Christmas Advent Calendar Coloring Page: Free PDF Sheet

Advent Calendars and Fun Countdown Facts

Chalk Marks Before Paper Doors

Long before any printed calendar existed, German Protestant families in the 1800s counted down to Christmas by drawing a simple chalk line on a door or wall for each passing day in December. Some households lit a small candle instead, one more each night, letting a growing row of flames mark how close the holiday had come. The word "advent" comes from a Latin term meaning "arrival," describing the entire waiting period before Christmas Day.

Other early versions used a straw stalk pulled from a bundle every morning, or a picture torn from a strip and pinned to the wall. None of these methods involved doors at all. The now-familiar idea of hiding a small picture or treat behind a flap came later, once printers realized a paper calendar could hold a daily surprise instead of just a mark.

Gerhard Lang and the First Printed Doors

Credit for the first commercially printed advent calendar usually goes to Gerhard Lang, a German printer whose mother had made him a homemade version as a child using small cookies pinned to cardboard, one for each day of December. Around 1908, Lang adapted that childhood memory into a printed calendar with tiny colored pictures hidden behind numbered flaps, and the format spread across German-speaking Europe within a few decades.

Production stopped almost entirely during the paper shortages of the Second World War, then picked back up quickly once the war ended, with West German printers exporting advent calendars to the rest of the world through the 1950s and helping the tradition catch on internationally.

Why Twenty-Four Doors, Not More or Fewer

A standard advent calendar always covers December 1 through December 24, giving exactly twenty-four numbered windows, one for each day leading up to Christmas Eve itself. That fixed count is why a grid design, like the five columns of small square doors shown in this house-shaped calendar, works so cleanly: the doors can be arranged in even rows without leftover gaps or awkward half-rows.

Some church versions actually stretch across the full liturgical season of Advent, which can run longer or shorter depending on the year since it always starts on a Sunday, but the twenty-four-day countdown became the standard for the store-bought and homemade calendars most families know today.

From Hidden Pictures to Chocolate Squares

Chocolate-filled advent calendars didn't appear until the 1950s, when a German company began sealing a small piece of chocolate behind each door instead of just a printed picture. The idea spread quickly once families realized a daily treat kept kids even more excited to open the next window, and it remains the most common style sold in stores today, alongside toy-filled and picture-only versions.

The open doors near the bottom of this calendar, revealing an ornament, a candy cane, and a star, echo that same reveal-a-treat tradition, showing what a child might find tucked behind each flap on the countdown to December 25.

The Chalet Shape and Its Holly Sprig

Shaping a calendar like a small house with a peaked roofline, as seen here, borrows directly from the outline of an Alpine chalet, a design choice that dates back to some of Gerhard Lang's earliest printed versions. That peaked roof leaves a natural spot near the top for a sprig of holly or a small chimney, decorative touches that reinforce the cozy, wintry feel without crowding the grid of doors below.