You get what you pay for!

Sometimes my frugal side fights with my quality loving side, since cheap does not always usually equal high quality. My advent calendar and wreath came which I am excited about, but...

The advent wreath appears to be metal, and I'm sure it's some percentage of metal, but it's really bendable. Not a huge problem except that the holes for taper candles are too big, so you really have to wedge the candle down in the hole for them to not fall out and, you know, light your wooden kitchen table on fire. This not only bends the metal of the wreath, but also leaves a pile of wax shavings on your table and means the wreath is actually sitting on the bottom of the tapers, not on the metal. If that made sense. It's a little bit of a bummer, but I'm still glad I paid about $10 online for it rather than almost $35 in my local Catholic store. I mean, I'm all for shopping local, but do you know how sad I would have been if I had bought that for $35? For $10, I'm going to suck it up and use it until we have little hands that are trying to grab at it, and then we'll get a high quality (read: expensive) wreath that holds the candles in better and doesn't bend.

Next, the advent calendar... the drawers only have a groove on one side to pull them out, and they pack it groove side turned in. Which means I knicked and slightly tore multiple drawers just trying to get them out! They should really be grooved on either side. And I think I would have paid more for them to be made out of a really thin wood rather than paperboard. Little fingers could never get the drawers open, so it's another thing that will have to be replaced when we have kids old enough to participate.

Oh well, $19 gone but both items should last us at least the next 3 Christmases. And more important than the quality is the fact that we have two things at home that will help us engage in the Advent season, which I'm really excited about!