Back in 2024, the Duchess of Sussex sent jam-baskets to friends and family. It was some advanced promotion for what would eventually become her As Ever brand, and As Ever’s signature product is obviously jam. The royal establishment completely lost its mind over jam-baskets and jam lines. Suddenly, Buckingham Palace, Sandringham and Highgrove couldn’t promote their own jam lines hard enough. They were bandwagoning Meghan and it was really funny to watch in real time. Note: BP, Sandringham and Highgrove all have their own food lines, it wasn’t like they started manufacturing jam just because of Meghan. They just started pushing their jam lines on social media, clearly telegraphing a message of “we have jam too, don’t forget about meeeeee!” Well, funny story. You know how Meghan introduced As Ever’s new Advent Calendar? Well, guess who just introduced *their* Advent calendar a few days later?
Buckingham Palace has revealed their advent calendars for 2026 – and the King’s chocolate offering is £100 cheaper than Meghan Markle’s luxurious version. Weighing 95g and available on the Royal Collection Trust’s website, the product ‘captures the magic of the festive season’ at the three royal residences, including Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Like the Duchess of Sussex’s As Ever offering, the Palace’s box has 24 chocolates but costs significantly less than the £112 ‘Montecito-inspired’ version from Meghan’s lifestyle brand. The Duchess’ ‘limited-edition’ Christmas product, only available for purchase in the US, is pre-filled with treats from Los Angeles gourmet chocolatier Compartés. It features a sketch of the £11 million Californian mansion Meghan and Prince Harry called home for six years, as well as ‘countdown numbers hand-painted in Meghan’s own penmanship using edible gold lustre’. Flavours include strawberry, raspberry, blackberry and orange marmalade, plus what is described as a ‘special chocolate finished with Meghan’s own flower sprinkles’.
Meanwhile, the Palace also unveiled a new unfilled advent calendar, with prices starting at £25. Launching later this month, the white box features an illustration of Buckingham Palace in the winter and is entirely customisable, meaning customers can choose what goes behind each countdown number. These surprises are sold separately and include £5 Buckingham Palace chocolate coins, £7 honey from Balmoral, a £12 hand cream and a £43 bag charm.
The design of the royal chocolate advent calendar includes a lavishly decorated Christmas tree with a crown topper, two Union flags and the ceremonial guardsmen who ‘stand watch at these iconic locations’.
On September 28, the Royal Collection Trust announced its Christmas Shop will return to the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace from November 13. On October 2, a post on the gift shop’s official Instagram page revealed several new launches, including ‘festive treats, thoughtful gifts, and decorations inspired by royal tradition’.
Two days later, the Duchess hinted at having a ‘few surprises in store’ for As Ever’s customers after debuting the brand’s first advent calendar. A photo showed the Duchess stirring a copper saucepan in a glamorous kitchen, fitted with a stainless steel cooker, oak cabinets and delicate ceramic dishes. ‘The season of giving is almost here, and we have a few surprises in store,’ read the post’s caption, with no further details of the ‘surprises’ given to the account’s 887,000 followers.
So the palace’s Advent calendar is unfilled, and you have to buy all of the treats separately? I prefer As Ever’s method of selling an already-full Advent. Although you could, in theory, buy all of the chocolate and £43 bag charms yourself, right? The larger point is that Meghan and the Windsors are doing the same kitschy thing, but only one of them gets bashed for it. Even worse, they bash Meghan for doing it while simultaneously riding her coattails to promote their own product lines. They should give her a commission at this point. Meghan would gag all of them if she turned up at the palace’s Christmas pop-up shop. I know she won’t, but it would be funny as hell.
Photos courtesy of As Ever.
BP has done advent calendars for a few seasons now so I wouldn’t exactly say that they are riding any coattails in this particular situation. The palace has ramped up their holiday tat in the past few years.
So what? Had anyone even heard of it? Apparently not—they never advertised it, either. Now they’re trying to generate buzz for their calendar by leveraging Meghan, just as they tried to do with the jams; so naturally, they are cashing in on her popularity. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for them…
Exactly! Until Meghan released hers, I had no idea that The Leftovers sold their own. It’s so funny.
For Germans like myself advent calendars are a big deal. Advent calendars started as a 19th-century German religious countdown tradition, evolved into a secular commercial custom with the introduction of mass-printed doors and chocolates by the 1950s. The states was slow to catch on expect for now as it is a big money making event. Lego, Disney all have them.
As for the royal family, the Official Buckingham Palace Shop has been selling standard consumer Advent calendars since at least 2022, I can’t find the exact date and it was a traditional paper version featuring the palace façade.
I do wish that those doing advent calendars would acknowledge the German roots I think it’s important.
@Cindy, I had no idea that advent calendars originated in Germany, thank you. I *always* learn new things from the commenters on this site.
I was raised Catholic and we always had one, although it was super cheap, probably from the grocery store, and just had little chocolates in them — but for a little kid, that was exciting enough and I looked forward to it every night.
I’s basically agnostic at this point, but I still think it’s gross that advent calendars have been co-opted by companies filling them with all sorts of expensive products like makeup, whatever. Yes, Meghan’s is expensive, but still traditional.
@Cindy: Shhhh! The Saxe-Coburg and Gothas don’t want to acknowledge their German roots too much.
Exactly this 👆🏼👏🏼
I’m (cough) 57 years young, in the US and we always had advent calendars in December. They’ve been around for a long time here though they were just cheap chocolate ones from the grocery store (though I will say cheap chocolate used to taste a LOT better than cheap chocolate now).
I ordered one of Meghan’s calendars for myself and my husband and a Sees one for my teenager. 🙂
There will be studies done on how Meghan and her presence/style/sensibility changed the centuries-old Monarchy. Additionally, their preoccupation and blatant copying is….beyond not a good look.
Agree.
And £43 handbag charms? That’s just tacky. Especially coming from the head of the church, ffs. The Leftovers are pathetic.
It is tacky.. but I often think of them as the “Royal hillbillies” so I don’t expect much from them to begin with.. that familys only consist trait is generational theft.. big or small the monarchy will steal it all then act like they are owed their privileges because god chose them.. it’s all ridiculous especially what these people cost the public…
The proceeds for the palace gift shops all go to charities though, so I don’t think it’s tacky at all. NPR and PBS also give you free branded merch with donations and I wear them with pride.
@SophieEster says:
“There will be studies done on how Meghan and her presence/style/sensibility changed the centuries-old Monarchy. Additionally, their preoccupation and blatant copying is….beyond not a good look.”
Unless those studies are done by real historians who, like Chares Spencer, know the monarchy well and are indifferent enough to it to tell the truth about its Machiavellian machinations.
Because, make no mistake, the monarchy’s gate-keepers have been trying systematically to either colonize or co-opt Meghan’s modernizing effects on the monarchy (often by trying to ascribe her achievement and, as you say: her presence/style/sensibilities, to their mute mannequin.} And when those attempts fail (often because of pushback from Meghan’s supporters) they do what theyre best known for and always do to those whom they deem as their enemies: try to erase her.
Interesting how they start off saying that Megan’s calendar is $100 more and then the details reveal that the empty calendar is $25 and you have to pay for every item that goes into it. That means that their calendar ends up costing significantly more than Megan’s.
Even if you only get the $5 items that’s 150 on top of the $25 for their janky box. If you buy the 4 items listed above that’s almost $100.
Hers is handmade by a world-class, prize-winning chocolatier, theirs is made in China (calendar and chocolate). Huge quality difference.
I think the palace idea of an empty and customizable calendar is a great idea. It means you don’t have to buy anything to put in the calendars and that way they are affordable to all. Instead of treats or baubles you could put a sweet note, poem, or drawing. You can add a homemade treat or craft. I think it would be sweet to buy one as a family and have each member contribute something they’ve made, then open it together as a daily surprise.
But if you do decide to buy something else from the shop all the proceeds still go to charity.
Advent calendars sounds very much like something BP would do and it sounds like they already have. So to be fair, this just might be the time of year when people start promoting theirs. The timing is funny though.
I was raised Episcopalian (basically American Anglican) and we always had an advent calendar. My mother brought out the same one every year. We loved it. It’s such a fun thing for kids and a great way to (literally) mark the time until the big day,
From what I can see, BP has 2 versions of the calendar, one filled and one unfilled.
The palace/Charles really believes that Meghan came to Britain to pick up a fight with his/their ecstatically horrible, made in China, supermarkt quality, overpriced crap. As ever is luxury and A-quality, so stop that sh!t – you can’t compete where you can’t compare.
The brain trust of the RF sells an empty advent calendar? So basically an over-priced Christmas piñata?
“An overpriced Christmas piñata” ☠️
A couple of interesting Twitter posts from @holydistrupter and @phillipsc, one a priest and one a vicar trying to use Meghan’s Advent calendar to promote @holydisrupter’s Advent calendar which is donating to charity. They stated the Meghan’s was too expensive and not in the true spirit of Christmas. @phillipsc was rude about Meghan’s even though it’s not for sale in the UK. He had to limit comments after the backlash and then finally deleted his post. They chose to use Meghan’s name for clout even though there are many high end Advent Calendar’s produced in the UK. They were called out on their hypocrisy.
But £43 bag charms ARE “in the true spirit of Christmas?” As is a vicar promoting your products? Got it.
We live in hell.
It’s almost as if they don’t know that their Supreme Governor of the Church of England, King Charles, is involved in many lucrative commercial enterprises. Including VERY pricey Christmas products and others things in online gift shops at the private royal estates Balmoral and Sandringham. Yep, the estates are huge and run as businesses with multiple commercial activities. That’s apart from him and William raking in £50m annually in personal profits from the commercially run duchies. All separate from the publicly-funded Sovereign Grant for royal duties, etc.
“Meanwhile, the Palace also unveiled a new unfilled advent calendar”
IT IS EMPTY!!!
The palace is selling an empty Advent Calendar. Most likely this is a last minute job and couldn’t get a chocolatier to make chocolates. so they are just selling the box…
It’s actually such a perfect product for the BRF to sell: it looks pretty on the outside, but is actually empty. Impeccable comparison.
So the palace is selling an empty box for 25 pounds?
An empty cardboard box made in China.
Interesting that the Mail hasn’t mentioned private royal estates Balmoral and Sandringham in this article. Both run as businesses with multiple commercial activities, including very pricey online gift shops. Not for charities. Lots of Christmas offerings – you should see how much tree decs cost! The double standards and hypocrisy from the palace(s), client journalists and royalist sycophants are unbelievable.
Mixing commercial and charitable activities? Hmm…
That’s just for starters. Edward and Sophie have a nice little earner subletting property at their huge Bagshot Park home. And Anne’s Gatcombe Park has always been run as a business with multiple commercial activities.
Don’t forget all this is just the ‘working royals’. Royal correspondents are just stenographers for the palaces and specialise in misleading the public. As do many royal commentators.
And there’s also the £50m raked in by Charles and William annually in personal profit from the commercially run duchies.
All separate from the publicly-funded Sovereign Grant for public duties, etc.
Exceedingly slow clap for those numbnuts.
I love advent calendars so have heard of BP’s one, but it’s hilarious they tried to ding Meghan for hers when you are buying an empty one you have to fill that will cost more. Jeez. Can they ever not say anything rude about her? Doubtful.
Copycats, but they’ll swear they did it first. Liars. All liars.