Dowmoo Mineral Advent Calendar, 24 Day Christmas Countdown with Gemstone Pendant

Description

Twenty four numbered doors, and behind twenty three of them a natural mineral specimen. The last one is a polished pendant on a black cord, which is the payoff the box is built around. The stones are raw rather than tumbled, so they look like rocks rather than beads, which is the point if the person opening them is interested in geology rather than jewellery.

What is inside

The supplier’s own box art names the specimens individually, and they run to rose quartz, clear quartz, jet, black and white ore, jade, volcanic rock, hematite, grey limestone, serpentine, jasper, yellow cobblestone, iron ore and a run of coloured stones alongside them. Sizes vary; these are thumbnail specimens, not display pieces. The supplier does not publish a weight or a size per stone, so we are not going to invent one.

Who it suits

This is a good calendar for a curious child of roughly eight and up, and a genuinely good one for an adult who likes small tactile objects on a desk. It is not a good calendar for a toddler: the specimens are small, hard and exactly the size that ends up in a mouth. Treat it as a small parts product and keep it away from children under three.

There is also a quiet educational argument for it. Opening a rock every morning and looking up what it is makes a better December ritual than eating a chocolate, and the whole set stays afterwards instead of disappearing by the end of the month.

Format and size

The box is a flat 24 grid, roughly 300 by 200 millimetres and 30 millimetres deep, so it sits on a shelf or a mantel rather than needing to be hung. Doors are punched card and open by hand. There is no date printing, only numbers, so nothing stops you opening them in any order you like.

Order it before December

An advent calendar has a harder deadline than the rest of Christmas. It needs to be in the house before December 1, not before December 25. Handling is 1 to 3 business days and transit is 5 to 9 business days, so order by around the third week of November to be comfortable. Our general Christmas last order date, Monday December 7, is too late for this one.