Why I’m a sl*t for Advent Calendars

To be perfectly honest with you- it’s pretty seldom that I am surprised in this industry. That’s not to be cynical, but like most jobs you get into the swing of things, you become more skilled at your craft, and fewer things surprise you on the day to day. However, last Christmas (2024) I had a client surprise me leaving me to feel its my life’s mission to make advent calendars my entire holiday personality. Prior to last year I had only ever received those super market chocolate advent calendars as a kid, and I’ve never liked milk chocolate, so I didn’t give advent calendars the time of day.

To my surprise I got a mystery package in the mail last year from a client who, up til that point I had only met one time in person (and frankly, we were in poor company, so it wasn’t exactly what you’d call ‘a date’ necessarily, still he was friendly and we found ways to make our meeting special to us.) For the most part we had an online relationship. I opened the package to see a L’Occitane Advent Calendar; a brand I hadn’t yet become familiar with. If I remember correctly there was a note indicating it was from him, and slowly, but surely for the month of November I received TWELVE advent calendars. I about lost my mind. All a surprise. I had no idea when the packages would stop, and when they did- I got to spend the entire month of December opening them!

On my other social media I made daily vlogs of myself opening each one day by day and it inspired my loved ones to join in. I got a 24-day wine advent calendar to enjoy whilst opening my other gifts, later in February my best friend made me an advent calendar for the 21 days of my birthday which then inspired another person to also make me a 10 day calendar; both of which were made from gifts they had hand picked from my favorite retailers & designers. One of the calendars he got me was actually empty. It was a gingerbread house you could hang on the wall and it lit up so it could be reused for years. I have big plans to make this a family calendar where every year someone in the family uses it for someone of their choosing. (As of right now, that will be from me to my dog).

Come about October first I had this memory in my mind- the excitement was there all over again. I think it was the excitement of not knowing. Not knowing how many packages would come, no knowing what was in each day of each calendar, not knowing who had sent them all at first, not knowing it would inspire others to repeat the generosity! THAT was the surprise of it all.

So cheers to him. Cheers to the man who sparked a new tailored interest of mine and surprised me in a way no one had before. Selfishly, I hope this Christmas is no different, and this becomes a tradition for years to come.