What are the parts of an Advent Calendar?

Let me be honest with you guys here – we’re going to be discussing a lot of Advent Calendars on this site. Because of this, I thought it might be easier if we had a glossary of terms to discuss the different parts of the calendar.

On a quick search of google, I noticed that there aren’t any easy to find resources of what the different sections of the Advent Calendar are called. They probably exist within some manufacturing or major creation site, but those must be trade secrets. So, for now, I’m going to use the following terms when discussing advent calendars on THIS site. I’m going to work my way from the inside out. If you don’t know what I mean, don’t worry. Just follow along and you’ll get it.

But first…

There are two basic types of advent calendars. One of which is a calendar with something to open for the receiver to get a gift of some sort. The other option, the simple advent calendar, focuses more on the countdown. This could include moving a clothespin over the dates and more.

I made this advent calendar after I found a cool assortment of clips and ornaments that came in a group of 24. The activity fillers inside each container were filled with things like: drink hot chocolate, sing a holiday song, read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’, I opted out of including the number on the outside because I didn’t want to distract from the aesthetic.

• The filler: This is the meat of the advent calendar. This is what people are getting excited about when they are wondering what they’ll get each day. Fillers can be further broken down into types:
  • An actual item: Like a toy or a piece of chocolate
  • An activity: Maybe there’s a piece of paper inside with a quote, joke, or activity to do that day
  • A combination of actual items and activities are also possible.

• The container: The filler goes inside the container. Sometimes the container isn’t an actual container, but a window to open holding the filler. Other good containers are boxes, bags, and tubes. Typically the different containers compliment each other for each calendar.

• The countdown: A big question is whether to start with the number 24 and use it as a countdown until Christmas, or to start with number 1 and count-up. I’m calling it a countdown because I like it, but please start with number 1 and continue until you finish on 24. Countdowns are printed or attached to the container so that you know which container to open each day.

• The vessel: The whole grouping of containers are contained in the vessel. Sometimes this may be one large box with 24 little boxes for each container. But it could be anything. You could keep it simple and just but each container in a large box, or string them for display. Or you can get really fancy and shape the vessel’s containers into the shape of a Christmas tree.