From Zoella to Skims: The four most tragic advent calendar scandals of all time

Kim Kardashian’s brand Skims is getting absolutely roasted this week after releasing a shockingly bad advent calendar that costs £158 and is full of junk, and it’s not the first time there has been a huge advent calendar scandal. It turns out, festive calendars are quite controversial. So, here are the four most tragic scandals of all time. 

Zoella 

Top of the list has to be YouTuber Zoella’s advent calendar, which kicked off the viral advent calendar scandals. Back in 2017, Zoe Sugg released a 12-door one that cost a whopping £50 and was full of what can only be described as tat. The Zoella 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar included three different cookie cutters, a small pack of confetti, a pack of seven stickers, a small bag, a fluffy key ring, a pen, a mini notepad, a 30ml room spray and a couple of very small 130g candles. People were expecting it to contain Zoella’s bath and beauty products, which were hugely popular at the time, but the whole thing just looked cheap and was ridiculously overpriced. YouTuber JaackMaate rinsed her in a now-famous unboxing video, and she released an apology video saying she had no control over the retail pricing at Boots, where it was exclusively being sold, which slashed the price to £25 from 16th November.

Skims 

The Zoella scandal went so viral that you would have thought other brands would have learnt from that atrocity, but Skims is almost just as bad. Kim Kardashian’s 12-day Skims calendar was released this week and contained the most random collection of items ever, including various different Skims-branded keychains, hair bands, bobby pins, bra strap headbands and a Skims squishy. Skims is known for selling high-quality lingerie, pyjamas and other clothing and past calendars have contained underwear, so the whole thing was just rogue, and people said it’s full of “the random sh*t at the bottom of your purse”. They’re not wrong. It’s now been taken off sale, and a Skims rep told Page Six they have offered refunds or Skims credit to everyone who purchased it, as the calendar “didn’t meet expectations”. That’s understatement of the year. 

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Chanel 

Luxury fashion house Chanel had an advent calendar scandal in 2021, when it released a 27-day calendar (weirdly numbered from five to 31) containing absolute rubbish. Shaped like a Chanel No. 5 bottle to honour the 100th anniversary of the perfume, the beauty calendar, which cost £610, contained stickers, temporary tattoos, an empty dust bag, a plastic bracelet, a money clip, a pin, a paperweight and tiny sample-sized perfumes and body creams. Only nine of the doors had actual full-sized beauty products inside. The last door did contain an actual bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume, but it was only 35ml. Chanel’s president Bruno Pavlovsky told Women’s Wear Daily the controversy was “a bit of a shame,” and “not what Chanel intended”. He also said they would be more “careful” and “cautious” in the future. Embarrassing. 

Tony’s Chocolonely 

That very same year, ethical chocolate brand Tony’s Chocolonely faced backlash over their advent calendar too. The Dutch company purposely left the 8th December door empty to raise awareness about child labour and cocoa industry inequality in West Africa, where at least 1.56 million children still work under illegal conditions. To make up for the empty window, there were two chocolates on 9th December and 24th December, so nobody was losing out. But people thought it was pretty unfair to the children, and angry parents blasted the company for upsetting their kids, particularly those who are neurodiverse. Tony’s made a public apology, saying it was supposed to be “a great conversation starter for change,” but they “failed to consider the difficulties empty windows can cause for neurodivergent children and adults”. But they’ve still carried on doing the same thing every year since.

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