A digital advent calendar for the two of you,
wherever the other one is
Twenty-four mornings, or however many there are until you are in the same room: a note, a photo, a song or a video behind each door, opening one a day on their phone. Free, no account, and the whole calendar travels inside a link you send in a message.
Why it works when you are apart
A parcel arrives once. A calendar arrives every morning. The door for the 5th opens on the 5th in their time zone, so the first thing they see with their coffee is something you wrote, and they cannot open the 6th early however much they want to. No shipping, no customs, no waiting for a delivery slot in another country: the link works the moment you send it.
Six doors to start with
All twenty-fourThe first photo of the two of you
Upload it, or paste its address, and write where it was taken. The first door sets the tone.
The song that is yours
Paste the Spotify link. One line about where you first heard it. It plays behind the door.
Thirty seconds of you
Record it on your phone, upload it to YouTube as unlisted, paste the link. Only someone with the link can find it.
A reservation
Book the table or the tickets for a night you are together, and paste the page. The door is the invitation.
The day you land
Flight, time, terminal, as a note. The calendar becomes a countdown to the door that matters.
A letter, the long kind
A note holds about nine hundred characters. Put it mid-month, so it is read on an ordinary Tuesday.
Set it up for a visit
Count the nights
Make the calendar as long as the wait, up to 31 doors, and set the first door to the day you part.
Fill the middle
Photos of the days they missed, the song from the car, the film to watch on two screens at once.
Save the last door
The arrivals hall, the terminal, the time. The countdown ends where you do.
Send the link
In a message, the night before the first door. Nothing to install on their side.
It stays between you
The calendar is packed into the link itself, in the part of an address a browser never sends to a server. There is no account, no upload and no copy anywhere but the link, so what you write is read by the person you send it to and by nobody else. It also means the link is the only copy: keep it somewhere safe, and send it again if they lose it.
Start with door one.
Most people finish a calendar in an evening. The builder is free and needs no account; the link it gives you is the whole gift.
Frequently asked questions
Do the doors open at their time, or mine?
At theirs. A door unlocks on its date wherever the calendar is opened, so the door for the 5th opens on the morning of the 5th in their time zone, not yours. If you are eight hours apart, they will have opened it before you are awake, which is rather the point.
How long can the calendar be?
Anything from 1 to 31 doors, starting on any day you choose. For a visit, make it the number of nights until you see each other and set the first door to the day you part; the last door is the arrivals hall. For Christmas, 24 doors from 1 December is the classic.
Can I put a video of myself behind a door?
Yes. Upload it to YouTube or Vimeo as unlisted, which means it does not appear in search and only someone with the link can watch it, then paste the link into the door. It plays inside the calendar. Photos can be uploaded directly, and the builder shrinks them so the link stays a sensible length.
What if they lose the link?
Send it again. The link is the calendar, so the same link opens the same doors, and the ones they had already opened stay marked as opened in their browser. Nothing is stored on a server, which also means nobody but the two of you can read it.
Is it really free?
Yes, all of it. Every kind of door, any length, as many calendars as you like, no account and no watermark. Advent Center's calendar maker is the free part of a site that reviews the calendars you buy.
Start building