If you’re looking for a fun, multi-purpose teaching tool that instantly brings Christmas spirit into your classroom, an interactive Advent calendar is one of the easiest and most versatile projects you can create.
Whether you want to use it for countdowns, vocabulary review, quizzes, trivia, warm-ups, or daily surprise activities, this Advent calendar becomes anything you need it to be. Your imagination is the only limit!
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through how I made my own interactive Advent calendar inspired by two things I absolutely love:
- Traditional European Advent calendars
- The iconic Liberty London Christmas Shop, which releases a beautiful Advent calendar every year
The final result is a cozy, atmospheric “Christmas department store” layout with 25 clickable windows — each leading to a different slide you can fill with any content you want.
If you just want the calendar you can download the customizable PowerPoint file.
But yes… it’s actually very easy to make!
Why a Department Store Background?
Many famous European department stores (like Liberty, Harrods, KaDeWe, Galeries Lafayette) create elaborate Advent window displays each Christmas.
So using a department-store-style building as the background makes the design instantly festive and helps you visually organize your clickable “windows.”
I designed mine with 25 windows, but you can absolutely make 12, 20, 30 — whatever fits your activity.
What You Need
- PowerPoint (desktop version recommended)
- Your chosen Christmas background (I used a cozy, illustrated department store)
- 25 slides with festive frames and backgrounds (included in the PPT template I made)
How It Works (The Zoom Trick)
The magic behind this whole project is PowerPoint’s Zoom > Slide Zoom function.
Here’s the simple breakdown:
1. Set Up Your Main Advent Calendar Slide
Create your first slide with the big festive background (the shop façade).
This will act as the “map” or “home base” for the whole calendar.
2. Add Your 25 Content Slides
I created 25 slides, each with:
- a matching Christmas background
- a golden frame for content
This keeps the entire presentation visually cohesive and very festive.
If you want more slides later, don’t worry — I included matching blank layouts you can reuse.
3. Use Slide Zoom to Auto-Generate Your 25 Window Links
Go to:
Insert → Zoom → Slide Zoom
Select all the 25 content slides.
PowerPoint will automatically place small versions of them onto the main slide.
It looks terrible at first — but that’s okay!
4. Replace Each Auto-Generated Thumbnail
Right-click each Zoom thumbnail → Change Image
You can choose:
- numbers (what I used)
- icons
- photos
- Christmas symbols
- anything!
Most teachers prefer numbers 1–25 because it feels like a real Advent calendar.
5. Resize and Position Your Windows
Arrange each number neatly into the building’s windows or doors.
This part is oddly satisfying!
6. Make Used Numbers Disappear (Optional)
In my version, each number fades out once it has been clicked, so you don’t repeat the same question or activity by accident.
If you don’t want this effect, simply remove the animation:
Animations → Remove
7. Add “Back to Calendar” Links
Each content slide links back to the main slide so your students never get lost.
This makes navigation smooth and intuitive.
How You Can Use the Advent Calendar
Teachers love this tool because it can adapt to literally any lesson:
- daily vocabulary review
- grammar practice
- “Question of the Day”
- storytelling prompts
- guessing games
- festive trivia
- phonics tasks
- reward choices
- class competitions
- warm-ups or cool-downs
You can add text, images, GIFs, tasks, multiple-choice questions — anything you want inside each slide.
Why Students Love It
The combination of:
✨ beautiful visuals
✨ mystery and surprise
✨ countdown excitement
✨ game-like navigation
…makes students instantly more engaged, whether they’re kids, teens, or adults.
It turns every lesson into a mini Christmas hunt.
Final Thoughts
This simple Zoom-based technique looks impressive but is actually incredibly easy to set up. Plus, it creates a magical atmosphere in your classroom throughout December.
Once you set up the structure once, you can reuse the same calendar year after year — just swap out the slide content!