Advanced options
A GBP 12 chocolate calendar holds ~90g of chocolate: about GBP 1 bought as a bar. You're paying for 24 tiny doors and the countdown, which is fine: just know it. The beauty/toy/gin calendars run the same maths at bigger numbers: tot up what the contents cost individually before believing the "worth GBP 300!" sticker: RRP-stuffed calendars are the December edition of the discount that never was.
What The Advent Calendar Value Calculator Works Out
- Per door: the calendar price divided by the number of doors. A GBP 12 calendar with 24 doors is 50p a day of countdown.
- The anticipation premium: the price divided by what the contents would cost bought alone. A standard chocolate calendar's 90g would cost about GBP 1 as a bar and retails at GBP 8 to GBP 15, a premium of ten times or more that nobody minds until it is written down.
- Worth it?: under 2x is reasonable, since the doors and the ritual are worth something; above that you are paying mostly for cardboard and countdown. The 24 daily moments of a child's December are real value the spreadsheet legitimately cannot see, so pay the premium knowingly for the ritual, not credulously for the sticker.
- Sticker check (advanced): enter the "worth GBP 300!" RRP from the box. The card shows how inflated the claim is against your own valuation of the contents, and whether there is any real saving for someone who would buy those brands anyway. Beauty calendars at GBP 50 to GBP 300 lean on RRP arithmetic performed on travel-size miniatures nobody prices individually.
- Household December (advanced): the cost of several calendars (one per child, plus the dog's and the gin one) and how much of the total is premium rather than contents.
- Chocolate per door (advanced): grams per door and the price per 100g, against GBP 1 to GBP 2 for a supermarket bar and GBP 3 to GBP 5 for premium chocolate. Most chocolate calendars hold 3g to 4g a door, a single small square.
- Refillable pays back in (advanced): a wooden drawer or pocket calendar costs GBP 20 to GBP 40 once and is filled with the household's own chocolates, notes or a Lego set split across its doors. The card shows how many Decembers until it beats buying shop calendars, after which the premium drops to zero permanently and brings portion control the 6am-chocolate lobby has never respected.