With Christmas just weeks away, advent calendars are surging in popularity by 295%, according to new data from Taboola, with more than 25,000 page views on this topic in the last 45 days. This is 83% more than traditional holiday staples like Christmas cards.
This surge highlights increased consumer demand for the festive countdown tradition, as brands jump on the bandwagon and make Christmas come earlier with luxury calendar offerings.
Beauty advent calendars have seen the most dramatic jump, with a 1,738% increase in readership during this period. Content about these calendars have been viewed more than 20,000 times, compared to just 9,200 for general Christmas gifts. Beauty calendars made up 31% of all advent calendar sales last year, according to Skimlinks, a Taboola company.
Other advent calendar categories are also gaining traction:
- Alcohol advent calendars, especially beer-themed, grew to 13%
- Fashion accessories like jewellery and hair products reached 11%
- Adult-themed advent calendars increased 36% to become the 4th most popular at 10%
With 35% of sales across stationary, candles, luxury chocolates, speciality teas and more, there are significant opportunities for niche brands to tap into demand for unique advent calendar experiences. As preferences shift from mass-market to personalised, specialised options are expected to thrive this Christmas.
“We’re seeing a unique trend of demand emerging for advent calendars in the U.K., which is unlike any other market,” Dave Struzzi, communications lead at Taboola comments. “Traditionally, consumer interest in these products happens later in the holiday season with chocolate-themed items, but this year we’re seeing beauty and novelty categories such as alcohol, adult-themed and fashion calendars shaking up the traditional chocolate countdown.
This data was collected by content discovery platform, Taboola, by crunching data across 9,000+ publisher partners and news sites reaching nearly 600 million active users a day.
