A woman has discovered the quaint advent calendar she found for a bargain price in a local thrift store might not be as family friendly as initially thought.
Christmas is an expensive time of year and it’s only getting costlier. According to figures compiled by Statista, consumers in the U.S. are expected to spend over $1,000 on holiday gifts on average. This is the first time projected spending has gone over the $1,000 mark.
These figures fail to factor in the other costs associated with the festive season, such as food, travel and, of course, decorative essentials like a Christmas tree. It’s therefore understandable that people would look for ways to save a little here or there.
That’s what Sydney-based mom-of-two Cat Lefever thought she was doing when she paid a paltry $12 in a local Salvation Army thrift store for what, at first glance, looked like a “family advent calendar.”
“I love thrifting,” she said. “Especially for quirky homewares, so when I saw the advent calendar I knew I had to have it.”
The calendar featured a typically snowy festive scene, complete with a Christmas tree that actually spins around. Underneath, there were a series of numbered boxes built into it, each of which contained a piece of paper with a Christmas-themed task or challenge on it.
“I checked a few of the boxes before buying it and saw the family activities,” she said. “These were things like ‘watch a Christmas movie,’ ‘take Santa photos’ or ‘buy matching outfits.’”
Sufficiently sold on the idea, Lafever took the calendar home, where she decided to film a video for her TikTok channel, catlefever, unboxing her bargain find. “I share a lot of thrifted finds on my tiktok and am starting to share my Christmas advent calendars so wanted to share my find,” Lafever said.
Initially, as she read out the rest of the tasks, everything seemed to be in order. There were challenges like “read a Christmas book” and other similarly festive fare. However, when she was around a quarter of the way through, one of the challenges stopped Lefever in her tracks. It read simply: “Try a new sex position.”
As she began to go through the rest of the tasks a familiar theme emerged. The next task ordered the recipient to “get freaky,” while the one after that involved an explicit sex act.
That was the point at which Lafever decided to end the video. “I need to go and wash my hands,” she told viewers. She returned to open the rest of the calendar off-camera, confirming that the remainder of the challenges were definitely not suitable for kids.
After looking a little more closely at her purchase, and following some online investigation, Lafever came to a realization. “The original calendar was sold as empty, brand new, so whoever donated it would have added in the activities,” she said. “The paper folded up was hand written.”
Despite this experience, Lafever has no plans to start inspecting thrift items more closely in order to avoid a repeat. “You never know what you’ll find inside thrifted items so it’s part of the fun I guess,” she said.
Lafever has no plans to throw out the calendar – a bargain is a bargain after all – and so the story has a happy ending.
“We need to redo all the activities to make sure it’s G rated but we are happy to give it a new home,” she said.
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