- Adventure - 24th December 2025
- Crime pays but shouldn’t, part three - 23rd December 2025
- Crime pays but shouldn’t, part two - 22nd December 2025
Here our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, looks at the incredible rise in popularity of the Advent Calendar, and muses whether it should become a vehicle to promote The Eye!
Today is the last day to open a window on your Advent Calendar. You probably have one because research shows that most people do.
A recent poll by IPSOS in the UK found that 72 per cent of respondents buy Advent Calendars.
But it isn’t just here that they are unbelievably popular. A calendar by Bonne Maman, a jam brand, sells out in America every year, and it has led to the brand increasing production by 400 per cent since 2017 to meet demand.
Beauty is also pretty popular: Space NK’s cosmetics calendar, one of the most popular of 2025, sold out in weeks.
These days Advent Calendars feature fewer bells and more bells and whistles. You can buy one not just for your children, but also for your parents, pets and even the birds in your garden.
If you are feeling indulgent you can choose a calendar stuffed with port wine or pork scratchings. If you are on a pre-Christmas health kick you can pick one filled with protein powder or workout gear.
Some calendars are sumptuous: a 12-day caviar countdown will set you back almost $1,000. Others are sensible (24 tools) or silly (24 pots of slime).
Advent Calendars can seem odd. The tradition started in the early 19th century with German Protestants who marked the season by lighting candles or drawing lines of chalk. Paper calendars spread across the world after World War II, when spirits needed lifting.
Advent Calendars offer benefits for brands, such as attracting new customers. Some are eager to extend the custom beyond Christmas – Halloween Advent calendars have already started spooking the shelves.
Kate Turvey, director of the Advent Calendar Shop, which stocks more than 500 different types, reckons countdowns to Mother’s Day or birthdays other than Jesus’s may soon take off.
Perhaps we should think about that – opening a window to find The Eye logo.
Now that would be a real surprise present!
The memories of Phil’s astonishing 42 year award-winning career in journalism (when there was a different countdown to Christmas!) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
It would make a good Christmas present, but don’t worry you can get it online and say it’s coming – Nadolig Llawen!
