About Adventfold
A free planner for parents who want a December of small shared activities that fits the month they actually have: school runs, a week away, late evenings, a budget and children of different ages.
Why it exists
Printable activity cards are a lovely idea that meets a real calendar badly. A set of 24 cards does not know that the 9th is a late night, that the family drives to relatives on the 20th, or that one child is 2 and the other is 11. So the cards get filled in by hand, or a 90 minute bake lands on a school night and is quietly dropped. Adventfold starts from the calendar instead and fits the activities to it.
What it does
You give it the dates, the children's first names and ages, the kind of day each date is and a few choices: indoors or out, a budget, faith content and screen-free. It chooses one activity per day from 264 written for this site, by fixed rules that are set out in full on how the planner works. Short activities go on school days and busy evenings, longer ones on weekends and holidays, and travelling days get something that needs no supplies. Nothing repeats, baking and crafts never fall on 2 days in a row, and the last day is a together finale.
From one plan it makes dated cards with the children's names, a fridge calendar and a supplies list with the night-before jobs on their dates, as PDFs for A4 or US Letter, plus a calendar picture for sharing. Any day can be swapped, locked or rewritten, and a short code brings the same shuffle back.
What it is not
- Not a shop. No products are sold or recommended, and no activity needs a particular brand.
- Not an account. There is no sign up, and everything you type stays in your browser.
- Not a judge of your family. The ages, lengths and costs on each card are a guide; a grown-up decides.
- Not tied to one tradition. A plan can be fully Christian, Christmas without faith content, or winter only.
Who it is for
Families with 1 to 5 children from babies to 17, grandparents planning a visit, and anyone who runs a December countdown for a small group. Every page works on a phone, and the printouts are plain black and grey on white.
On a phone, and offline
On an iPhone or iPad, open this site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
It then opens like an app, and after one visit it works without a connection.
Contact
Questions, ideas for activities and reports of a plan that breaks one of the stated rules go to socialreminderinfo@gmail.com. Include the plan code from your calendar so the plan can be reproduced.
Adventfold is not affiliated with any toy company, retailer, church or calendar publisher.