Photo advent calendars: how to make one from your own pictures

Most advent calendars hold chocolate, and it’s gone by breakfast. A photo advent calendar holds something that lasts: one picture each morning, from this year or years gone by, to look at before the day starts. You don’t need a specialist product to make one. A box of prints and a way to number them will do.

What is a photo advent calendar?

It’s an advent calendar where each day’s surprise is a photograph, not chocolate or a small gift. The format is up to you. Prints can be drawn one at a time from a box, pegged along a string, or slipped into numbered envelopes hung on a wall or tucked into a stocking.

The simplest version uses Retro Prints with Box. These near-square, instant-camera-style prints come on thick paper in a magnetic-closure presentation box that holds up to 34. The box is the calendar. Stack the prints with day one on top, and the recipient takes one each morning.

For a more hands-on version, order Regular Prints and put each one in a numbered envelope. That takes more work, but each day stays hidden until it’s opened, the way a proper advent door does.

How many photos do you need?

Twenty-four covers 1 to 24 December. Add a 25th if you want one for Christmas morning, and that’s the obvious place for your strongest photo.

The two products differ slightly. Retro Prints with Box hold 20 to 34, so 24 or 25 fits easily. Regular Prints have a minimum order of 30, which leaves five or six over. Don’t treat them as waste. Use the spares as a gift tag, a replacement if an envelope tears, or extra days if someone starts counting down in late November.

If you’re making calendars for more than one person, each needs its own set. That means 24 prints per calendar.

How do you choose 24 photos that tell a story?

Twenty-four random photos make a nice box of prints. Twenty-four photos in a deliberate order make an advent calendar. Decide the sequence first.

The easiest structure is chronological: January’s photos on 1 December through to this month’s on the 24th. Or build towards a moment, saving the best photo, the biggest news or the funniest picture for the last few days. A third goes further back, from the oldest photos you have of someone to the newest.

Within that structure, mix things up. Put a group shot after a close-up and a quiet moment after a busy one, so no two days feel the same. Close-ups and simple scenes print best small, especially on Retro Prints, where a wide landscape loses its fine detail. Choose sharp photos over blurry ones, even when the blurry one is the better memory.

If a photo needs explaining, add a caption when you design the prints, or write on the border once they arrive. A date or place name is enough; save the longer story for when you’re together.

Ideas for partners, children, grandparents and friends

• For a partner, go through the relationship from your first photo together to now, or follow the past year. Use the 24th for something you’re looking forward to: a trip you’ve booked, or a photo of the place you’re going.

• For children, make it a countdown they can follow. Use one photo of them from each month, or a mix of family days out and pets, with grandparents and cousins on the days they visit. Small prints are easy to hold and they’ll want to keep each one, so give them a peg line or pinboard.

• For grandparents, this is where a photo advent calendar works best. One new photo of the grandchildren every morning is something to look forward to and a reason to ring. It also gets the year’s photos off your phone and onto their mantelpiece. Number the prints clearly, write names on the border if there are many grandchildren, and post it in the last week of November.

• For a friend, use photos from trips, nights out and anything you’d both still laugh at. Twenty-four days of inside jokes is a better present than most things money buys.

Ready-made vs DIY: which is better?

You can buy ready-made photo advent calendars: a printed card front with 24 doors and a chocolate behind each one, with your photo across the whole front or in each window. They look like a classic advent calendar, and the chocolate makes them popular with children. Once December is over, though, the calendar goes in the recycling, photos and all.

A DIY calendar takes a bit more effort. You choose and order 24 photos, number them, and maybe fill envelopes. In return, you keep everything. After Christmas, the prints go into an album, onto the fridge or back in their box, and nobody throws away a box of their own photos.

For a child mostly in it for the chocolate, a ready-made one will probably go down better. If it’s for a partner, a parent or grandparents, the prints are the gift.

When should you order for December delivery?

An advent calendar has a harder deadline than a Christmas present: it has to arrive before 1 December, not 25 December. Every Popsa order is printed to order, which takes three to four working days before posting. The last safe order date is earlier than most people expect. It’s earlier still for delivery outside the UK, and in the US Thanksgiving costs a delivery day.

Order by these dates with standard delivery for your prints to arrive by Monday 30 November 2026:

These are the latest dates, not the recommended ones. Order a few days earlier to leave time to number the prints or fill the envelopes. In the UK, Express delivery moves the last order date to Thursday 19 November. What matters is where the calendar is being delivered, not where you’re ordering from. If you’re sending one from the UK to grandparents in France, use the France date. Check the app’s estimated delivery date at checkout before you pay.