Why food-focused advent calendars targeting adults are a luxury craze

Last fall, I blacked out financially and fell into a luxury lifestyle advent calendar. I happily unwrapped a new face serum or silk eye mask or bath oil every day. Naturally, I went down the rabbit hole and dove into the universe. I walked the aisles of festive sampler bags like World Market and read the online reviews and unboxings that helped fuel the advent-calendar mania.

It was like looking at the holidays through a looking glass: a way of celebrating that I never thought of as an adult, and one that seems to be increasingly lived by millions of people around the world. For those who have adopted an extra-calendar lifestyle, every day starting on December 1 is a holiday.

For nearly a century, children have knocked on numbered doors to find candy, trinkets or holiday messages that begin the month of December. But with a recent boom in popularity and a new fascination for adults, there are now advent calendars for candles, jewelry, fishing tackle, makeup, dog treats, perfume, nail polish, and Legos. Some of the world’s most fascinating may be those dedicated to your favorite foods.

Dandelion Chocolate has released an Advent Calendar this year with a heavenly theme and design. It comes with a moon map and is already sold out.

(Myung Jae Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Cheese, caviar, hot chocolate, spices, Japanese snacks, wine, hot sauce, coffee and canned cocktails can be found behind small drawers and paper doors this year. Even Jepson’s Malvert, a frequent Chicago native, only announced the calendar for “25 days, 25 shots, 25 questionable decisions.”

The competition for them is fierce, and the prices are high. Some sell them months before Christmas. Reddit threads, social media and other online message boards dedicated to advent calendars serve as sounding boards for each year’s best values ​​and best picks — and reviews.

“It’s really exploded,” said Fredrik Nielsen, CEO of luxury licorice company Lockrides by Blue. “It’s unbelievable.”

The Copenhagen-based sweets company claims to be the first culinary calendars marketed to adults. Throughout the year, the brand wraps licorice in an array of layered chocolate and candy shells. For the holidays, Lakerides produces two advent calendars. The version found in the U.S. includes 24-day colorful licorice spheres in a black and gold box inspired by Nordic aesthetics ($69.99); Another, available only in Europe, is shaped like a giant jar.

Their inspiration came from the candy itself: a grown-up take on a childhood classic that covers licorice in delicious flavors like tart strawberry or giant rose.

“When I was growing up, everybody had a calendar, but this was definitely something for kids,” Nelson said. “Luann wouldn’t have a Christmas calendar. And when we, in 2011, created our first Christmas calendar, it was—if not the first—one of the first calendars that targeted adults.”

Copenhagen-based Liquorices by Bolo—a maker of grown-up licorice—claims to be the first culinary calendars marketed to adults.

(Myung Jae Chun/Los Angeles Times)

In 2011, the company sold 1,000 of them. Now the confectionery makes 300,000 per year. This is the fourth year the advent calendar has been available in the United States, and sales have already nearly doubled compared to 2024.

What’s behind the appeal of the trend? A local developer has a theory. Jing Gao owns LA-based chili crisp company Fly by Jing, which bottles aromatic spices and chilies from Sichuan, China. Gao said the allure for shoppers is in the daily dose of the unknown: In a society obsessed with LeBobs and other blind-box items, the daily thrill of having a wrapped, hidden gift offers “a wonderful surprise and delight.”

This year, Jing’s Mini Jar and other, new products come in a large hand-carved red box decorated with an illustrated panda and gold embossing ($98). This is the second year of flying by Jing’s advent calendar. As soon as her team finished production on the 2024 box, they began planning and coordinating for that year. For 2025, it includes a re-introduction of Mala Spice Mix with two new products that would be too expensive to produce on a large scale: a shot sauce and a barbecue rub.

Last year’s calendar sold out in two or three weeks. This year, even with double the production, it went till November 10.

Gao grew up in Europe and especially during her years in Germany, loved advent calendars for the holidays. Then she didn’t think about them for 20 years.

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When she started seeing food and beauty brands launching calendars, it only made sense to join them: Gao Chili Crisps always see a spike in sales during the holidays and she already offers gift sets.

Advent calendars are “a kind of play for us, where we can still have fun and try different things,” Gao said.

Local company FlybyJing has released an advent calendar with mini jars of spices and sauces and noodle packs. It has doubled production this year, but it ended on November 10.

(Myung Jae Chun/Los Angeles Times)

They can also be a way to indulge in luxuries that may not be in the budget year-round. Just as consumers can splurge on couture calendars from fashion brands like Dior ($750) and Christian Louboutin ($720), the extravagance — and the skyrocketing price tags — can extend to food.

A luxury-branded advent calendar from Williams Sonoma ($350) features copper-bakeware ornaments, aged balsamic, specialty candies and imported spices. The sold-out Dandelion Chocolate Calendar ($198 for one person, or $328 for two) has a celestial theme and design, with each of the 25 chocolates corresponding to the moons of the solar system, complete with a star map.

For those involved, the holidays are prime season for caviar — and the San Francisco-based caviar company’s 12-day advent calendar costs $945.

The caviar calendar includes two mother-of-pearl spoons, a caviar tin, recipe cards and a dozen 1-ounce jars of caviar and roe. The price is 945 dollars.

(Myung Jae Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Red and gold treasure chests come in Styrofoam coolers filled with ice packs; The advent calendar is stored in the refrigerator, filling the shelf space with gold embossing and foil stamping.

“I like to say there’s a different caviar for every day of the week,” said CEO and co-founder Petra Bergstein Higby, who runs the company with her sister.

Each caviar calendar includes two pearl spoons, a caviar tin key, recipe cards and a dozen 1-ounce jars of caviar and roe: some smoked, some standard, some very high-end. In 2025, a “wild card” was added: the beluga-surgeon hybrid, a species not currently for sale on the website.

Many customers say they buy them as gifts, but others split them among friends for caviar-tasting parties or events like Friendsgiving, which makes the price even more accessible.

While luxury can mark the holidays, some of the culinary world’s most popular Easter calendars run a fraction of the cost: Walker’s Buttery, Crispy Shortbread Cookies ($31.99), Whim’s Collapsible Tea Collection ($24.99), Tony Choclonelli’s 24-9 Cholatedoorage $9.

But perhaps the most beloved and budget-minded calendar of all comes in the form of two dozen mini jars of jams and spreads. Bon Maman’s advent calendar ($54.99) has seen 400% growth since the start of 2017, according to a company representative. Thousands of TikTok and Instagram videos are unboxed, taste-tested and rated through the annual box.

Bon Maman’s advent calendar launched in 2017 and has seen 400% growth, driving social media trends to inbox, enjoy and rate the company’s mini jar jams.

(Myung Jae Chun/Los Angeles Times)

To explore the world’s most famous countdown of French cups, I had to call on an expert: no one is more dedicated to the cause of the Bon Maman calendar than my long-time friend Michael Birch-Pierce, a visual artist who, every year, changes the cup influencers with the stroke of December 1.

In 2021, Pierce saw an Instagram post about the calendar and immediately bought one. It was love at first sight. Fatally allergic to chocolate and caffeine, Pierce could never attend more traditional events.

“I never knew the joy of a future calendar,” Pierce said.

Now every morning in December, they toast with an English muffin or bagel and run a delicious spread on each side. One year they saw someone using a large jar to make a cocktail, so Pierce used many of the finished mini-jars for cocktail-flavored shots. A few tiktok and Instagram feeds from fellow jam enthusiasts point to other uses: make cold fruit foam for coffee tops, use it in cookies, fill empty jars with homemade beeswax or lip balms.

While traveling for work last year, Pierce removed the jars from the hole in the festive paper cube, wrapped them in paper towels without batting an eye, and stuffed them in a suitcase to open on the road and enjoy at his hotel’s continental breakfast.

Come December, Pierce posts about the flavor of each day; Over the years, thousands of friends have followed suit, and dozens have bought a calendar because of it.

“They write to me about it all the time,” Pearce said. No, I will never stop eating jam.