Advent calendars are getting weird This Christmas, who fancies some protein powder?

Advent calendars have become an increasingly popular marketing tool for companies looking to promote all kinds of products during the Christmas season. Once designed primarily for children as a way to manage the anticipation of Christmas, they are now targeting adults more and more often.

The origins of the advent calendar date back to the mid-nineteenth century, when, particularly in Germany, Protestant families would hang colourful pictures on their walls to count down the days until Christmas. Today, the products companies include in their advent calendars range from snacks to sex toys, and more recently this trend has been widely embraced by wellness marketing.

The most obvious examples come from Naked Nutrition and Myprotein, two companies (the former American, the latter British) specialising in sports supplements, which have included small single-serve sachets of creatine, collagen, and protein powder in their advent calendars — substances used respectively to enhance athletic performance and muscle recovery, support skin and joint health, and supplement protein intake in one's diet.

Why adults love advent calendars so much

As reported by the New York Times, according to Growth Market Reports, a company that publishes market analyses across numerous industrial sectors, in 2025 the global market for advent calendars containing consumer products was worth approximately 2.6 billion dollars, with annual growth of 9% across the United States and Canada.

These calendars work first and foremost because they are seasonal by nature and are almost always produced as limited editions — a characteristic that makes them even more appealing, thanks to the logic of the drop. The size and variety of the items inside also make them particularly well suited to unboxing videos, which further amplifies their visibility on social media.

Food products remain by far the most popular category in advent calendars. According to an analysis by Mintel, a British company specialising in market research and consumer analysis, calendars containing chocolate account for nearly half of all sales in the sector.

Alongside more traditional offerings, however, decidedly more eccentric options are emerging: take, for example, the dill pickle-flavoured chips found in the 12 Days of Pickles calendar, sold by American beer company Give Them Beer, or the mints packaged in tiny containers shaped like cans of beans from the Bush's brand.

What happened with the Skims advent calendar

The advent calendar from Skims, the lingerie brand founded by Kim Kardashian, recently sparked considerable controversy. Priced at $148 (around €130) in the United States, the product contained mostly small accessories, including hair ties, hair clips, and keychains. The selection disappointed many buyers, who felt the value of the items was far below the overall price charged. Some even compared the gifts to the kind of debris that accumulates under sofas or between car seats.

Criticism spread rapidly on social media, where several influencers posted videos of themselves opening the calendar's compartments and expressing their disappointment. Some went so far as to compare the initiative to the Fyre Festival, the disastrous luxury music event that was supposed to take place in the Bahamas in 2017 and has since become a symbol of broken commercial promises. Despite having already sold out, Skims decided to pull the calendar from the market and issue refunds to buyers.