Dust off your holiday cheer and rev up your collector’s engine because the DeLorean is headed straight back to the future of pastimes and traditions, time-traveling us right to 2025, where collecting isn’t just collecting. It’s downright festive, thanks to Panini’s 2025 Absolute Football Countdown Calendar. This new offering promises to deck your halls with an abundance of packs and parallels, transforming the quiet solitude of collecting into a month-long festival with a Christmassy flair.
This ingenious creation takes the familiar Absolute design and dresses it in the colors of the season, complete with red-and-green plaid packaging that would make even the Grinch feel a twinge of holiday spirit. And like some sort of Santa-approved advent calendar, this delightfully entertaining box has a gift waiting for you every day up until Christmas. Or, you know, Thanksgiving, Boxing Day, or that odd grandma-appointed holiday called “clean the attic day.” No matter the countdown, this calendar turns every tear of the pack wrap into a festive celebration.
Here’s how it unfolds: Inside the heartwarming box, you’ll find 24 three-card packs neatly arranged like sugar plums dancing. Each day, unwrapping reveals a base card, a rookie, and an insert—delivering small but soul-satisfying doses of joy that keep your inner collector from turning into the Grinch. And somewhere within this festive packaging—think of it like the chestnut hiding in a hedgerow—there’s a guaranteed Holiday Suit memorabilia card. This nugget features authentic fabric plucked straight from the loom of a holiday-themed football uniform.
Enthusiasts waiting to get their jingle on will be pleased to know that these calendars will officially hit the shelves on November 12, 2025. The most fervent collectors have likely snuck a peek (and maybe smuggled a box) early from their favorite retail outlets, heralding the dawn of that merry time of year in the collecting world.
The checklist adds some seasonal shimmer to Absolute’s formula for success, featuring a total of 200 cards balanced between seasoned veterans and fresh-faced rookies. Imagine a playbook where the crowd favorite is not the quarterback: Instead, here it’s the pattern of the cards—plaid, which feels more like a cozy sweater your Aunt Betty knitted than a pigskin player’s jersey. Each pack promises a new adventure, scattered with inserts such as By Storm, Draft Diamonds, Hog Heaven, Introductions, and Rookie Introductions, ensuring ample variety to keep every collector’s world spinning.
The pièce de résistance? The Rookie Holiday Suit memorabilia series, individually unveiling rookies dressed in bits of holiday-themed gear. It’s quirky, collectible, and gives the traditional thrill of the chase a peppermint twist. Exclusives worth elbowing through the crowd at the mall for include sought-after Kaboom inserts and Red Square versions of Rookie Signatures capped at 150—a tough gig to pull from the stocking but well worth the effort for serious collectors looking for that holy grail.
Their lineup reads like an all-star roster from a holiday blockbuster: mythologically grand, nostalgic, yet innovative. Veteran luminaries like Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill, Jalen Hurts, and Josh Allen stand shoulder to shoulder with fresh rookies such as Caleb Williams, Marvin Harrison Jr., and others. The crossover between generations promises collectors might aim to snag not just duplicates, but a sweeping set to immortalize the joy of the journey.
This collection shifts away from the modern trend of stuffing everything into a solitary box, and instead unfolds its magic gracefully over weeks, indulging in anticipation that’s as thrilling as the endgame. It stands tall, not on the shoulders of case hits or ultra-limited parallels, but on the merits of pure fun and engaging presentation, making the spirit of the holiday extend into the hearts of those who collect.
Comprising guaranteed Holiday Suit memorabilia cards and a two dozen-strong set of inserts, each box is ready to stand tall in its own candy cane glory. With something slightly more ambitious albeit creatively restrained, Panini takes on the mantle of gift-giver, brandishing a blend of packaging ingenuity and nostalgic wonder.
The 2025 Panini Absolute Football Countdown Calendar is more than just a product—it’s a joyful crossroad where hobby culture collides with holiday spirit. Available online and in select retail stores, whether you pace your excitement or tear through the thrill in one go, this dual-purpose delight ensures Panini has crafted a festive collecting escapade that could light up even the dreariest blizzard.
