What’s In Dior’s $3,500 Advent Calendar? TikTokers Are So Confused

Each year, luxury brands release extravagant Advent calendars with a lot of hype and a high price tag. They’re meant to deliver a fancy and exclusive gift for each day of December, while also doubling as ornate decor throughout the holiday season. But for some reason, the most expensive Advent calendars of the season tend to end up flopping. This year, TikTokers are unboxing the $3,500 “Trunk Of Dreams” from Dior and, spoiler alert, the numbers don’t add up. Here’s what’s in Dior’s $3,500 Advent calendar for 2022, and why people on TikTok are so confused.

The limited edition Dior 2022 Advent Calendar is made of wood, covered in sketches by Pietro Ruffo, and is designed to look like an iconic Dior boutique. It arrives in a massive box, as you can see in this unboxing video by beauty influencer Jackie Aina, and the double-doors open to reveal 24 drawers to open as the month counts down to Christmas. The contents of the Advent calendar all come from La Collection Privée Christian Dior, which is the design house’s luxury fragrance brand. So, don’t expect any trendy Dior Addict Lip Glow Oils or fabulous earrings to emerge from this collection. Basically, it’s full of Dior fragrance products.

You wouldn’t be wrong to expect major goodies out of a $3,500 gift box, but people on TikTok are discovering that is not necessarily the case here. Aina continued her unboxing of the Advent calendar on TikTok to reveal the drawer contents throughout the month. In this TikTok, she opens 10 days of drawers, pulling out fragrance items in different mini sizes, such as Dior bar soap (which she immediately designated to her guest bathroom), small perfumes, and a candle from drawer four. She was happy to see that the candle is full-size in “stunning” gold packaging. For day five, Aina unearths another small perfume, before moving onto an mysterious larger drawer for day six — and it’s safe to say its contents fell short of expectation.

She was excited to see something shiny peaking out of the drawer as she built suspense for the reveal, before the clip cut to her saying, “Uh, girl.” The “precious object” meant to “elevate your interior” for day six is the candle lid for the gift from day four, which came already packaged in a box you’d find in the store. It’s almost as if the brand had extra lids they didn’t know what to do with, and this candle happened to not come with one. Maybe Dior ran out of gift ideas this year, which we all do, but not definitely not if we have a Santa budget of $3,500 to work with. Perplexed, Aina responded, “OK, whatever that means.”

As she continued to unbox travel size and mini size perfumes and more bar soap, Aina said that she enjoyed the scents of the curated fragrances overall, with her reviews ranging from “generic” to “phenomenal.” It’s safe to assume the second half of the Advent calendar is more of these same items in different scents. According to the product description on Dior’s website, the final, 24th drawer promises a special ornament that’s scented with the Eau Noire fragrance, which is a unisex scent originally created by perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. But if that’s what you’re buying the Advent calendar for, you might as well just order some Dior ornaments and the perfume bottle for under $1,000. You can also opt for this $475 set of scented ornaments that includes the very lid-less candle from day four.

After Aina opened the first 11 drawers, she told her audience, “It is what it is, but it ain’t that great.” Grabbing the collection of mini perfumes included in the calendar, Aina said, “I’m not going to lie, these don’t even count. Because these come as free gifts with purchase when you shop on Dior.com.” So why is this one of the most expensive holiday gift sets of 2022? Perhaps much of the price is for the gorgeous boutique box the products are held in, but let’s be real, you’re buying the calendar for the items inside. Sure, you can use the calendar as decor, but why spend $3,500 on a wooden box you can only display for 30 days? The items inside are hardly gift-able too, unless you’re looking for novelty stocking stuffers.

Viewers in her comments sounded off, with some writing “Dior is out here handing out samples and candle lids as part of their advent calendar,” “If Dior has anything this holiday season it’s the nerve,” and “Do you think you’ll get a mini lid for day 12?” Others compared Dior’s 2022 Advent calendar to Chanel’s internet-breaking version in 2021, which cost $1,150 and offered tiny product samples, keychains, branded stickers, and temporary tattoos. Aina’s comments agreed that, despite being three times the cost, Dior’s Advent calendar product options are better. But, given candle-lid-gate, it might not be worth the luxe price tag.