Somewhere between the girl dinner years and now, tinned fish became a personality trait. Fishwife, the brand with the illustrated tins you have definitely seen on a friend's charcuterie board, has leaned all the way in for the holidays with its first-ever advent calendar.
The 12 Days of Fishwife Advent Calendar is $150, and Fishwife calls it "our biggest product EVER." Literally, too: Good Housekeeping measured the box at 20.5 by 17 inches, so plan on clearing some counter space.
What is inside
The brand promises "12 surprise gifts," and both Good Housekeeping and Sporked opened theirs and shared what they found. The fish is the main event: smoked salmon, sardines with lemon, mussels with sweet pepper and tuna with Spanish lemon. There is also the Fly By Jing smoked salmon, the spicy collaboration that fans begged Fishwife to bring back, and the calendar is where it returns.
The non-fish surprises are where it gets fun. Reviewers found a mini Tabasco, a Love + Victory key chain, a Fishwife fish knife and a tin of Bag Balm, which tells you this calendar was designed by people who know their customer: someone who loves a snack, a cute keychain and hands that do not crack in January.
Fishwife also says the calendar includes a brand-new exclusive tin. We will let you discover that one on your own day.
About those chocolate sardines
Yes, the most talked-about thing in the box is not fish at all. Fishwife's Dark Chocolate Sardines launched October 12 and also sell on their own for $11. They are made with Bixby Chocolate, a Rockland, Maine, chocolate maker founded and led by Kate McAleer, with cacao sourced directly from farmers in Haiti and Ecuador. The shapes are a playful homage to Maine's sardine canning history.
If $150 is more than you want to spend on a calendar, the chocolate tin alone is a wonderful stocking stuffer for the friend who already owns every hot sauce.
Is it worth $150?
Let us be honest about the math. Twelve gifts at $150 works out to $12.50 a door, and some of those doors are a keychain or a mini hot sauce, so you are paying for the curation, the extras and the experience of opening a door every day. That is how most advent calendars work, from beauty to wine. Fishwife also lists the calendar as excluded from discounts, so do not wait for a promo code.
Where it shines is as a gift. If you have a person in your life who brings a tin of sardines and a sleeve of crackers to every picnic, this is the most thoughtful thing you could give them this year. It also works beautifully as a shared countdown with a partner: crack one open each evening with a glass of wine and some good bread, and you have 12 easy, low-effort aperitivo nights before the holidays get loud.
Fishwife has a track record of selling out its limited drops; Good Housekeeping notes its Whole Foods tote collab disappeared fast this summer. If you want one, we would order sooner rather than later at Fishwife.
