Interactive Classroom Advent Calendar: Counting down to Christmas with your students - Update 2026

I'm a huge Christmas fan, so naturally, I love counting down to my favorite holiday with an advent calendar! But why should the festive fun be limited to home? Why not bring that same Christmas excitement into the classroom?

That's why we created a free digital BookWidgets advent calendar for students, filled with 14 fun and interactive Christmas classroom activities. Starting on December 1, teachers can discover a new activity with their students on each school day, bringing festive games, creative challenges, and engaging learning moments into the classroom as Christmas approaches.

It's a festive way to bring Christmas magic into your classroom with fun, interactive activities! 🎄

What's inside?

The BookWidgets advent calendar is created with a Hotspot Image widget, featuring hidden hotspots that teachers and students can reveal together as they count down to the Christmas holidays. Each hotspot unlocks one of 14 fun, interactive Christmas activities. Starting on December 1, students can discover a new activity on each school day through December 18, making it easy to enjoy the activities together in class without worrying about weekends!

For 2026, we've given some of the activities a little update while keeping the original ideas and festive fun that make this advent calendar special. The activities are mainly designed for primary school students, but there's no reason teachers (or anyone who loves Christmas!) can't join in the fun, too. Here's a peek at the activities you'll find inside:

• Help Santa find his clothes - Hotspot image widget
• Guess the Christmas associations - Snowman widget
• Christmas Crossword widget - Crossword widget
• Christmas Wordsearch widget - Wordsearch widget
• Write a letter to Santa - Worksheet widget
• The Snowman Movie - Video Quiz
• Interview a Christmas Character - Worksheet widget
• Watch a short animated Christmas spirit movie - Video Quiz
• Write a Christmas Story - Randomness widget
• Find the 10 differences - Spot The Difference widget
• Decorate the Christmas tree - Whiteboard widget
• Complete the Christmas puzzle - Jigsaw Puzzle widget
• Christmas Memory Widget - Memory Widget
• Help Santa find Rudolph - WebQuest widget

How to use the calendar?

1. Share this link with your students, or let them scan the QR code using their camera or a QR code scanner app.
2. Check the date, starting from the first school day in December: Tuesday.
3. Students click on the number of the date. A fun Christmas activity will open.
4. Students make the Christmas activity.
5. Go back to the Digital Advent Calendar: Click on the black arrow in the upper left corner.
6. Repeat for the next day!

How to make changes & create your own Advent calendar

Create a free BookWidgets account, and duplicate the widget you want to change. You can find all the widgets in this public widget group folder.

⚠️ Important! You have to duplicate all the widgets before making changes. Click on the three dots ⠇next to the pencil icon and select ‘Duplicate’.

Discover Our Advent Calendar in Different Languages

BookWidgets Dutch Advent Calendar 🇳🇱

For all Dutch-speaking teachers, there is also a Dutch BookWidgets Advent Calendar. Go to this group if you want to duplicate the interactive Christmas activities. Don’t worry if they’re not exactly what you need. After duplicating them to your account, you can customize everything for your classroom.

BookWidgets French Advent Calendar 🇫🇷

French-speaking teachers, you will love the French BookWidgets Advent Calendar! Go to this group to find all the fun Christmas activities and the French BookWidgets Advent Calendar. Once you’ve duplicated them to your own account, you can fully personalize the widgets and adapt them to your classroom needs.

BookWidgets German Advent Calendar 🇩🇪

German-speaking teachers can now enjoy the BookWidgets Advent Calendar in German! Take a look in this group to get inspired by all the interactive Christmas activities and the full Advent Calendar. You can also duplicate them to your own account to customize them for your classroom and teaching style.

Wrap up

Do you have any fun ideas we could add to our advent calendar? We'd love to hear them! Share your ideas in our Facebook Teacher Community, or tag us on Instagram or BlueSky.

And me? I’m Lucie from BookWidgets. I’m happy to connect with you personally on X or LinkedIn.