Creating your own advent calendar

I was never an advent calendar person! Never, ever. I thought Christmas was enough or something. Advent calendars were to me just a marketing ruse, to get you to buy even more stuff. Sure, an advent calendar filled with chocolate isn’t too bad. But actually it isn’t enough, because who can live on one chocolate a day?!

And then, 2 years ago, something happened! I bought Pam’s advent calendar. And it started a chain reaction I had not anticipated! How could I know that I was going to be gifted another calendar? Which is what happened last year, while I had already bought Pam’s calendar again! There I was, with 2 advent calendars while almost never being at home during the month of December! I thought I was going to hate it! I had told the person who gave me the calendar that I was going to try to respect the process but really couldn’t guarantee anything.

You know what? I respected the process! I only opened the little doors when it was time. And since I was often gone for 4 days in row, there were days where it was like Christmas, for I had 5 different gifts from each calendar! Magical!!

So this year, I decided to buy Pam’s calendar again. Reasons being 1- as previously, I want to support an incredible woman ; 2- I have been turned into a consumerist monster who actually enjoys the masochist concept of delayed gratification (a shame after bragging about the long term effect of a no-buy challenge) and 3- I want to try Pam’s new line of hair product without placing an actual order!

Alas, I wasn’t fast enough and didn’t get one. Her calendars sold out in one hour or so and I didn’t make the cut. Since I was disappointed to not make myself suffer through December, I decided to create my own calendar! But after 2 or 3 weeks, when I had actually gathered almost all my advent gifts, I got an email that I could still buy Pam’s calendar… which I did! So like last year, I have 2 calendars! What has happened to me! Unpredictable chain reaction!

Regular advent calendars

There are pros and cons to regular advent calendars which are often mono thematic, like all chocolate or all whisky, tea, wine, candles or jewellery. Since I don’t need 24 pieces of jewellery from the same brand or 24 candles, these type of calendar aren’t for me. And again, one chocolate a day isn’t enough for my wellbeing!

Another potential issue is that regular advent calendar are often mono brand. On a plus side you may be getting to try out new products of such brand with no commitment and maybe even enjoy them. On the other side, there are products that you may not need at all. I still have some of the ‘Beauty’ products that were included in the calendar that was gifted to me last year. Some of the other products I have completely used and reordered. It’s a lottery game!

Versus curated selection

What I love about Pam’s calendar is that it is very diversified with the added benefit of being healthy. That’s part of the reason why I did not hesitate to buy again.

So in the same spirit, when I created my own advent calendar, I decided to only chose things I really wanted. I decided to curate a selection of products that were anyway in my wish list or products I already use regularly.

What did I select? Well some of the usual things you can find in an advent calendar with a few maybe less usual items:

one candle – because I feel one is enough!
my perfume but in a solid form (which I will mostly use when traveling)
Some tea (used for more than one day)
Face cream, serum, shampoo… from the brand I discovered in last year advent calendar
Castor oil (refill as my current bottle will only last until early December!)
My 2024 journal (I might switch it as I usually wrap it as a Christmas gift)
3 books
a mug
an amethyst bracelet (mine broke and I feel one jewellery piece is enough)

Fairly regular things to start with I believe, but then it gets, maybe, a bit weird?

Magnetic lamp for when working in the garage. Yet it gets weird!
Security lock for hotel rooms
Small camping shovel
A knife which is also a saw!

These items may seem really weird but were in my wish list based on my interest! Which includes going on a road trip on my motorcycle! A girl is allowed to have different interest in her life. No need to say more!

And then I used my dad’s endless supply of craft paper to wrap all of these. Drew the numbers on each little package and gave myself the added bonus of little messages!

And now I can’t wait for December to come!

The downsides of curating your own advent calendar

You may think the biggest downside of curating your own calendar is that you know what’s in there. There might be a lack of suspense and surprise.

To trick yourself, you could start this process early on enough during the year so you kind of forgot what’s in it. It may be risky as you might buy the same items before December comes. I know I would as I have a small brain!

To retain some element of surprise, you might want to ask someone else to wrap the items for you and number them for you. So at least you don’t know for sure what is coming next.

On my side, I don’t really see this as a major issue. In the previous calendars I got, I had a general idea of what the products were in there and it wasn’t a joy killer.

So to me, the biggest downside is the price tag! I soon realised that the total price of my curated calendar was way more than a regular calendar. Not talking about Tiffany’s calendar price tag of course but still much more than a regular chocolate advent calendar. Even if taking out of the equation, the biggest price ticket items like the solid perfume.

A regular advent calendar is around maybe 50 EUR / USD / GBP or whatever major currency, and a single book can easily be around 10 EUR / USD / GBP which is 20% of the total, while only representing one day. Ok admittedly one of the books I bought was 3 euros but that’s not the norm.

If you find a way, to curate the type of products you use & want and still be in total for 24 items, below 100 EUR / USD / GBP, do spill your secret! Not wanting to state the obvious but that’s 4 EUR / USD / GBP a day. It’s hard!

In addition, and maybe this is actually the biggest downside, some of these items like the solid perfume, the books, the lamp and even the knife are items that I usually would have bought out the blue, whenever I felt like it, or wrapped up as a Christmas present if it was that time of the year. Now, I’m in a pickle because I still need to find myself a Christmas present or 2! That’s a real issue because finding 24 items for this advent calendar has stretched my brain far beyond what I expected. I’ve completely run out of ideas or haven’t found the product I really want, or the one that fits my criteria even if I have an idea.

In a pickle I am!

There are however many upsides

I’m happy with my selection! No other calendars could have included 100% of things I wanted / needed or was sure to use. As stated above, I have leftovers from last year ‘beauty’ calendar I was given. This won’t be an issue with the one I curated.

No other calendar could have ever been this diversified! But one is allowed to be a multi interest person and therefore curate an absolute mismatch of gifts, which sounds crazy to others!

The other good part is that everything I chose is vegan and most items are eco friendly. By curating my own calendar I was able to really select the brands and products I wanted.

And I think there will be reasons for me to do this again as, for one, I actually enjoyed the process of selecting things for myself. I’ve never spent this much time selecting things for me only and thinking about it, it felt good! I guess I saw this as a form of self care after a very difficult year.