How does the photo advent calendar work?
Each photo you add becomes one numbered day. The tool lays the cards out at true print size — the same cut-and-fold geometry as our place cards, with the photo cropped to fit each card — and builds a PDF: a cover sheet with your title and the assembly steps, then the card sheets. You print at 100 percent, cut along the solid borders, and the calendar is ready to assemble. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and the file is made on your device.
The two styles suit two houses:
| Style | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Fold-door cards | One card per day: number flap folds over the photo, glue dot holds it | the classic window calendar feel |
| Peg cards | A photo card + a number card per day, for a string and clothes pegs | a wall or mantelpiece display |
| 25th Merry Christmas card | Optional finale card, number 25 with the greeting | the morning of the 25th |
Which photos should I pick?
The crop is generous but honest: each photo is cropped from its centre to fill the card, so a subject in the middle stays in the middle. Portraits of people, pets and houses all work. Photos from different years make the best calendars — a baby’s first December, the same tree over ten years, grandparents when they were young. That last one pairs well with the fixes on the restore old photos page: scan the old prints first, revive the colour, then bring them here.
If a photo is precious and fragile, fix it before it becomes a calendar: the scratch remover and the color restorer both run in your browser too.
What if I have fewer than 24 photos?
That is fine and common. The calendar numbers itself from December 1 to your count: six photos make December 1–6, twelve make the first half. Nothing prints empty, and the cover sheet says exactly which days your calendar covers. Many families start with a handful of favourite pictures and add photos from previous Decembers each year.
How do I assemble the cards?
Fold-door cards: cut each card along its solid border, fold on the dashed line between the number and the photo so the number panel lies over the photo, and fix it with a glue dot on each bottom corner. Hang or stand the cards, and from December 1 lift one flap each day — the flap bends back and the photo is there.
Peg cards: cut out the photo cards and the number cards, punch or slit the round mark at the top of each, and hang them on a string with small pegs, the number card in front of its photo. Turning the number card is the daily reveal.
Plain paper is fine; a slightly heavier sheet makes the flap and the peg cards feel like keepsakes. One test print first — printers scale by surprise, and the sizes are only true at 100 percent.
For whom this calendar works best
This is a gift-shaped printable for families: parents building the December countdown with their kids’ photos, and the 40-to-70 group making one for grandchildren who live far away — the reason the 25th Merry Christmas card exists. The finished output is a printed, numbered advent calendar made from your own pictures: a stack of A4 sheets in, one homemade calendar out. More Christmas gifts from the same camera roll — a coloring book from family photos, an album PDF, a revived old print — are collected on the Christmas page. For the game the family plays once the calendar runs out, the memory game guide makes a deck of pairs from the same photos.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Every step — cropping, layout, the PDF itself — happens in your browser. No photo, no title, nothing you pick here is sent anywhere, and closing the tab erases it all. The images-to-PDF tool and the 2027 photo calendar work the same way, if you want more printables from the same photos.
Questions
How do I make an advent calendar with my own photos?
Add your photos above — up to 24, in the order you want the days numbered — pick a card style, and download the PDF. Print it at 100 percent, cut the cards out, and assemble: in the fold-door style the number flap folds down over each photo, in the peg style you hang number card and photo card pairs on a string. It is free, there is no account, and the PDF is built on your device.
How many photos do I need?
Twenty-four is the classic count, but fewer works: the calendar simply numbers itself from December 1 to your last photo. Six photos make a six-day calendar. There is also an optional 25th card that says Merry Christmas — it needs no photo, because it is the message card for Christmas morning.
What is the difference between fold-door and peg cards?
Fold-door cards are the classic advent calendar: each card has a number panel and a photo behind it, joined by a fold. You fold the number over the photo, fix it with a glue dot, and lift the flap on the day. Peg cards are for a string across the wall: every day gets a photo card and a separate small number card, hung as a pair with a clothes peg, number in front.
Do the cards print at true size?
Yes, when you print at 100 percent — not fit-to-page. Fold cards print four to a sheet (90 × 130 mm on A4, 85 × 124 mm on US Letter), photo cards 90 × 120 mm, and number cards 45 × 45 mm, twenty to a sheet. The cover sheet lists the assembly steps.
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. The layout and the PDF are computed entirely in your browser, and no request carries a photo. Closing the tab erases everything. That matters here: advent photos are family photos, often of children.
Can I write my own title on it?
Yes — the title field prints on the cover sheet, so the calendar can say whose it is: Emma's Advent Calendar, Oma's December, anything up to 40 characters.