Everyone knows them: Advent calendars—the timekeepers that shorten the wait for Christmas not only for children.
The Richard Sellmer publishing house in Stuttgart has specialized in producing this wonderful pre-Christmas tradition for over 75 years, ever since the company was founded. To this day, every Advent calendar that leaves the company is also produced there.
The publishing house’s success story began in 1945 in the living room of company founder Richard Sellmer. It was there, entirely by hand, that he produced the publishing house’s first Advent calendar (The Little Town), which was also the first The Little Town Advent calendar after World War II. This calendar also marked the beginning of the Advent calendar’s triumph in the USA, where this pre-Christmas tradition had previously been completely unknown.
This Advent calendar has been available again as a reprint since 2005.

Today, the publishing house’s range includes around 130 different Advent calendars. Each year, freelance graphic designers add around 15 new designs to the range. In recent years, reprints of old designs that the publishing house has added to its range again have become particularly popular.
This year, too, the Richard Sellmer publishing house has expanded its varied Christmas calendar range with several attractive new products in different sizes and versions.

Part of the Richard Sellmer publishing house’s philosophy is that the image on the back continues the image on the front. In all religious Advent calendars, the back images tell the Christmas story in pictures over the course of Advent. To emphasize this further, the corresponding Bible verses for the back image are printed on the inside of the doors, usually in English.

While everything used to be made by hand, various machines now do this work. For example, there is a machine that applies the Glitter to the Advent calendars. Since no such machine was available to buy on the market, Tim Sellmer, the company founder’s son, developed it himself.

The publishing house also specializes in custom-made products, meaning commissioned work for external companies.
It is particularly proud of its custom-made products for Buckingham Palace in London and for the luxury department stores Liberty and Fortnum & Mason. Advent calendars from Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and The Royal Muse have now each been delivered to England.
Advent calendars with royal designs—“By appointment of Her Majesty,” so to speak.

To complete its range, the Richard Sellmer publishing house also offers chocolate Advent calendars. These are available both featuring popular designs from the publishing house’s range and as custom-made products. The client provides a design, and the Richard Sellmer publishing house uses it to produce chocolate Advent calndars. This offering has become increasingly popular in recent years.

Even more than 75 years after its founding, the success of the Stuttgart publishing house remains undiminished. Deliveries are made to more than 25 different countries, including the USA, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, Brazil, and many others.
Due to strong demand, the company has had its own sales office near Birmingham since 2001.

 Online sales of Advent calendars are also growing steadily. Sellmer Advent calendars have even been delivered to Greenland. What many people cannot imagine is that production begins again immediately after Christmas. Overseas orders must already be delivered starting in March. In January and February, the Richard Sellmer publishing house also exhibits at various trade fairs, including Paperworld in Frankfurt, the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, and Springfair in Birmingham. In July, the publishing house is also represented with a trade fair stand at Trendset in Munich and Nordstil in Hamburg.

Tim Sellmer, the company founder’s son, died in August 2008, and his sons Frank Sellmer and Oliver Sellmer took over the company’s management. The Richard Sellmer publishing house has no need to worry about the future, because with five great-grandchildren of the company founder, even the fourth generation is already actively helping in the business.