Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar

This calendar has been a favorite part of Advent for me for several years in a row. It’s normally immersive and enchanting, but I feel sort of bad for anyone for whom 2025 is their first experience of the calendar because it’s not up to the quality of previous years. I really enjoyed past calendars that were based in a specific part of the world like Paris, and I hope future calendars will bring back the place theme. I love getting to know some other part of the world through the calendar and was hoping for another city or country this year. Also, I know this totally was not the intention with the Christmas village theme, but it’s actually kind of distressing watching the wildlife disappear over the course of the month as the village takes over! Today the lovely ducks disappeared… The daily elves are actually kind of irritating and repetitive, with few places to hide. The zoom function only works on some parts of the scene — can’t zoom in on the bakery or the nativity scene, for example. I get tired of accidentally changing the decor in the cottage every time I click on something. Please bring back the artistry, wit, and human touches of previous years.

It’s beautiful. The music is perfect (although, sorry, the Scandinavian song sounds more like a dirge). I’m so happy you brought back the ugly sweater activity! And the wreath and flower arranging. It’s terrific. Still, I miss having the activities show up as toys or games in the home base. It was a really nice touch in prior calendars. And I do miss the place-centered calendars. It was so fun to learn about other Christmas traditions and other areas. The sketchbooks also were great fun and I miss them. Have you thought of recreating your older calendars in this new app technology? Your seaside calendar was and probably always will be my favorite and I visited it for years until the link stopped working. Without it, I don’t know that I’d have ever discovered the Newlin School (the Abbey Slip is one of my favorite paintings of all time and the Rain it Raineth every day was marvelous) or learned so much about Archangelo Corelli. You all do a wonderful job making a bit of magic with these charming calendars and I’m grateful.

These calendars are such a joy each year. I believe 2025 is about my 10th year purchasing them. 2025 is one of my favorites as you don’t see the buildings all at once but have a surprise addition each day. I have my own Department 56 village collection so this is very much the same plus games! I liked the new trivia game & I learned a few things too. I enjoy decorating my game room too. So fun! Can’t wait for days ahead. Thanks again for another wonderful year.