That's cute! I've been wanting to get an advent wreath, and this just reminded me.

The calendars I see don’t have dates, either. But I’m seeing calendars now that have 25 numbers instead of 24. What is 25 for? By day 25 of the countdown, you are ON Christmas, no need to count down any more. We used to do Lego advent calendars, so fun. One year they were all sold out, so, holiday hoarder that I am, I pulled out one of our old ones, and rifled through the Lego bins for the bricks and pieces needed to make the little builds pictured on the box. We had so much fun that year seeing how well Mom did at gathering the right pieces so that the boys could open the doors and build anew.

What I thought was a novelty gift is old hat it seems. I emailed the advertisement to a friend and she said she’d seen them in 2018. I knew I had been out of the loop for quite awhile but didn’t realize how far back this period stretched. If anyone has bought one of these, is the wine drinkable or would it be more of a gag type gift? adding.... I love the idea of a dog advent calendar!

...maybe open it in the morning, chill and drink in the evening... That is indeed what I do. I think you're being a bit unkind to the wine, btw. You can, of course, get rubbish little bottles - but judging by the reviews, the half-bottles in the Costco advent calendar are actually pretty good. Certainly, here in the UK, you can get half-bottles of good wine, albeit a bit pricey compared to the same wine by the bottle. I'd fill my advent calendar with those with no concerns, if my wife and I drank a bit more wine. As for woodworking skills - it's actually not at all hard to build, and there are full instructions on the website - but the right tools do help. Do you have a friend who might do the basic building, if you pay for the timber? They might even build one for themselves as well :) The finishing off is within anyone's grasp, and that's the bit that makes it uniquely yours.