A Long-Distance Advent Calendar You Can Send by Link: 24 Ideas That Cross Time Zones

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It is December, and the person you miss is eleven hours away, or one flight, or one very long drive. This page is for the two of you. It lists 24 doors, one specific line each, grouped by what the door does: a message, something to do together, a gift that arrives as a link. Each idea names the door type it uses in the maker, and the facts about the platforms come from the platforms’ own pages. The wider list, for anyone, is 24 digital advent calendar ideas; the page for a partner in the same city is a digital advent calendar for your partner.

The maker is free: 24 doors, no account for you or for them, one link to send, and the email address you enter is used once, to send you the secret link that edits or deletes the calendar. The site earns a commission on some links to digital gifts, which does not affect what is described.

Before the first door: the link, the dates and the time difference

The calendar is a single link. You send it by WhatsApp, by email or in a message, and the person opens it in a browser; they need no account and nothing to install. A door opens on its date, every day in December. Keep the link between the two of you: anyone who has it can open the calendar.

The time difference becomes part of the fun. If you are eleven hours apart, one of you reaches December 3 while the other is still on December 2. Decide once, in the first door, who opens first and who waits for the other’s message about it. A text door at the start of each week that names the next call time in both time zones saves a month of arithmetic.

Videos are links, not uploads: you put a YouTube video behind a door and the calendar shows it there. On YouTube, the setting for a video meant for one person is Unlisted: Google’s page says unlisted videos “can be seen and shared by anyone with the link”, viewers need no Google account, and the video does not show on your channel’s Videos tab or in search results unless someone adds it to a public playlist. On Vimeo’s free plan the only settings are Public and Private, and a private video cannot be embedded anywhere, so a surprise video goes on YouTube unless you pay for Vimeo.

Good to know Unlisted is not private. Google’s own wording is that anyone with the link can watch and that “link sharing has no restriction on resharing”. Say what you would say to the one person, and keep anything that must stay private out of a video door.

Doors 1 to 8: messages that take a minute to make

1. A 20-second good-morning video, filmed where you are. Record it on your phone in the kitchen, upload it to YouTube as Unlisted, paste the link in the door. It is the door they will replay.
2. A voice note. Record one on a free online voice recorder such as Vocaroo, which shares a recording as a link, and put the link in the door. A voice carries more than text at 7 a.m. on another continent.
3. The first thing you noticed about them. A text door, three sentences, with the place and the date.
4. One photo from this week, with one line. An image door: the view from your desk, the coffee you had, the shoes by the door. Skip the highlight and send a Tuesday.
5. A GIF that is an inside joke. The maker takes a GIF link as a door. The joke only the two of you get is the whole point.
6. “Same time tomorrow.” A text door that names the hour of your next call in both time zones, written out: “8 p.m. your time, 9 a.m. mine”.
7. The song that is yours, as a video. A link to the song’s video on YouTube. Ads can play inside an embedded YouTube player; Google says those ads follow the same settings as on youtube.com and cannot be switched off for embeds alone, and only YouTube and the video’s owner earn from them. Google’s privacy-enhanced embed mode, on the youtube-nocookie.com domain, makes those ads non-personalized.
8. A letter the length of one screen. A text door written on your phone, so it reads well on theirs. Nothing in it needs a reply.

Doors 9 to 16: things to do together, eleven hours apart

9. A film to watch at the same time. A text door with the title and the start time in both zones. If one of you needs the subscription, a Netflix gift card arrives by email as a code; Netflix says its cards do not expire and cannot be applied to an account billed through Apple or to one included in a bundle.
10. A recipe for the same evening. A link door to the recipe. Cook it on a video call, each in your own kitchen, and eat together on screen.
11. A playlist for the week. A link door to a shared playlist on whichever service you both use. In the US, Spotify no longer sells gift cards, so the playlist is the gift, not a card.
12. A shared album you both add to. A link door to a Google Photos album; Google’s page says anyone with the link can view the photos and add to the album. One photo a day from each of you, and by door 24 there are 48.
13. A quiz about the two of you. A text door with ten questions: the first restaurant, the first argument, the name of the neighbor’s dog.
14. The answers. The next door, after a night of wondering. Score it on the call.
15. A walk on a call. A text door naming a place: “walk to the river and call me from the bridge”. The door is the invitation; the walk is the gift.
16. The countdown inside the countdown. A text door with the date of the next visit and the number of days left on that day. Update it in the editor if the flight changes; the secret edit link opens the calendar for changes at any time.

Doors 17 to 24: gifts that arrive as a link or a code

17. An Audible gift membership. Audible’s gift page lists one month for $15 (one credit), three months for $45, six for $90 and twelve for $150 in the US store, read October 25, 2026, and says a gift membership does not auto-renew; a current member receives all the credits at once. Put the confirmation in a text door on the day, or send the gift to their email on the date of the door.
18. A Headspace gift. The buyer picks the send date at checkout and the gift arrives by email with a redeem button; gifts are individual plans, not Family plans. A good one for the dark weeks of December, in whichever time zone.
19. An Airbnb gift card for the next visit. Airbnb sends a digital card by email, immediately or scheduled for a future date; the page lists the countries where digital cards are sold, among them the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, and says the billing address and payment method must be in the buying country; the cards do not expire. Schedule it for the door’s date and write the city in the door.
20. A Google Play gift card, bought in their country. Google delivers a digital card by share link, email or phone number, usually within the hour; gifting is available in nine countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the UK and the US), and a card cannot be redeemed outside the country where it was bought, which matters when the two of you are in different stores.
21. An Amazon gift card, sent to them, not to the calendar. Amazon’s delivery page says an eGift card is sent by email, text message or a shareable link, and that email or text delivery can be scheduled up to a year from the purchase. Send it to the one person and put only “check your email” in the door; a claimable link belongs to whoever opens it first.
22. A library e-book to borrow. Libby says thousands of public libraries offer ebooks and audiobooks at no cost through the app. A text door with the title and why you chose it; the library card is theirs, the recommendation is yours.
23. A ticket, in words. A text door that says what you have booked for the visit: the concert, the table, the train. The booking itself stays in your inbox.
24. The longest video you have ever recorded. Two minutes, filmed in one take, about the year. The last door gets read more than once; door 24 has more on how to end a calendar.

In the tool The maker’s doors hold text, an image, a YouTube video, a GIF or a link, and each door opens on its date. Doors 1, 7 and 24 are video doors (a YouTube link, set to Unlisted); doors 2, 10, 11, 12 and 16 are link doors; door 4 is an image door; door 5 is a GIF; the rest are text. Videos are links to YouTube, not uploads. When the 24 are filled, the calendar goes out as one link by WhatsApp or email, and the edit link in your inbox opens it for changes.

Put it in a calendar

The template for a friend abroad has these 24 doors laid out with the time-zone lines already written; copy it and change the names. Or start from an empty one: Create your calendar, pick a background, and fill door 1 tonight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an advent calendar for couples who live apart?

Yes: an online calendar with 24 dated doors, sent as one link, is made for the case where a box cannot be handed over. The maker is free, asks for no account, and the recipient opens the link in a browser. The 24 doors above are written for that distance; the page for a couple in the same city is a digital advent calendar for your partner.

What can I put in an advent calendar for my boyfriend or girlfriend who lives abroad?

Short videos you record on your phone, a voice note, a photo from an ordinary day, a text that names the next call time in both time zones, a shared album, a film to watch at the same time, and gifts that arrive by email or as a code. Each door holds one text, image, video, GIF or link.

Do they need an account to open the calendar?

No. The site’s own page says anyone can open the calendar directly through the link, and the only email address involved is yours, used once for the edit link.

Can a gift card arrive on the day the door opens?

Several vendors let the buyer pick the send date: Airbnb schedules an email delivery for a future date, Amazon schedules email or text delivery up to a year ahead, and Google Play offers scheduling in its app in select regions. Send the card to the person’s own email and let the door say “check your inbox”.

Will the video doors show ads?

If the video is on YouTube, ads can play inside the embedded player; Google says the ads on embedded videos follow the same settings as on YouTube, cannot be turned off for embeds alone, and pay YouTube and the video’s owner.

How long does the calendar stay online?

The site’s page says a calendar stays online at least through January, and that you can delete it yourself at any time with the edit link. Download the videos you want to keep before then; they live on YouTube, not in the calendar.

Is an unlisted YouTube video private?

No. Google’s wording is that unlisted videos can be seen and shared by anyone with the link, with no restriction on resharing; private videos, by contrast, cannot be shared by link at all. Record what you would say to the one person, and nothing you would mind a third person seeing.

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