Advent calendars rush in as holiday creep claims July 25
It’s July, and Advent calendars are nearly sold out.
Not the traditional cardboard calendars that offer a thimble-sized treat behind colorful little doors that children can open from Dec. 1 to 24, counting down to Christmas, but three-dimensional extravaganzas of themed excess, from cosmetics to candy to toys to enthusiast trinkets, like fishing flies.
Only a few yarn ($275) and cross-stitch ($175) calendars remain unclaimed at Forbidden Fiber Co., where proprietor Leann Ross hand-dyes wool and cotton that customers use to make the projects that emerge with each day on the calendar.
People hungry for a taste of their hometowns might still be able to snag a treat-a-day calendar stuffed with bites from every American state ($169), assembled by Milwaukee-based Delicious Food Delivered. With sales volume nearly doubling every year since the company introduced the line in 2020, it will send out 30,000 calendars this year.
Advent calendars? In July?
Diehard “Little House on the Prairie” fans have it a bit easier: the miniature house ($109) created by The Queen’s Treasures is sold year-round, so company owner Joann Cartiglia tries to always have some available.
“People buy it when they discover it,” she told Straight Arrow. The house replicates the silhouette of the house as depicted in the beloved television show. Tiny wooden drawers, decorated with gingham stars, open to reveal miniature replicas of the holiday gifts that “Little House” author Laura Ingalls Wilder received when she was a girl on the frontier: mittens, a peppermint stick, Susan the doll.
Partly driven by operational and financial practicalities and partly to stoke customers’ insatiable craving for the unique and the nostalgic, retailers have liberated Advent calendars from December. With the dawn of June 25, pre-Christmas season debuts with a tide of newfangled Advent calendars. A month later, the gingerbread window closes: the limited-edition calendars are all claimed and retailers turn their energies to packaging them for November delivery.
READ MORE: Why more Americans have two or more Christmas trees in their home these days
The calendars are one more notch in America’s holiday-creep belt, which sends Halloween tchotchkes to Target on the Fifth of July, and promises back-to-school sales moments after spring’s final bells ring.
They are also a rare blend of whimsical consumer expectations fulfilled by bare-knuckled retail logic. Both dynamics explain their relentlessly advancing popularity, said Michael Cramer, CEO of Adagio Teas, a specialty tea company that launched its first tea calendars 10 years ago.
“It’s a risk-free gift. I’m sending you a multitude of things and I don’t have to be right on all of them,” he said of the company’s $34 flavor-a-day tea calendars. “Sometimes people get them in pairs and open them in tandem with distant family members. It creates a shared tradition.”
The “treat yourself” tradition drives about half of Adagio’s calendar sales, Cramer estimates, as consumers look for ways to reward themselves for knocking off holiday chores and coping with holiday stress.
How do early holiday orders change retail strategy?
And countdown calendars are a treat for retailers, too. Cramer and others tick off a myriad of marketing wins: infiltrating consumers’ homes for a glistening moment every day in December; the social shareworthy content that burnishes brands right when consumers are spending; and the bite-sized sampling of a brand’s array of products, inviting purchases of full-size favorites in January.
Calendars ordered — and paid for — in July turn Black Friday gray by shifting holiday spending earlier.
“You have all this inventory but you’re not really busy until November,” said Cartiglia of the traditional retail selling rhythm, especially for toys. After seven years, calendars now account for 15% of her company’s revenues, said Ross, and help assure a midyear burst of cash.
“It’s my biggest event of the year,” she said.
Calendars link anticipation with specific brands, said Hubert Paul, a partner in the consumer sector at research and consultancy Simon-Kucher.
“Retailers and brands are keen to see an advent calendar as a brand engagement mechanism,” he told Straight Arrow. “If you get 24 days of different flavors and you get to try this brand for a whole month, and every day you’re anticipating the next, you’ve locked in a consumer trial for that month.”
Bite-sized daily treats “give consumers a sense of accessibility to a luxury brand,” he said, “and can set up consumers for subscriptions” and follow-up sales.
Can summer countdowns save small business revenue?
Theresa Nemetz turned to Advent calendars to save her regional travel and tour company, which faced an existential crisis during the pandemic in 2020.
She had a readymade mailing list of prior customers and plenty of contacts with small businesses. Maybe, she thought, she could convert some of the experience of travel with the way calendars infuse expectation with nostalgia.
She was right. The first run of Delicious Food Delivered’s 3,000 Wisconsin-centric calendars was a hit. This year, 850 small businesses will be showcased in the company’s 33 state and regional calendars. Many customers first buy a calendar for a friend or relative who lives far from their hometown, and then the next year, buy one for everybody in the family. Gift recipients turn around and order calendars for their own lists, driving exponential growth.
Meanwhile, calendar door-openers love discovering small brands that they wouldn’t otherwise encounter.
“The day after their day is opened, vendors get a wave of orders,” said Nemetz.
Entrepreneurs can’t help but wonder: If Christmas sells out in July, why not Halloween in April?
It works for Ross. She is putting the finishing touches on 200 13-day Halloween countdown calendars to customers who will receive them just as the autumn leaves start to turn.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
