Make Your Printable Advent Calendar

An advent calendar is typically made of 24 or 25 units, one for each day in December, starting with December 1 and ending with December 24 (Christmas Eve) or December 25 (Christmas).

Please note that Advent time is originally based on the liturgical year which is also called Christian year. It always starts on Sunday, so the first day of Advent is not a fixed day (December 3 in 2023, December 1 in 2024, November 25 in 2025, etc), so the 'real' Advent calendar has a variable number of days for each year.

For practical and commercial reasons most of us start the famous countdown to Christmas on the first day in December and most calendars mark the first 24 days in December sometimes adding something extra for Christmas Day.

We will go with the flow and create a calendar with 24 ideas for days (evenings, actually) before Christmas. Classic commercial advent calendars offer quotes, devotions, small (or not-so-small) gifts, or family activities to make these days special. For our purpose, we will suggest the reading of fairy tales, one for each evening in December.

Storytelling, after all, is a traditional activity, perfectly suitable for the Advent time.

We will need 24 illustrations of fairy tales. The selection is up to you. Graphics of Public Domain illustrations are available all over the internet at sites like Archive.org, OpenClipart.org, Pixabay.com, and so on. For practical reasons, we decided to use illustrations by Carl Offterdinger, Fedor Flinzer, and Emil Dolleschall who all excelled at the beginning of the 20th century. Their pictures are amazing and look a bit old-fashioned which makes them even better for our purpose of connecting the Advent feeling of the present with centuries of tradition.

We will use the illustrations from the book roughly translated Nice Fairy Tales. They are available here and here.

We have to download all the pictures to the folder of our choice. The order of pictures (fairy tales) is not essential. We will use the exact sequence from the book but you can change it if you want.

If we put all the illustrations on one page only, they will be pretty small, so we decided to make this printable advent calendar on two pages, suitable for printing on ISO (International standard) and American standards which slightly differ by format.

To create the calendar in the desired format we need a computer program. The most popular programs are Microsoft Office Word (not the best for graphic design) and Adobe Photoshop but both programs are quite expensive, which led us to choose a great open-source alternative.

Inkscape is a free alternative to commercial programs for computer design. It is driven by an enthusiastic community that constantly improves the program without charge. Of course, there is a chance to donate to the developers if you want.

Inkscape can be downloaded for free. Just choose your operating system (Windows, Mac OS, Linux) and the version you prefer (standard or portable). Whatever you decide, the program will do the job without a problem. After downloading you'll need to install it.

After installation, run Inkscape. A blank window will appear with some menus around the screen. Don't be overwhelmed by numerous options because for our purpose we'll only need some basic point-and-shoot clicking and a couple of specific commands.

We have to insert all the elements. This means 12 graphic files for each page of this two-page advent calendar. Inserting in Inkscape is simple, just simultaneously press Ctrl and I (ctrl-I) and choose your file. A dialog like this will appear:

Don't worry. All default settings are fine. Just press Enter.

Then repeat the process until all your pictures are on the screen. Arrange them in the desired order.

A hint: there's an option to use a grid, so you'll easily manage distances and alignments. Just press shift-# to set it on or off, however and whenever you like it. The grid is for display only. It will not be printed.

Inkscape can write too. This means we can add numbers of the days of Advent or just simply the titles of the stories. Just click the position where you want to write and press T. Small line editor will appear. Of course, you can play with a huge selection of fonts, effects, and sizes.

We decided to use titles without numbers. You can also add the title of the calendar or add a dedication.

That's all. Just export it in the desired format (ctr-shift-E: 794 pixels width). We opted for PNG and the file is ready to send by e-mail or publish online.

There are numerous ways to promote your work (check my article about portfolio sites) but in my experience, a mixture of everything is the best. This includes blogging websites like Altervista, bookmarking services like Diigo, content marketing platforms like Contently, and social networks like Plurk.

You can print this calendar on white cardboard and cover the images with some easily removable material. This way the recipient of such a homemade gift with a personal touch won't know what to expect in the next few days which further adds to the thrill of anticipation.

Happy Advent!