Cost of Living5:47When Christ meets consumerism
Though its origins are religious, you probably know the advent calendar as a humble grocery-store product that features chocolates hidden behind 24 perforated cardboard doors.
That sugary countdown to Christmas dates back to the 1950s when the first chocolate versions came on the scene. Cadbury started mass marketing them in 1971 as tools to engage children with the Christian tradition of Advent, says Canadian marketing expert Robert Warren, who closely follows Christmas trends.
“What we’ve seen now is it’s become grossly commercialized,” said Warren, who currently teaches marketing at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.
Today you can buy an advent calendar containing almost any product you can imagine, from Lego to whisky, ice cream to jewelry, sex toys to fishing lures. Adding to the hype are influencers whose TikTok videos show them unboxing luxury advent calendars with eyewatering prices like one from Dior that costs $11,000.
WATCH: An influencer unboxes an advent calendar that costs $11,000 Cdn
Warren told Cost of Living it’s part of a pattern known as “Christmas creep,” where businesses begin marketing holiday-related products earlier and earlier in the year so that consumers ultimately spend more money.
“What you're seeing is, as all these different brands start to figure out ways to reach customers earlier into that Christmas season, the advent calendar became an easy way to do that,” said Warren.
Plus, younger consumers value the experience of opening up a little something each day, he says.
That’s certainly the case for 26-year-old Maya Warwick Brunelle in Montreal. Her mom moved to Vancouver, but the last three years has sent her an advent calendar — the Bonne Maman one featuring 24 tiny jars of jam — and gets the same for herself.
For the last three years, Maya Warwick Brunelle has received an advent calendar made by a jam company as a gift from her mother. (Submitted by Maya Warwick Brunelle)Although they won’t be together at Christmas, the advent calendar provides a way for them to stay connected over their shared love of jam. And they both like reusing the glass jars.
Retailing around $60, it’s a far cry from the Dior calendar, and even farther from a jewelry version by Tiffany’s worth a reported $112,000 US.
“It's a nice little treat every day,” said Warwick Brunelle.
Limited-editions up the appealSome of those treats include limited-edition jams only available once per year, and that’s “a very typical marketing tactic,” said Lily Lin, associate professor of marketing at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C.
This sends a message that “if you lose out, you might regret it,” said Lin. “If it's widely available, it's not as exclusive.”
But there’s some other marketing psychology behind this as well, she says.
“A lot of it is that anticipation up to an event. And there is research showing how sometimes even anticipating an event or planning for an event can be more exciting than the event itself. So I think the advent calendar, the countdown, kind of plays into that.”
Some of this is being driven by Gen Z and younger consumers, Lin says.
“You probably have heard of really young consumers getting into makeup and self-care, which is kind of an interesting trend,” she said. Fuelling it is the mountain of social media content about these product categories, she says, which might explain why your 11-year-old wants a $127 advent calendar from Sephora.
“I will say it's kind of a tricky thing right now because of the economy and hardship that people are going through,” said Lin. “So it's one thing to have these younger consumers want these products, but on the other hand, it's a financial burden.”
Christine Lan, a 'de-influencer' who makes content about sustainable and frugal living, is seen at a senior's holiday party she attended with her parents this year. 'I'm wearing a hand-me-down festive dress.' (Submitted by Christine Lan)Christine Lan, a Montreal content creator whose “de-influencing” videos offer tips on how to live more frugally and sustainably, points out that young people’s very online lives have shifted social comparison.
“Growing up, we didn't have anybody to compare ourselves to other than our neighbours or people that live in the same social class as us,” said Lan, who is also a mom to two teenagers. “But now with social media, you know, a 12-year-old can see Paris Hilton or the Kardashians consuming so many things and they want the same.”
Certified financial planner Shannon Lee Simmons told The Current social media “has ratcheted up what we think is normal, like a financial dysmorphia.”
High impact on wallets and the environmentAnd though the idea of spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on an advent calendar sounds, on the face of it, in direct conflict with the affordability crisis impacting so many Canadians, Lan says she believes they may be linked.
“Because everything is really expensive and most young people can't afford to buy homes now, I think that with the income that they do have, they'll probably splurge on a luxury item because that's what that’s more attainable to them,” said Lan.
The impact to landfills also concerns her, given advent calendars contain a lot of packaging for relatively little product.
“The environmental impact of [this] overconsumption is terrible.”