Wine Advent Calendar

      Growing up I always loved counting down the days to Christmas on an advent calendar. Every year the days tick by faster and as quickly as it came the holiday season is over. I think it’s important to stop each day and take a minute to just enjoy the holidays. So while you’re wrapping presents or sitting by the fire and listening to Christmas music, treat yourself to an advent calendar of wine! (As if we needed an excuse to open a new bottle every night…) This is a really fun idea especially if you always have drinking buddies on hand like family, roommates, or neighbors.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick your wines. They can be all of your favorite wines, ones you’ve never tried before or a mix of both. You could pick a theme like wines from around the world, or, if you plan on drinking your advent calendar with a group, have everyone bring a couple of selections. If you’re buying all the wine yourself, make sure you go somewhere with a good selection that won’t break the bank. Costco sells a pretty good selection of foreign and domestic wines at a discount. A lot of retailers (like Twin Liquors here in Austin) also give discounts when you buy six bottles of wine.
2. Buy stickers or bags to label the wines for each day. Brown paper bags are an easy and cheap way to label the wines and keep each day’s selection a surprise. You can distribute the wines randomly or have someone organize them specifically, for example lightest to darkest, or having champagne for the 24^th or 25^th.
3. Reveal and drink on each chosen day!

If you’re thinking a bottle a night for 25 days is a little excessive, you can change this around to best suit your drinking needs. Maybe pick the dates of each Friday and Saturday night leading up to Christmas, or start your advent calendar late so it only runs one or two weeks. Another idea is to use mini bottles of wine instead of the full 750ml bottles.

However you do it, his advent calendar is a great excuse to get together with the ones you love and celebrate the holiday season!