Red Bull's first holiday move this year is a structural one. It's an advent calendar, 24 numbered windows over a snowy cartoon scene, each opening onto a different 8.4 fluid ounce can. Read the pack as structure first, and the interesting part is the die-cut. Twenty-four windows have to be cut, scored, and glued so each one opens cleanly on the day it's meant to, without tearing the illustration around it or popping a neighbor loose. That perforation pattern sits on top of a single large printed scene, so the art and the cut lines have to register tightly, because a window that opens a few millimeters off center crops a character or slices a number in half. The calendar also has to hold two dozen full cans and survive a pallet, a shelf, and a living room, which means the structural board and the inner trays carry real weight while the printed face stays flat enough to look like a poster.
Red Bull launched its 2026 Advent Calendar in the United States on September 28, 2026. It's a 24-window holiday calendar holding an assortment of 8.4 fluid ounce cans, sugared and sugar free, led by a pack-exclusive Festive Edition Arctic Berry with a frosty raspberry note and the returning Apple Edition. It sells in limited quantities while supplies last at national retailers including 7-Eleven, Target, Walmart, Costco, CVS, and Amazon, and a QR code on the pack opens a holiday mini-game.
The box is the product. Twenty-four die-cut windows have to open cleanly over a single large printed scene, so the illustration and the cut lines need to register tightly across the whole face. The color carries the season, a wintry blue and white field with warm sleigh reds that reads holiday from a distance while keeping the familiar Red Bull wordmark and can in view, and the cans inside each have to match the shade shoppers expect when a door opens.
A production-real comp puts the die-cut windows, the printed scene, and the can labels together before a full run, so a team can confirm the windows open without tearing, the art and the perforations register cleanly, and the holiday palette holds evenly across the carton and every can behind it.
Sources: Red Bull via PR Newswire, Beverage Industry. Product image: Red Bull.
More on Pack Pulse Daily · How creators became CPG’s sales force