TikTok by storm, and the fascination with these extravagant holiday offerings is driving content creators to showcase their unboxing experiences
Luxury advent calendars are taking TikTok by storm, and the fascination with these extravagant holiday offerings is driving content creators to showcase their unboxing experiences. The allure of high-end brands like Dior ($4,200), Vogue ($456), Jo Malone ($495), and others has resulted in a surge of videos capturing the daily unveiling of beauty treasures.
Mary Berry, a TikTok creator, has invested over $20,000 in luxury advent calendars, turning her daily unboxing videos into a viral sensation. Berry’s follower count has skyrocketed from 4,000 to nearly 100,000, demonstrating the popularity of this trend. Despite the significant spending, she sees it as a marketing expense for her cosmetics manufacturing business, Cosmos Labs, which has gained new clients through her advent calendar content.
Amanda Golka, creator of Swell Entertainment, echoes this sentiment, revealing that her daily unboxing videos of the Vogue advent calendar have almost covered the calendar’s cost within days. The evolving landscape of TikTok’s monetization, particularly through the Creativity Program Beta, is making these advent calendar videos more lucrative than ever for creators.
While advent calendars traditionally symbolize the Christian concept of the advent, representing the four weeks leading up to Christmas, TikTok creators engaging in this trend are not necessarily expressing religious sentiments. Chris Stedman, a religion and philosophy professor, suggests that these daily rituals on TikTok serve as a modern substitute for religious practices. In a world where structured reflections on meaning and purpose are sought outside traditional institutions, TikTok becomes a space for these explorations.
Stedman emphasizes that the act of buying and unboxing an expensive advent calendar may seem superficial, yet it creates a daily ritual for individuals, offering a sense of meaning and order in their lives. The significance, he notes, lies in the values of consumerism, where even seemingly trivial acts contribute to a personal sense of meaning.
In essence, TikTok’s platform, with its emphasis on ritualistic trends and routines, has turned the unboxing of luxury advent calendars into a cultural phenomenon. As creators share their daily discoveries, they not only entertain but also tap into a broader cultural shift in how individuals find meaning in the modern world.
