Printable Advent calendar and online Advent calendar

An Advent calendar of activities, on paper or on screen

This printable Advent calendar swaps chocolates for an activity, a challenge, a message, a love note or a little joke for each day from December 1 to 24, or up to the 25th. You write the boxes yourself, or draw them from ready-made lists: 40 family activities, 30 ideas for couples, 30 kindness and giving challenges, 30 classroom activities, plus 12 jokes and 12 love notes.

The Advent calendar is generally thought to come from German-speaking countries. It seems to have spread during the 19th century, first as pictures or candles used to count the days until Christmas.

How to make your calendar in 5 steps

1. Under "Ready-made ideas", pick an audience, then click "Fill the boxes at random". All 24 boxes are drawn with no idea used twice.
2. Tick "Slip in a little joke every 4 days" to place a joke on December 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24.
3. Open "See and edit the boxes one by one": change the type, rewrite a text, click "Another idea" or move a box with the arrows to set your own order.
4. Fill in "Recipient's first name (optional)" if the calendar is a gift.
5. Print the tag sheet, or copy the "Link to give".

The "Draw seed" makes the result repeatable: with seed 2026 and the same audience, you get exactly the same calendar again.

Advent calendar activities for every audience

• Kids: paper snowflakes, a blanket fort, a rhyming treasure hunt, cress growing on cotton wool.
• Couples: breakfast in bed, a love letter on paper, photos from your first year, plus the 12 love notes.
• Coworkers: choose "Kindness and giving" and write a few boxes by hand, such as a ten-minute walk together or an encouraging note.
• Classroom: an acrostic poem, a compliment circle, the salted ice cube experiment, Simon says, Christmas edition.
• Kindness: call someone who lives alone, donate warm clothes, thank the mail carrier.

An Advent calendar without candy or shopping

Every idea in the lists is free or costs pennies: paper, string, an orange and a few cloves. The real gift is time spent together.

Printable or online?

"Download the tag sheet (PDF)" gives you 24 numbered tags, each with a Christmas drawing: tree, star, snowman, bauble, present, snowflake, candy cane, candle, bell, stocking, holly and gingerbread man. On US Letter paper the grid has 4 columns and 6 rows of about 1.9 × 1.7 in; on A4 the tags measure 47.5 × 46.2 mm. With "On the back of the tags (double-sided)", page 2 puts each text behind its number. With "On small fold-over cards", you get 12 cards per page, so 3 pages in all for 24 days. "Download the poster grid (PDF)" puts all 24 days on one page for the fridge.

The online Advent calendar shows 24 doors. On December 5, doors 1 to 5 open; door 6 answers "Door 6 opens on December 6. Just 1 more day to wait!". Before December 1, tick "Open whenever I like" to check everything. Opened doors stay open on the device, even after you close the tab.

Frequently asked questions

How do I give the calendar to someone who lives far away?

Copy the "Link to give" and send it. They see their name as the title and open one door a day. The whole calendar is stored in the link, after the #, and is never saved on a server.

Can they cheat and open the doors early?

Not from the page: the "Open whenever I like" option does not appear in a calendar you receive. The link is not encrypted, though, so a very curious person could decode it.

What if I change a box after sending the link?

The link you already sent does not change. Copy the new link and send it again.

How do I print the text on the back of the tags?

Choose double-sided printing, flip on the long edge, and keep the scale at 100%. Try a plain sheet first: some printers shift the back side by a few millimeters.