Last Christmas nearly didn’t happen. We’re not allowed to say more North Pole legal but the phrase close call is official now, and it explains the man’s new schedule. This year Santa’s out early, flying the entire route in advance, and because the man knows what actually matters, he’s playing a round of golf at every stop.
That trip is now something you can gift. The Vice Golf Around the World in 24 Days advent calendar follows him across 24 destinations — from Japan to Scotland to Iceland to Hawaii and everywhere the wind blows in between — and packs the whole mission into one forest-green box: 24 drawers, 48 premium golf balls, and not a single square of chocolate.
What’s in the box (besides 48 golf balls)
Each of the 24 drawers holds two balls wearing the same never-before-seen design — one to play, one to keep — plus a note from Santa, written from whatever course he just walked off. Run the checklist:
- 48 Premium golf balls — two behind every door
- 24 Never-before-seen Vice designs, exclusive to this calendar
- 2× Two of each design: one to play, one to keep
- 24 Notes from Santa’s course, one per drawer
- 24 Destinations every ball built for its wind, weather and ground
Vice’s own verdict on the concept: these calendars are “the furthest we’ve ever taken golf ball design.” The back of the box does the rest of the arguing for them.
One to play. One to keep. Every other advent calendar makes you choose between the shelf and the scorecard — this one refuses.
That pairing is the smartest thing here. Open it, game one around your home course, and line its untouched twin up on the mantel. The round and the souvenir come from the same box, which is more than can be said for any gift you’ll wrap this December.
The route: 24 stops, six continents
The back of the box maps the whole mission — 24 days, 24 destinations, 1 mission — and it reads like a golf bucket list. Bullet-fast greens in Japan. Wind in Scotland that will not stop talking. Iceland’s volcanic ground, Hawaii’s trade winds, the thin air of the Andes, the fog rolling onto the first tee in San Francisco. Each ball in the calendar is built for its stop: the wind, the weather, the ground underfoot.
The 24 stops on Santa’s route. Day-to-destination order is how we’d fly it — Vice keeps each ball’s pairing under wraps until the drawer opens.
A note from the course, in every drawer
The balls get the photos, but the notes might be the keeper. Every drawer also holds a dispatch from Santa written from the course, presumably between shots. Over 24 days that’s a travel journal your favorite golfer opens one drawer at a time, in December, in the dark, before the sun’s even up. If that doesn’t beat a Fun Size Twix, nothing does.
Do the math
Forty-eight premium balls is four dozen. Vice’s core lineup runs $34.99–$39.99 a dozen, so the plain arithmetic already lands within a sleeve of the $149.99 price tag before you count the 24 designs you can’t buy separately at any price anywhere else. For the collector on your list, that exclusivity is the whole sale. For everyone else, it’s four dozen tour-grade Christmas mornings at roughly ball cost, with the box, the map and the notes thrown in on the house.
Two ways to count down
The 24-drawer box the one Vice files under Collector’s Edition isn’t riding solo this year. Alongside it on the same flight plan sits a little sibling, and behind them both, a bundle for the maximalists:
- $89.99 12 Days of Vicemas — 12 sleeves, 24 limited-edition balls, 12 designs unique to this calendar, two per door, one to play and one to keep
- $224.99 The Complete Advent Bundle — both calendars together: 72 limited-edition balls, 36 never-before-seen designs, $14.99 off the $239.98 separate price. Play one calendar, gift the other — or keep both for the collection
Quick per-dozen math: the bundle lands exactly where the big box does about $37.50 a dozen while Vicemas runs a premium $45 a dozen. Smaller box, same exclusive-only rule: you’re paying for the designs, not the volume. And every option ships with the same promise stamped on the listing arrives before December 1. Drawer one waits for no one.
Who it’s for
The golfer who has everything already owns three rangefinders. What they don’t own is a countdown with a handicap. And because the box itself is the best-looking thing in the room forest green, lime Santa in sunglasses, drawer numbers shuffled like the man’s flight plan it’s built to stay on display long after the tree comes down. Chocolate calendars are finished by Christmas morning and forgotten by Boxing Day. This one ends with 24 keepers on the shelf and 24 rounds in the bag.
Arrives before December 1 · advent starts December 1 · the man’s already been to Iceland.
— The Golf Problems crew, counting drawers until December
Golf Problems · honest reviews, straight-up advice, zero fluff. Prices checked at publish time; calendars, like Santa, are subject to availability.