When it comes to counting down the days to Christmas, nothing is more exciting than an Advent calendar. Although the practice of opening a door a day to reveal a festive picture or gift is a relatively modern one, dating back to the 1800s when German Lutherans came up with the idea, today’s Advent calendars are a world away from the traditional offerings.
Beauty, food, Lego, fragrances and the classic chocolate versions are all popular purchases, yielding treats to be eaten, played with or spritzed in the 24 days before Christmas Day.
Here are 12 Advent calendars to suit all styles, pockets, hobbies and tastes:
For fragrance fans
Tailor your scent so you smell different every day leading up to the big one. The box, in signature Jo Malone cream and black, has 24 drawers holding 24 products, including limited-edition items, miniature holiday favourites, exclusive products and a 30ml cologne.
Dh2,070; www.jomalone-me.com
For little scientists
Perfect for the inquisitive budding geologist in the house, the doors of this calendar open up to reveal a variety of different rocks, gems and minerals. It also includes a pouch to store all your finds.
Dh93.99; www.amazon.ae
For cheese lovers
The refrigerator aisle of the supermarket isn’t the most likely place to find an Advent calendar, but sat along with the cheddar and Camembert is where you’ll find the Ilchester Cheese Advent Calendar.
Find mini Jarlsberg, Applewood, Mexicana, cheddar, Double Gloucester and Ilchester Wensleydale cheeses, gingerbread and more mini mouthfuls of deliciousness along with, what else, but a cheesy joke behind each door. Just remember to keep it in the fridge.
Dh99.75; www.spinneys.com or available in store
For a calendar that doubles as decor
This Advent calendar is not to be tucked away on the kitchen shelf. Rather, the Tchibo Advent Calendar (in red/teal) is made to take centre stage amid your festive decor.
Twenty-four velvet-feel bags tied with satin ribbons hang from a length of rope waiting to be filled with whatever gifts you choose. Perfect for decorating fireplaces, balconies and balustrades.
Dh35; www.brandsforless.com
For Potterheads
Each day, Harry Potter fans will be able to build some of their favourite scenes, from a festive feast in the main hall at Hogwarts to mail delivery at Privet Drive.
Tables laid out with pumpkins, house flags, owls, Christmas trees and a Platform 9 ¾ sign are just a few of the Lego items to be put together. A must for the Harry Potter fan in your life.
Dh145; www.amazon.ae
For beauty queens
The skincare and make-up experts at Clarins have put together their 24 Days of Beauty Surprises, an online exclusive that will help you countdown to Christmas.
Open a soft pouch of the festive red calendar each day to receive a 4ml Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch, a 15ml SOS Hydra Mask, a 50ml Cleansing Milk and a 100ml Hand and Nail Treatment Cream, along with a host of other goodies that’ll keep you moisturised, cleansed and toned for party season.
Dh505; ae.clarins.com
For sharing your own gifts
If you prefer to put together your own treats, the Lit Gnome Advent Calendar from Pottery Barn is the perfect receptacle.
Decorated with adorable, big-hatted gnomes, just add batteries and the wood and cardboard calendar lights up with tiny fairy lights for an extra touch of magic.
Dh217.50; www.potterybarn.ae
For fidget toy fans
They’re the toys that took over 2021, thanks to their ability to stretch, flip, pop and squelch, not to mention keep your children occupied for hours. And now there’s a whole calendar full of them.
The ToysInn Fidget Toy Advent Calendar boasts fidget spinners, popping sheets, pea poppers and all manner of things for children to pull, flick and swap.
Dh49; www.noon.com
For bathing beauties
If you like nothing better than to lay back, relax and soak in the tub after a long day, the Bubble T Advent Calendar is the one for you.
Budget-friendly and cutely presented in a giant Christmas cracker, open a window a day to reveal an array of bath time goodies, including bubble bath, scrubs, bombs and salts.
Dh121; www.namshi.com
For luxury lovers
This year’s Dior Advent Calendar has been designed by artist Alice Shirley, so before you even open the doors, you’re treated to a gloriously festive scene in midnight blue and gold.
Open a door a day in December to reveal a miniature Dior product, including fragrances, lipstick, glosses and a candle.
Dh1,800; www.shop-beauty.dior.ae
For a calendar that turns into a toy
You get a two-for-one with the Hape Christmas Barn Advent Calendar.
Open a door a day to reveal a different farmyard toy, and when December 24 rolls around and the last toy is collected, the calendar opens up to become a two-storey barn that children can then put their pieces in to play with.
Gifts include a horse, two figurines, a picnic cloth, rabbit, felt fire and three fences to encourage creative play.
Dh149; www.mumzworld.com
For the person who would love a Porsche
If there’s someone in your life whose been dropping hints about a sports car for Christmas, this advent calendar will fulfil that wish.
The Eight Innovation PAC019 Porsche Advent Calendar opens up each day to reveal a piece of kit to put together your own 911. Plus, there’s also a speaker to create, which features the roar of the classic car's engine, built to the scale of 1:43.
Dh455; www.desertcart.ae
WHAT FANS WILL LOVE ABOUT RUSSIA
FANS WILL LOVE
Uber is ridiculously cheap and, as Diego Saez discovered, mush safer. A 45-minute taxi from Pulova airport to Saint Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospect can cost as little as 500 roubles (Dh30).
FANS WILL LOATHE
Uber policy in Russia is that they can start the fare as soon as they arrive at the pick-up point — and oftentimes they start it even before arriving, or worse never arrive yet charge you anyway.
FANS WILL LOVE
It’s amazing how active Russians are on social media and your accounts will surge should you post while in the country. Throw in a few Cyrillic hashtags and watch your account numbers rocket.
FANS WILL LOATHE
With cold soups, bland dumplings and dried fish, Russian cuisine is not to everybody’s tastebuds. Fortunately, there are plenty Georgian restaurants to choose from, which are both excellent and economical.
FANS WILL LOVE
The World Cup will take place during St Petersburg's White Nights Festival, which means perpetual daylight in a city that genuinely never sleeps. (Think toddlers walking the streets with their grandmothers at 4am.)
FANS WILL LOATHE
The walk from Krestovsky Ostrov metro station to Saint Petersburg Arena on a rainy day makes you wonder why some of the $1.7 billion was not spent on a weather-protected walkway.
The five types of long-term residential visas
Obed Suhail of ServiceMarket, an online home services marketplace, outlines the five types of long-term residential visas:
Investors:
A 10-year residency visa can be obtained by investors who invest Dh10 million, out of which 60 per cent should not be in real estate. It can be a public investment through a deposit or in a business. Those who invest Dh5 million or more in property are eligible for a five-year residency visa. The invested amount should be completely owned by the investors, not loaned, and retained for at least three years.
Entrepreneurs:
A five-year multiple entry visa is available to entrepreneurs with a previous project worth Dh0.5m or those with the approval of an accredited business incubator in the UAE.
Specialists
Expats with specialised talents, including doctors, specialists, scientists, inventors, and creative individuals working in the field of culture and art are eligible for a 10-year visa, given that they have a valid employment contract in one of these fields in the country.
Outstanding students:
A five-year visa will be granted to outstanding students who have a grade of 95 per cent or higher in a secondary school, or those who graduate with a GPA of 3.75 from a university.
Retirees:
Expats who are at least 55 years old can obtain a five-year retirement visa if they invest Dh2m in property, have savings of Dh1m or more, or have a monthly income of at least Dh20,000.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
MATCH INFO
Chelsea 0
Liverpool 2 (Mane 50', 54')
Red card: Andreas Christensen (Chelsea)
Man of the match: Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
India squads
T20: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur
Test: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
European arms
Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons. Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
The%20specs
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THE SPECS
Engine: 3-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 424hp
Torque: 580 Nm
Price: From Dh399,000
On sale: Now
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Khalid%20Fahad%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Shaima%20Al%20Tayeb%2C%20Wafa%20Muhamad%2C%20Hamss%20Bandar%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The Way It Was: My Life with Frank Sinatra by Eliot Weisman and Jennifer Valoppi
Hachette Books
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
Sui Dhaaga: Made in India
Director: Sharat Katariya
Starring: Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, Raghubir Yadav
3.5/5
