Countdown timer to a date

A countdown to the date you are waiting for

This countdown timer shows the days, hours, minutes and seconds left until a date, in very large figures. One click answers “how many days until Christmas?”. It works just as well for the school holidays, a wedding, a due date, a trip, an exam, retirement or the last day of a notice period.

The time left is worked out again every second from your device's clock, so it stays exact when you switch tabs, and it also shows in the tab title. Nothing is sent anywhere.

How to use it

1. Under “Events”, click “Christmas”, “New Year”, “Easter”, “Valentine's Day”, “Halloween”, “Thanksgiving”, “4th of July” or a season. After 25 December, “Christmas” points to the following year.
2. For your own event, fill in “Event title” (up to 60 characters) and “Date”. “Time (optional)” sets the moment; with no time, the countdown aims at midnight, the start of that day.
3. Below the figures: the full date with its day of the week, then “In weeks”, “Number of sleeps” and “Counting today”.
4. “Save” keeps the countdown under “My countdowns”: up to 6 cards stored on this device, each with a “Delete” button.
5. “Full screen” enlarges the display. “Copy link” gives an address that holds the title and the date. “Copy text” copies a sentence such as “Christmas: in 23 days”.

Once the date has passed, the display shows “Time since” and counts the time elapsed.

“In 23 days” or “24 days to go”: two ways of counting

Take 1 December at 9:00 am. Until midnight at the start of 25 December there are 23 days and 15 hours left. The tool therefore writes “Christmas: in 23 days”: those are the full days that remain, or 3 weeks and 2 days.

The “Counting today” line works differently. It only compares calendar dates and ignores the time of day, so today counts as a whole day: it reads “24 calendar days (D-24)”. Both results are right; they do not measure the same thing. At midnight they agree, and for the rest of the day the calendar count is one higher.

The sleeps trick. “23 days and 15 hours” means little to a young child. Nights left to sleep can be counted on fingers: from 1 December to Christmas Day there are 24 sleeps. It matches the calendar count: there is one night between two dates that follow each other.

Why Easter moves every year

Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, counted from 21 March. The moon does not follow the calendar, so the date moves between 22 March and 25 April: 5 April in 2026, 28 March in 2027, 16 April in 2028. This is the Western date; Orthodox Easter often falls on another day.

Thanksgiving is the American one, the fourth Thursday of November: 26 November in 2026. For the seasons the tool uses approximate dates for the northern hemisphere: 20 March, 21 June, 22 or 23 September and 21 December. The exact equinox or solstice can fall a day earlier or later.

Ideas for using it

• Advent. From 1 to 24 December, the number of sleeps until Christmas goes down with the doors of the Advent calendar.
• In class or at a party. Put the countdown on the projector in full screen before the end of term, or on New Year's Eve for the last seconds of the year.
• With family. Send the link for the wedding or the summer reunion: everyone opens the same countdown.
• School holidays. Term dates differ from one area to the next and change every year: type in the date from your own school calendar.

Frequently asked questions

Does the countdown allow for time zones?

It follows the clock of whoever is looking at it. For an event “at midnight”, someone in London and someone in New York do not see the same time left: each sees the time until their own midnight.

Are my countdowns kept?

Yes, in the browser's storage, on this device only. Clearing your browsing data removes them. For another device, send yourself the link.

What does someone see when they open my link?

The same title, date and time. They are written in the address after the # sign and are not transmitted to the site.

How many days until Christmas today?

Click “Christmas”. On 10 December at 6:00 pm, for example, there are 14 days and 6 hours left, which makes 15 sleeps.