24 Digital Advent Calendar Ideas: What to Put Behind the Doors of an Online Calendar

Picture the person you have in mind on the morning of December 1, phone in hand, tapping the first door. This page is for anyone who wants that moment to be good and has not yet decided what goes behind the door. You get 24 ideas with one specific line each, grouped by what the door does, and each one names the door type it uses. If you already know who the calendar is for, the table below sends you to the page written for that person, with its own template.

The maker is free: 24 doors, no account for you or for the person who opens it, and one link to send by WhatsApp, email or social media. You choose whether the calendar stays private or goes public, and the email address you enter is used once, for the edit link.

Which page fits the person

The ideas here are the general list. Each recipient below has a longer page and a template with the 24 doors already laid out, so you can start from a full month instead of a blank one.

Readers who prefer German have three pages of their own: für Freund oder Freundin, für Kollegen und Mitarbeiter and für die Klasse. Readers who prefer French find the maker in French on the French home page, and the French ideas pages follow.

Why this page is about doors, not boxes

Search the plain phrase “advent calendar ideas” and you get boxed calendars to buy, lists of fillers for a calendar you build by hand, and printables. Lovely in their way, but a different job. A box is handed over; a digital calendar is a link, and the ideas that suit a link are the ones you can make in a minute on a phone and that open on the same screen they are read on.

So every idea below has to pass one small test: could it sit behind a door on a phone? A 20-second video can. A pair of socks cannot, though a message that says where the socks are hidden can.

Online advent calendar ideas: messages and voices

The first six doors cost nothing and take about a minute each. They are also the ones people replay.

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 and paste the link in the door. Google’s page says unlisted videos “can be seen and shared by anyone with the link”, viewers need no Google account, and the video stays off your channel’s Videos tab unless someone adds it to a public playlist.
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 at 7 a.m. than the same words in type.
3. A thank-you for one specific thing. A text door, three sentences, with the date it happened. Not “thank you for everything” but “Thank you for driving to the airport at 5 a.m. on March 3”.
4. One photo from this week, with one line. An image door, uploaded from your phone: the view from the window, the coffee, the shoes by the door. Skip the highlight reel and send an ordinary Tuesday.
5. A GIF that is an inside joke. The maker takes a GIF as a door. The joke only the two of you understand is the whole point.
6. A letter the length of one screen. A text door written on your phone, so that it reads well on theirs. Nothing in it needs a reply.

Virtual advent calendar ideas: things to do on a call or a screen

A virtual door asks the person to do something at a set time, with you or on their own. The door is the invitation, and December evenings are a good time to send one.

7. A film to watch at the same time. A text door with the title and the start time, in both time zones if you are in different ones. Two screens, one film, blankets optional.
8. 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.
9. A quiz about the two of you. A text door with ten questions: the first restaurant, the first holiday, the name of the neighbor’s dog.
10. The answers. The next door, for a bit of suspense overnight. Score it on the call or over messages.
11. A walk on a call. A text door naming a place: “walk to the river and call me from the bridge”. The walk is the gift.
12. A playlist for the week. A link door to a shared playlist on whichever music service you both use. Ten songs, one line each on why they are there.

Digital advent calendar ideas: memories to keep

These doors give the person something they can reopen in January. The calendar stays online at least through January and you can delete it yourself at any time, so anything meant to last belongs in a place you control as well.

13. 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.
14. A photo from ten years ago, and what you remember of that day. An image door with three lines of text underneath. The details nobody else remembers are what earn it a door.
15. A family recipe, typed out, with who taught it to you. A text door. Add the sentence the recipe never had: “my mother always doubled the cinnamon”.
16. A map of the place that mattered. A link door to a map of the street, the café or the trailhead, with the date you were there.
17. A book to borrow. Libby says thousands of public libraries offer ebooks and audiobooks at no cost through its app. A text door with the title and why you chose it; the library card is theirs, the recommendation is yours.
18. Five things from this year, in order. A text door: five events, five dates, one line each. It is the shortest year-in-review there is.

Gifts, promises and the last door

The final six lean toward what happens after December 24. A gift here is a link or a code, or a promise written down. The wider list, with what each platform and vendor says about delivery, is on digital gifts that fit behind a door.

19. A voucher or gift card sent to their own email. Send it to the one person and put only “check your inbox” in the door. A claimable code shown in a door belongs to whoever opens the calendar first, and anyone with the link can open it.
20. A ticket, in words. A text door that says what you have booked: the concert, the table, the train. The booking itself stays in your inbox.
21. A donation in their name. A link door to the charity’s page, with one line on why you picked it. The gift is the money you gave; the door says where it went.
22. A task for the day. A text door with one thing to do before bed: write a postcard to someone they have lost touch with, or take out the recycling without being asked. See 24 kindness tasks for more.
23. A promise with a date. “On Saturday, January 9, I will teach you to make the bread.” A date and a task, written in the door, make a promise that can be kept.
24. The longest video you have recorded. Two minutes, one take, about the year. The last door gets read more than once; door 24 has more on how to end a calendar.

Good to know Ads can play inside an embedded YouTube player. Google says they follow the same settings as on youtube.com, cannot be turned off for embedded videos alone, and pay only YouTube and the video’s owner. The privacy-enhanced embed domain, youtube-nocookie.com, makes the ads non-personalized. No calendar can promise that a YouTube door is ad-free.

What goes behind a door: the door types

In the tool AdventMyFriend’s doors hold an uploaded image, a message, a YouTube video, a GIF or a link, and a new door opens every day in December. Doors 1 and 24 are video doors (a YouTube link, set to Unlisted); doors 2, 8, 12, 13, 16 and 21 are link doors (a recording, a recipe, a playlist, an album, a map, a charity page); doors 4 and 14 are image doors; door 5 is a GIF; the rest are text. The calendar goes out as one link by WhatsApp, email or social media.

If you would rather have a plan for the whole month than a list, what to put in a digital advent calendar lays out a 24-door plan, and the page on videos and songs covers picking and embedding them.

When the doors open

The convention is 24 doors counted from December 1, whatever the weekday: the Austrian tourist board’s page says “the first door opens on 1 December”. Advent itself is counted differently. Smart-Rechner.de gives the first Sunday of Advent as November 29, 2026 and November 28, 2027, so in 2026 a calendar that began with the first Sunday of Advent would open two days before the December 1 convention (arithmetic from those dates). The maker’s own page says a new door opens every day in December, which follows the convention. The history is on why 24 doors.

Put it in a calendar

Pick the template for the person: a partner, a child, grandparents, a class, a team or a friend abroad. Copy the 24 doors and change the names. Or start from an empty one: Create your calendar, choose a background, and fill door 1 tonight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a digital advent calendar available?

Yes. A digital advent calendar is 24 doors on a web page, each opening on its date, sent to the recipient as one link. The maker described here is free and needs no account for the person who opens it.

How can I create a digital advent calendar?

Enter your email address, choose a design, fill the 24 doors with images, messages, YouTube videos, GIFs and links, and send the link by WhatsApp, email or social media. If you want to see the other routes, slides and design tools included, how to make a digital advent calendar lays them side by side.

What can I put in a fillable advent calendar?

Anything that fits on a phone screen: a message, a photo, a short video, a voice recording, a GIF, a link to a map, a recipe or a shared album. The 24 ideas above give one specific line for each, in four groups.

How do I do a virtual advent calendar?

Fill the doors with things that can be opened and done from a distance: a film to watch at the same time, a recipe to cook on a video call, a quiz and its answers in two consecutive doors, a walk with a call. Send the calendar as one link, and agree who opens first if you are in different time zones.

Do the people who open it need an account?

No. The site’s page says anyone can open the calendar directly via the link. The only email address involved is yours, used once to send the secret link that edits or deletes the calendar.

Will a video door show ads?

If the video is on YouTube, ads can play inside the embedded player; Google says they cannot be turned off for embeds alone and that only YouTube and the video’s owner earn from them.

How long does the calendar stay online?

The site’s page says at least through January, and that you can delete it yourself at any time. Save the videos and photos you want to keep somewhere else before then.

Is an unlisted YouTube video private?

No. Google’s wording is that unlisted videos can be seen and shared by anyone with the link, and that link sharing has no restriction on resharing. Put in a video what you would say to the one person, and nothing you would mind a third person seeing.

Related Articles

Sources