Aibu to think the M&S advent calendar was crap this year?

[Biscuits4Breakfast]

I was really disappointed. Last year it had lots of full size stuff and was amazing. I don’t think I will bother next year.

I bought the cult beauty calendar as it has some items I wanted and opened it straight away. I'm not a child, you know what's in them before you buy them and they can be great value. Sorry you were disappointed Op.

Exactly
Like people saying a tv series is crap. That's not a spoiler

I'm irresistibly reminded of Zoella's 2017 £50 advent calendar which was rightly laughed at.

I believe one of the months just had confetti in it.

*one of the days

I get that some people just want the bargain stuff, not the joy of daily surprises. What I don’t get is why those people don’t check what the contents are before buying it. It’s a lose lose situation.

To be fair to the OP, unless you're quite forensic about these things, it's easy to look through the list of contents and think oh I love X, Y and Z, I'll get that, without clocking that the bits you like are 0.5ml samples and the full size stuff is things you happen not to like. I've occasionally been caught out buying posh food on Ocado without realising that the delicious looking bar of chocolate on a flash sale for two pounds is actually only two square millimetres.

You should probably check with M&S if you've been waiting a month.

My advent calendar was despatched, apparently lost by Evri (new name for Hermes), and M&S refunded me because they couldn't send a replacement as they'd sold out.

So no advent calendar for me this year.

Thank you @skilpadde I will do that. Doesn’t sound like we are missing much!

I thought you were disappointed OP because you found Gary Barlow in your advent calendar!

You always pay extra because it's an advent calendar. If you got a chocolate one and opened it all at once it would never be as good value as buying the actual chocolate without the calendar part

I got one last year for the first time and loved it. But not just for the content - some of which I loved (the Stila eyeliner and Eyelure mascara were brilliant additions to my makeup bag), some I wasn't fussed about but did use (the many hand creams) and others I gave away as wouldn't use them (the aforementioned Elasticiser).

What gave me most pleasure was the treat of having a little present to open every morning, it really gave me a lift on gloomy mornings, and helped me get excited about Christmas by "counting down" to it. Same as the kids reallly!

I also liked coming on here to chat about the items each day on the opening thread.

Just opening it all at once as soon I got it would ruin it for me.

Yes, exactly, you are paying for the whole experience not just a handful of contents

I've had a look at what's in there online (I get the M&S ones quite often but didn't this year as have loads of stuff to use up).
There are 7 full-size things, including two premium brands. That's over 25%. One or two are the same things as last year I think, but possibly a different colour/variation.

The rest are all really decent imo. There are a couple of 'hero' items that they put in every year but make the cut for me as being things I'd buy otherwise. And not 8 million hand creams (one is plenty imo - however there are more than 1...)

Looks a bit heavy on the hair/skin rather than fun makeup things - that would be my only negative.

The only thing that unreasonably annoys me is that all Beaty boxes contain Philip Kingsley elasticiser, and I don’t want hair that’s like elastic. Thanks very much, so don’t know what the fuck that is for

Give it a try! It's a conditioning treatment. I admit it's a faff to do, you need to leave it on damp hair for 10-20 minutes in a shower cap before you wash it, so I only remember/bother to do it about once a month if that - but it does make a difference to me (fine hair) and I always think I should bother to do it more often!

I agree, I loved the selection of products, but no full sized skincare products was really disappointing 😔
If it’s the same next year I will get a different beauty calendar… I will definitely check sizes of products next year!

If you want nice things that you’re going to open immediately, why on earth would you get an advent calendar?! People are bonkers.

This

Because you get lots of nice stuff at a (relatively) bargain price. "Advent calendar" is the gimmick that brands tend to use but nobody's forcing you to stick with it. Some people just open them all up and redistribute the contents into the stockings of family members for example.

EvilRingahBitch genius!

Not with beauty advent calendars. They work the same way as beauty boxes. The whole point of them is that you get more value than what you pay. It's usually worth at least double, so if you'd only use half the items it's still worth it, and you can give away the rest.

I bought an advent calendar for £50 that has around £200 worth of stuff in it. There are four things in it worth £60 that I would buy normally, so I've saved £10 already, and I'll use most of the other stuff and enjoy trying new things so it's win win.

The OP was pretty knackered, as a single parent of two disabled kids, and a shitty few weeks where things have gone wrong. It is no big deal and only an opinion. I’m not expressing the results of the World Cup final.

Exactly. I don't know why people are so confused by this!

I bought the JL one because I looked at the contents and decided there were enough things in it I wanted to try that the price was worth it.

It's a beauty box with fancy packaging. I opened it all up when I got it and have been using the products, because why wait till a random day in December to try a particular moisturiser or blusher when I can use it now 🤷

What on earth is "bonkers" about that?

Why have you opened it all on one day? Are you 5?

Yes go for a mystery box or something instead

If the full price advent calendars are such a bargain, what do you think we can learn from this about how much you're being ripped off the rest of the year?