The Advent period – a word that means “coming” – is the period of waiting for Christmas, but in recent years it is no longer just religious celebrations that tell the story: there are also Advent calendars, now a rapidly growing market, a true cultural and social phenomenon. The first Advent calendar it was invented in 1902 by Gerhard Lang, a German printer and publisher, but it was only after the Second World War, when the calendars arrived in the USA, that their popularity became global.
In reality, the profound meaning of Advent is ancient and rooted in Christian tradition: it symbolizes the wait for the birth of Christ and, according to the liturgical season, is counted from the fourth Sunday before Christmas.
The Advent calendar: what the data tells us between marketing and tradition
The Advent calendar market is on strong growth: the global market reached 1.34 billion dollars in 2024, estimated to reach 2.65 billion dollars by 2033. In Italy, already in 2021, the market for this product on Amazon alone has reached 2 million euros, while instead taking the UK market as a reference, it is estimated that 33% of adults purchase at least one.
And if i children are a key audience demographic, adults are the real trend of growing buyers: the Advent calendar has become a real one marketing tool for companies and brands and, also thanks to the role of Instagram, their diffusion is very vast.
The most popular categories are those of beauty, gastronomy and alcohol: the gesture of opening a “box” a day and treating yourself to a gift is seen as a gesture of self-care, which enhances the exclusivity of the moment and the wait.
Who invented the Advent calendar?
The history of the Advent calendar, however, begins well before Instagram and modern marketing. Although the custom of wait for Christmas counting the days and making gestures of waiting, such as ticking chalk notches on the wall, originates in Protestant tradition 19th century Europe, the Advent calendar as we know it today was “officially” invented in 1902 by Gerhard LangGerman printer and publisher.
Lang’s idea was inspired by none other than his mother who, when he was little, prepared 24 biscuits for him to eat, one a day, and drawings to cut out and glue on a piece of cardboard to await Christmas. Lang proposed this idea again with the first calendars printed on paperwith Christmas images that were part of the folkloristic and religious tradition. Initially, however, these calendars did not have windows, but only images, and were not called “Advent” calendars, but Christmas calendar or Saint Nicholas calendar because, actually, Advent does not begin on December 1st, but it can begin even earlier, given that it begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas.
The popularity and diffusion of Advent calendars in the 1900s
The idea was immediately a great commercial success and, thanks to the fact that Lang worked in the publishing sector, it also had a notable diffusion.
Again by Lang, calendars with windows they began to spread around 1920.
During the Second World Wardue to poverty, the scarcity of raw materials and the secular vision of the state imposed by Nazism, the Advent calendars designed by Lang – which in the meantime were re-proposed in many other versions – were removed from the market.
Immediately after the War, in 1946, another German printer, Richard Sellmerobtained permission from the Americans, who still occupied the territory, to print the Advent calendar for that year. Sellmer managed to introduce the calendar to America too, so much so that a photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s grandchildren unwrapping one in 1953 is famous. The popularity of calendars in the USAthen sanctioned its popularity throughout the world.
History and origins of Advent
The word “Advent” comes from Latin adventuswhat does it mean “coming“: the period preceding Christmas, therefore, is precisely the moment in which the coming of Christ is awaited. The first celebrations of Advent date back to the 5th century AD, a period in which the structure and organization of the Catholic Church in Europe was consolidated. In Italy, specifically, there are references to rituals with which Christmas was awaited with fasting, prayer, penance and meditation, an attitude perhaps more similar to Lent than to the Advent season as we know it today.
In fact in France, in the 6th century, Christians celebrated the so-called “Lent of St. Martin”, i.e. the five weeks before Christmas, in which we fasted and abstained from sexual relations.
Over time, the customs of this period have softened, to the point of becoming what, for Christianity, Advent is today, that is, a period of waiting and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ.
According to the Christian liturgical season, Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas – lasts from a minimum of 22 days up to a maximum of 28 – and ends on Christmas Eve.
Every Sunday is symbolized by a colored candle, generally three purple and one pink: the first represents Hope, the second Peace, the third Joy and the fourth Love. Every Sunday one is lit, traditionally placed on a crown, and so on the light increases, symbolizing, thanks to the birth of Jesus, the victory of light over darkness.
