you make sound incredible beautiful and sure those memories will stay with your children.

Anyway - grab the kindness advent here - cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1159/4872/files/Advent_Calendar2022_b.jpg?v=1634550235

I have never bought an advent calendar, even when my two children were youngsters. Sadly, the pure simpleness and joy of Christmas has now gone to pot,with all the advertising about it from early October, and all the crap and rubbish being sold all over.

I agree about the waste and haven’t had a calendar myself but at the same time I do think they’re fun. I bought a beer one as a present once.

I’m with you, OP, they’re overpriced tat and I remember the backlash that Zoella got for her £50 rrp one that had had cheap plastic tat in it.

I think you’ve had grumpy replies as you’ve dared to prod the beast of rampant consumerism, which we’re all guilty of tbf.

I’m with you on the irritating language.

“It’s here!” = oh phew now I can sleep
“We’ve got you covered” urgh

Sure there are many more!

Yes you are vastly superior to the sheep who buy their children a £1 chocolate advent calendar, or -shock- buy themselves a calendar from a brand they enjoy.

I was just happy to open picture of a bell or a Christmas pudding when i was a kid. It's all the charm of Christmas, no?

Advent Calendars are a symptom of a far wider consumerism culture we have all year round. So there are plenty of other things that are filling out landfills. All of it is there because the demand is.
If it bothers you, shop ethically and adjust your lifestyle accordingly.

Its all subjective.

My kids have a wooden Advent calendar that has a £1 per day in. My mum does it for them and then takes them shopping in January with the money. They love it. They have had it Iver 10 years. No tat. No throwing out. Does that make our family the winner of this moral attachment you have to Advent calendars?
They get have a chocolate one.

This year I got mum an expensive adult one and added little things to it. Like photos of her and the kids. I know my mum. It will all be used and she will reuse the very well made box.

I, for example, think an i-phone is a waste of money and a pointless buy. But don't judge I-phone users. Some people keep the same one for years some people change them often. There's more to someone than their phone, so I am not going to assume anything about someone based on their phone.

You clearly buy products from these people. What makes your purchases not tat and an Advent calendar from them, automatically, tat?

Of course some are tat. Look around, some places sell tat. I think expensive boxes of chocolates are ridiculous and rarely taste better than less expensive chocolate. But again, some people get joy out of it. If they want to spend a bit more and have it in a box with 24 drawers.

Doesn't automatically make them enemies of the environment or mean they are morally corrput.

If you don't want one. Don't buy one. It's really not difficult.