Advent calendars: a growing market
Countdown boxes with a small gift behind each door, now bought for adults as much as for children, by theme, from LEGO and beauty to wine, cheese and dog treats.
18 searches doing one job, up a median +6% on a year ago. Updated .
- Opportunity
- 53/100
- six parts, below
- Searches, a year
- +6%
- the median search in it
- Searches in it
- 18
- 3 exploding
- Rising
- 1 of 1
- of its measured searches
- Largest search
- 201K
- advent calendar, a month
- Cost per click
- $0.68
- the median, what advertisers pay
- Difficulty
- 0/100
- the median, to rank in search
- Peak month
- November
- when its searches peak
Opportunity: 53/100
- Momentum1/25
- Breadth9/15
- Durability13/20
- Size13/15
- Money2/10
- Room to rank15/15
What to watch
- Most trends are seasonal, peaking in November.
- 15 of 18 trends have peaked.
- Only 2 trends measure cleanly; read these numbers as direction.
The searches in it
18 searches doing the same job, 3 of them exploding. Those with a page link to it.
| Search | Stage | A year | Searches a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| advent calendar | past its peak | -85% | 201K |
| needoh advent calendar | exploding | +185% | 91K |
| lego advent calendar | past its peak | -84% | 33K |
| beauty advent calendar | past its peak | -87% | 15K |
| advent calendar for men | past its peak | -96% | 15K |
| pokemon advent calendar | past its peak | -72% | 12K |
| whiskey advent calendar | past its peak | -98% | 12K |
| wine advent calendar | past its peak | -88% | 10K |
| dog advent calendar | past its peak | -89% | 8K |
| jewelry advent calendar | past its peak | -95% | 7K |
| perfume advent calendar | past its peak | -92% | 5K |
| tea advent calendar | past its peak | -96% | 5K |
| cheese advent calendar | past its peak | -94% | 4K |
| squishy advent calendar | exploding | +672% | 3K |
| candle advent calendar | past its peak | -99% | 3K |
| chocolate advent calendar for adults | past its peak | -93% | 590 |
| book advent calendar for adults | past its peak | -83% | 210 |
| 2026 advent calendar for adults | exploding | direction only | 140 |
Where to start
The strongest ways in, by what you'd build: each search scored on that kind of business.
A physical product
- squishy advent calendar
- 2026 advent calendar for adults
- book advent calendar for adults
An app or software
- needoh advent calendar
- beauty advent calendar
Content: a site, channel or newsletter
- needoh advent calendar
Advent calendars, in depth
Eighteen searches for one product: a box with a small gift behind each door, opened one a day through Advent. The umbrella search, "advent calendar", is searched with the year in it, "2025 advent calendar", "advent calendar 2026", because people shop for this season's range, and the members are the themes they shop by: LEGO, Pokémon and squishy toys, beauty and perfume, jewelry, wine, whiskey, tea, cheese, candles, books and treats for the dog, chocolate made for grown-ups, and calendars for men.
Read it as a season, not a trend. Ten of the eleven members with a full season behind them are flagged as strongly seasonal, and all ten peak in November, the run-up to Advent, so the "peaked" stage and two-year changes between -81% and -98% only say that September sits months before the last peak. The comparison that holds is the last twelve months against the twelve before, one whole season each: "advent calendar" is up 23% and ten of those eleven grew. The adult themes lead, whiskey 70%, dog 47%, cheese 28%, jewelry 25%, ahead of LEGO and books (18% each), candles (16%), wine (10%) and beauty (6%). Tea is the one theme flat, at -2%. The two newest members are too young in the data for that comparison: "2026 advent calendar for adults" (140 searches a month) and "chocolate advent calendar for adults" (590) read as direction only, but both say the same thing, this season's shoppers are adults, and they search with the year in the phrase.
This season brought one theme that outgrew the rest: squishy toys. "NeeDoh advent calendar", for the fidget-toy brand children collect, draws 90,500 searches a month and is up 185% over a year, the one member drawing tens of thousands of searches that is still in the exploding stage; the unbranded "squishy advent calendar" draws 2,900 and is rising faster, though its series is too sparse to read as more than direction, and both are searched with "2026" and "halloween" in the phrase. Three newer members are shopping lists more than trends: "advent calendar for men" (14,800 searches a month), "Pokémon advent calendar" (12,100, searched as Costco, Aldi, cards and Funko editions) and "perfume advent calendar" (5,400, searched as mini-perfume editions from Sephora and Harrods). None of them has a full season behind it in the data, so their growth figures are direction only.
The phrasing shows who sells the season: "ulta beauty advent calendar", "kendra scott advent calendar", "yankee candle advent calendar", "total wine advent calendar", "flaviar whiskey advent calendar", "buffalo trace whiskey advent calendar", and supermarket editions from Aldi and Costco across cheese, candles, dogs and whiskey. LEGO's are searched through its licences, "lego star wars", "star wars advent calendar". Shoppers compare before they buy: "best wine advent calendar", "best whiskey advent calendar", "best dog advent calendar".
What a founder should notice: the category still grows every year, and the growth is in adult and pet themes, spirits, food, jewelry, dogs, more than in the classic toy and beauty boxes. The volume is in the umbrella; a single theme is small (jewelry calendars draw 6,600 searches a month, book calendars for adults 210), so a themed calendar is a niche product sold on its theme rather than on search traffic. The window is short and fixed: interest now sits between 4 and 22 out of 100 against the last peak, so a calendar has to be designed, made and listed well before the searches arrive, and because each season's range is new the same product can be relaunched every year. The openings are themes the retailers and big brands don't cover, a hobby, a diet, a region's food or drink, sold on pre-order, alongside "best … advent calendar" guides for the themes people already compare.
Sources
Growth: each search's Google Trends series, measured over a year against the year before, and the Next Big Pulse where it has one. Searches a month, cost per click and ranking difficulty: Google Ads keyword estimates for the US. Membership: our own read of what each search is for.
Scores are Next Big's own reads of public search data. They aren't financial, investment, trading or medical advice.
Questions
Is the advent calendars market growing?
It's about level. 1 of 1 measured searches in it are rising, at a median +6% on a year ago. 1 of 1 with three years of history rose two years running, so it isn't one season's spike.
How many people search for advent calendars?
The largest search in it, advent calendar, draws about 201K a month in the US. 7 of its 18 searches draw 10K or more.
When do people search for advent calendars most?
In November, across its searches. Read a rise measured near the peak as direction, not size.
What business could you start in the advent calendars market?
A physical product: squishy advent calendar, 2026 advent calendar for adults, book advent calendar for adults. An app or software: needoh advent calendar, beauty advent calendar. Content: needoh advent calendar.
How is the opportunity score worked out?
Six parts, out of 100: momentum (25), how many of its searches are rising (15), whether the rise lasts (20), size (15), what advertisers pay a click (10) and room to rank (15). Advent calendars scores 53.
Know when a market turns
Every Monday, the markets gaining searches and the ones that peaked, with the searches inside them moving first. Join the waitlist: we open Next Big to a few people at a time.