It’s on trend, wine advent calendars. But, if you live in the United States they are practically impossible to come by, unless you make your own. There are a few purchasing options available in select areas of the US, but even though I started my search early in October, I didn’t manage to snag any, so DIY became my only option, and I’m so glad that it did. I wasn’t sure how we would pull this off or if it would even work, but I knew I needed to try. I wouldn’t have it any other way now. This festive project has me feeling fully in the Christmas spirit and I have most certainly just created a new annual tradition. Try it out for yourself – and don’t worry, this doesn’t take a lot of time or prep, so even if you’re doing this last minute, you’ll still end up with an amazing wine advent calendar and reason to lift your glass.
As for me, I will be lifting my glass every night of advent in celebration for the reason for the season. It’s a good thing I know that Jesus liked wine, it makes this feel even more Christmas “approved.” Here are the steps we took and that you can easily whip up too:
STEP ONE:
Pick a friend to partner with in your wine calendar adventure. Doing a drinking advent calendar by yourself just isn’t fun. Sharing excitement and new tasting notes with a friend every day rings of holiday spirit.
STEP TWO:
Decide if you want to do a full advent calendar, 24 different wines, from December 1st through December 25th, or a smaller one, like the 12 Days of Christmas, from December 12th through December 24th.
STEP THREE:
Go to a large wine store. We went to Total Wine and the mini selection for our 24 -Day Advent Calendar was expansive. If you are doing the 12 Days of Christmas you can opt for mini bottles or for full sized bottles, depending upon who you are planning on sharing your calendar with. Our total cost for wine ended up being $70 each and we only repeated wines 3 times. We would have been able to avoid repetition completely, but I am not a rosé fan, so I passed up an entire shelf of selection at Total Wine.
STEP FOUR:
Get large wine boxes from your wine store. Wrap those boxes with pretty Christmas paper and put a bow on it. This is your advent box.
STEP FIVE:
Cut out small circles to correspond with the top size on the wine bottles and wine cans. Assuming you are doing this with a friend, you should have doubles of everything. Be sure to label each double set accordingly, from numbers 1-24, making sure to label the numbers for each wine the same for both people so that you drink the same wines on the same nights. Be sure to make the nicest, or largest wine the final number 24. We decided to make our #24 a gold labeled champagne and instead of a small chocolate to go with it, we attached a full sized chocolate bar to it. It will be Christmas eve when #24 is opened, perfect for champagne.
STEP SIX:
Place wine numbers 13-24 on the bottom of your advent box. Have the chocolates attached to each bottle with scotch tape. Fill in the spaces in between the bottles and cans with crinkle paper. We picked our crinkle paper up from The Dollar Store, but it’s also easily available on Amazon. Once your bottom layer is filled, stack wine numbers 1-12 on top of the first label in a similar fashion, nestling them in a stacked manner between one another. Add more crinkle paper and throw in any extra chocolates, and you’re all set!
BONUSES:
We are chocolate lovers too and believe that wine should always go with chocolate. Therefore, each day has a corresponding chocolate attached to it. As this was our first experiment with a wine advent calendar, the chocolate was an afterthought. Next year we will pre-plan our chocolate beforehand and aim to have 24 different chocolate varieties as well. This year we are managing to be content with peppermint bark, white chocolate truffles, milk chocolate melts and hazelnut dark chocolate. It’s a hard life, yes, we know. Finally, Target had fun Christmas wine tumblers, so those were an obvious must to purchase. It is fun knowing that we will both be tasting the same wines each night and drinking from the same style tumbler. The total cost for each calendar, including wrapping paper, wine tumbler, chocolates and wines came to $100. We spent about one hour crafting together one weeknight over dinner to prep our wine calendars, and voilà, that’s it!
HERE’S OUR FINAL PRODUCT: