PRODUCT ADVENT CALENDARS - WHY I'M SKIPPING IT THIS YEAR

I've gone many years as a blogger joining in with the 'product advent calendar' craze. Opening the cardboard door on Instagram stories, googling my eyes at the minature bottles in my hand, and being very tempted to open the next door a day early. This year, however, I'm not going to follow the Piper and I'm finally going to give into my judgements and say 'no' to the advent calendars. Here's 3 reasons why:

Do I really need all that stuff?
Opening a door everyday for 25 days means that you're highly likely to be presented with something that won't quite be as useful as the rest (unless it's cheese, of course). I remeber opening doors over the past few Christmases to things such as bright blue glitter lip-liner or minature hand creams that, quite frankly, smell more like the plastic they're kept in that the 'strawberry' they're supposed to smell like. After the Zoella-Christmas gate of last year, we all know well enough now that a lot of the big companies will search high and low for their cheapest products to put into these advent calendars before slapping a big price tag on. And, to be honest, it's stuff that we just don't need and half the time, didn't even want. Of course, I'm speaking for myself here, but I'm sure I'd rather have useful gifts from my family than 25 minature gifts that will be stashed away and never really be used.

They cost an arm and a leg.
Carrying on from that point, these advent calendars come with some pretty heafty price tags. While almost everything in calendars such as the Lacome and The Body Shop ones are minatures, they're still both priced at around £80-85. Nevertheless, I'm sure a great deal of these advent calendars do have a lot of value for their price but, when it comes to spending £320 on a Diptyque Advent calendar or a mindblowing £999 on a Whisky Advent Calendar, I certainly won't be queing at the doors. If the whisky advent calendar flies off the shelves, I might just be Michael Jackson.

There's a LOT of waste materials.

Seeing as though there's been an influx in awareness of waste, specifically plastic waste over the past year, I thought it was extremely revelvant to pick up on the sheer amount waste created from these advent calendars. Not only do the huge plastic boards - those used for creating the structure of the calendars - make it difficult when it comes to recycling (if they're recylable, that is), but usually, by the time your all done with it, you're left with a bunch of celephane wrap, tiny plastic tubes, bottles, and whatnot. This christmas, I'm going to save the space in my recycling bin and give the sea a rest by stepping back from the advent calendars.

Despite the fact that I've just moaned on about these advent calendars for a short while, I can't deny that they are super cool and I do understand how exciting they can be for others. If you're going to be grabbing an advent calendar this year, do make sure to giveaway anything you don't need to someone else who may find it of better use and don't forget to do your best when it comes to organising waste.

Otherwise, you could just grab a minature stocking and get your friends and family to fill it with a chocolate treat once a day. I reckon that might be what I go for this year.

What are your advent calendar plans this year?