Chanel’s Christmas fail and other disappointing advent calendars
French luxury house Chanel has denied blocking a social media user from its TikTok account this week after she tore its advent calendar to shreds.
TikTok user Elise Harmon claimed she had been blocked by the brand after posting videos to the platform revealing the contents of its limited-edition calendar.
Her scathing review comes during a December unboxing trend, with social media users revealing their own 24 days of disappointment in the lead up to Christmas.
The Chanel No.5-inspired calendar had a suggested retail price of $1140 and was marketed as “a piece of treasure for years to come”.
But according to Ms Harmon, the high-end calendar was more trash than treasure.
The TikTok user revealed although the calendar had some big-ticket items inside, like a hand cream and a (tiny) bottle of perfume, it also included stickers, a plastic snow globe and an empty dust bag.
@eliseharmon I’ll lay everything out and show you all of the contents and you can tell me if you think it’s worth it #chaneladventcalendar
♬ Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (Rerecorded Version) – Brenda Lee
@eliseharmon Worth the hype? Probably not but it is pretty
♬ It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas – Michael Bublé
The advent calendar unboxing caused a stir online, with Harmon’s followers roasting Chanel after Harmon claimed the brand had blocked her.
But a spokesperson told The New Daily the claim was “absolutely inaccurate” as the account had never been activated.
Chanel said it was aware of the comments being made online and was “sorry that this calendar may have disappointed some people”.
A dollar value was not given for its contents, but Chanel said the calendar was a “true collector’s item whose value cannot be summed up by the products it contains alone”.
The Harmon v Chanel debacle left us wondering how many other brands have missed the mark with 2021 advent calendars.
What began as a tradition of the pious to count down the days until the birth of Christ has morphed into a sometimes shameless marketing ploy.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for companies to empty out their leftover free samples and charge customers for the privilege, it seems.
Luckily, social media users have been quick to showcase the worst offenders.
There’s fantasy – and then there’s this
A Dungeons and Dragons minis advent calendar has received a particularly hilarious negative reaction on TikTok, with user @shutthepupup howling as she revealed her husband had ordered it online.
DnD is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game with a host of standard characters that can be customised by players.
Apart from the strange packaging and the absence of any classic DnD characters, she was in stitches while opening up what she said was “somebody’s garbage”: A miniature Snow White figurine, which had seen better days, a few smurfs, and what appeared to be an unopened McDonald’s toy topped the list.
WARNING: Contains offensive language
@shutthepupup This is the best thing we’ve ever purchased. #adventcalendar #wtfisthis #dnd #dndtiktok #imgonnapee #thisisamazing
What it lacks in taste, it doesn’t make up for
Meanwhile, TikTok user Planet Food has been reviewing food-related calendars through December.
The Kinder chocolate minis calendar received just 4/10 due to a lack of variety.
It contained two types of mini bars and alternated them over the 25 days.
“Come on Kinder, more flavours plz”, Planet Food wrote.
Chocolate advent calendars have long been a staple of many homes around the Christmas season.
Most parents can calculate the cost of 24 micro chocolates and know they are being robbed, but kids love opening a little cardboard door each day to find a sweet surprise.
They also help deter the question: How many sleeps until Santa arrives?
@thisisplanetfood Reply to @chloe_chappell13 Which is your favourite calendar so far? 😜 #christmas #unboxing #adventcalendar #christmas2021 #foryou #PlanetFood
More like badvent calendar
YouTuber Alexandria Ryan, who posts a video series called 25 Advent Calendars of Christmas, has more scathing reviews.
A calendar by US television network QVC was particularly disappointing, she said.
The calendar was so bad Ryan referred back to it in future videos, reminding viewers it “could not get worse than the QVC”.
Ryan told her followers she had bought the calendar for $US80 ($113), but it had since been marked down.
The worst things in the calendar were a single dose of powdered Listerine mouthwash (just add water) and a single vitamin in a packet.
As with most advent calendars Ryan has reviewed, it contained some more expensive brands in tiny quantities and a lot of “free with purchase” samples.
At the end of the QVC video, Ryan admitted she had been getting mad while opening the boxes.
“I think I was literally getting offended for everybody else that purchased this calendar,” she said.
“I kind of know what I’m getting into with advent calendars, like most of them really aren’t fantastic.
“There are some really good ones out there, but most of them just really aren’t that great.”
Finally somebody said it: Most advent calendars are a waste of money.
All hype, no value
The Chanel calendar should not have come as a surprise – the full list of items included inside was listed on the brand’s website.
Not all brands include this information, but to avoid disappointment it is best to check for those details before buying an advent calendar.
Reddit users also recommend buying items you want and then placing them inside DIY advent calendars.
At least that way you get things you will actually use – and it will likely work out better value, too.
Both of these suggestions ruin the surprise, but they could also save you from an expensive regret.
