Increasingly popular, 49% of Britons will have an advent calendar this year, with over 33 million calendars being sold in the UK.
The logistics of collecting, packaging and distributing all these gifts are staggering, Liberty’s beauty calendar launched in 2012 and now takes a year to put together.
Advent calendars are evolving, they are now pitched as extravagant gifts, containing every kind of commodity from cosmetics, jewellery, toys, food and alcohol to yachts…
Gerhard Lang is thought to have created the first commercially printed Advent calendar in 1908, inspired by his mother, who sewed 24 cookies into the lid of a box and allowed him to eat one per day through December.
The modern luxury advent calendar goes back to at least 2010, when the department store Selfridges launched its beauty calendar with cosmetics giant L’Oréal, the first company to fill each day with sample products, including Lancôme fragrance and Kiehl’s body cream.
In the same year Harrods stocked a limited edition (five were made) Porsche $1m advent calendar, the doors opened each day to reveal gifts such as a speedboat, bespoke Porsche kitchen, gold plated watch and designer sunglasses amongst other items.
With production and sales growing year on year – the Liberty’s one sold out online in a day and half in 2016 and people queued for hours to snap them up in-store. The drinks industry were quick to capitalise with miniature bottles of prosecco, gin and whiskey calendars, prices ranged from £75 to £10,000.
The First chocolate calendar dates back to 1958, but since Cadbury launched its chocolate one in the UK in 1971, these have become more & more luxurious and now you can get everything from cheese to Pork Scratchings!
Luckily for our TPS office dog Blair, the UK is a nation of pet lovers, and the pet industry were quick to jump on the trend. Today thousands of pet treat advent calendars are available, contributing to the estimated £1.9bn annual UK pet market. Fuelled by Millenials (19-38 year olds) more than half (51%) of UK shoppers would rather cut back spending on themselves than on their pet, according to a Mintel report.
Mintel research reveals that 30% of Millennial pet care purchasers say they like their pet to keep up with the latest trends (eg clothes, grooming styles). And the research finds two in five (40%) of these pet care buyers would spend just as much money on their pet at special events (such as Christmas or their birthday) as they would on a friend!
If you require any assistance distributing your gifts over advent please call one of our team – we are operating storage, forwarding and delivery, both domestic and overseas up to and including Christmas Eve.