Questions about the Advent planner

From 1 December or from the first Sunday of Advent, whichever you choose, to 24 or 25 December. That is 22 to 29 days, depending on the year and your choice. Every day gets a card unless you mark it as a day to skip. The planner covers 2026 to 2030.

It is the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is always the Sunday from 27 November to 3 December. The planner works it out for the year you choose rather than reading it from a list: 29 November 2026, 28 November 2027, 3 December 2028, 2 December 2029, 1 December 2030. In 2028 it falls on 3 December, after 1 December, so starting on Advent Sunday gives a shorter count that year; the planner shows both dates so you can choose.

No. Every date is handled as a plain calendar date (a year, a month and a day), never as a moment in time, so no time zone, clock change or midnight can move a card to another day. The planner reads today's date in your browser's own time zone only to know when a December is over.

Download the cards PDF and print it at actual size (100 percent, not fit to page) on A4 or US Letter, whichever you chose. There are 6 cards to a page, 2 across and 3 down, with small crop marks at each corner; cut from mark to mark. Every mark sits at least a quarter of an inch inside the edge, so a home printer prints them. Thicker paper or card stock holds up best on a fridge or a string.

A4 and US Letter, both portrait, for the cards, the fridge calendar and the supplies list. The calendar picture is 1200 by 1600 pixels, for sending to someone or keeping on a phone. The PDFs print in black and grey on white, whatever your screen's theme.

Yes. Swap shows every activity that fits that day without changing any other day, and the new card is locked in place. Edit lets you rewrite a card's title and text in your own words; an edited card is locked too. Locked days stay put when you reshuffle, and the lock can be taken off any day.

Each shuffle has a 6 character code. Typing the same code back, with the same dates, children and choices, gives the same plan, on any device. Your swaps and edits are saved in this browser, not in the code, and the code holds no names or dates.

The planner never repeats an activity and never quietly drops one of your choices. If your choices leave too few activities for the days, it says which days cannot all be filled and which single change would give a full plan, such as allowing outdoor activities, raising the budget or skipping a day.

No. The plan is worked out in your browser and saved in your browser's own storage, and the PDFs and the picture are made in your browser too. Nothing you type is sent anywhere and there is no account. Save a backup file to move a plan to another browser.

Yes. Share this plan, beside the downloads, makes a link that carries the plan itself after the # sign, so nothing is uploaded and no server ever sees it. Untick Include names and the link carries the plan, days and choices only: Child 1, Child 2 in place of first names, and no diet note, card text or plan name. The person who opens it sees the plan as Shared with you, and nothing is saved in their browser until they keep a copy. The link never holds your other saved plans or your files.

Yes. On an iPhone or iPad, open the site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. In Chrome or Edge, choose Install from the menu. After one visit the planner works without a connection, and the PDFs do too once you have made one while online.

It adds a line to each card with a place to find a small visitor who moves each night, such as sitting in the fruit bowl wearing a paper hat. There are 32 ideas and no two cards in a plan get the same one. The visitor is whatever toy you already have; the planner names no product.

Christmas, no faith content uses winter activities and Christmas customs such as Santa, the tree, stockings and cards, and leaves out the Christian story. Christian adds activities about the Christian story of Advent and Christmas, such as an Advent wreath or a crib scene. General winter uses only winter, light and kindness activities, with no Christmas customs and no faith content, for families who mark December without Christmas.

Step 3 asks what December is like where you live. Where snow is likely, snow and frost activities can be used. Where snow is unlikely, no card needs snow or a frost, so nothing is planned for weather you will not get. For a southern hemisphere summer, cold-weather activities are left out and summer ones, such as a sprinkler dash or a beach paddle, are added. Weather still changes, so swap any card on the day if it does not suit.

Children from 0 to 17, up to 5 in one plan, each with a first name of up to 20 characters in any script. Every activity has an age range and has to suit every child in the plan at once. A child under 3 gets only activities that a grown-up does alongside them the whole time. A grown-up stays in charge of every activity whatever the card says.

The PDFs embed a font that covers Latin letters with their accents, Greek and Cyrillic. For a name in another script, such as Arabic, the planner asks for a spelling to use on the printouts instead, and if there is none the cards say Child 1, Child 2 and so on. A missing letter is never printed as an empty box. The screen and the calendar picture show the name as you typed it.

There are 264 of them, written for this site, each with its length, setting, cost, ages, content and supplies. They are all listed, with filters, on the activities page. None needs a particular product, shop or character.

Adventfold is an independent planner. Adventfold is not affiliated with any toy company, retailer, church or calendar publisher.