24 nights for two, December 1 to 24
December 1
Door 1 opens in
A date on your calendar
Your phone will remind you on December 1. No account, no email.
Advent for Two, the Lovely Couple Advent calendar, opens one door a day from December 1 to 24. Behind each door is a moment to share that same evening: a question to debate, a little ritual, a gentle challenge or a memory to keep. Nothing to prepare.
For December, would you rather…
Tap your answer. Then grab your scissors: the step-by-step plan is right below. Then it’s a date on December 1: add it to your calendar.
One evening to make it, twenty-four to open it. Five steps, and your partner won’t suspect a thing.
Three bases that fit on a wall, a shelf or a door.
For the garland, check things off as you go.
Our 24 printable tags, in the colors of the chalet: a hole for the string, a number on a gold star.
Print the tagsOne idea per day: the longer ones on weekends, the best one on the 24th.
A packet of homemade hot chocolate mix, and a promise to drink it together tonight.
An empty box to fill until the 24th: ticket stubs, photos, little notes.
A paper star to hang up together, with a note written on the back.
A map for a walk to see the Christmas lights, with the time to meet.
A phone-free dinner: both phones go in a box until dessert.
A coupon to sleep in, breakfast in bed included.
Three little rolled-up notes, each with a reason I love you.
A coupon for one less chore: dishes, groceries or laundry, your pick.
A pine-scented candle for the first rainy night.
Your partner’s favorite childhood dessert, to bake together this weekend.
A night at the ice rink, or sliding in your socks across the kitchen floor if it’s too far.
A map of your first trip together, with an X where you were.
A riddle that leads to a little gift hidden somewhere at home.
A jar of ten questions to draw from over dinner.
A winter picnic on the living room rug, candles lit.
A coupon for a game night, with a dare for whoever loses.
Cookies to decorate together, icing and sprinkles included.
Breakfast from your first morning together, made exactly the same way.
Two pairs of matching Christmas socks, to wear that very night.
Two tickets to a December show, tucked inside.
A postcard sent by mail, just for the joy of receiving it.
A Christmas movie from your childhood that your partner has never seen, to watch under a blanket.
The best photo of your year, printed and framed.
For the 24th, a weekend away booked for January, when winter drags on.
On the night of November 30, while your partner is asleep. On the morning of the 1st, the surprise is already waiting.
Four statements to try on your friends over dessert. True, or false?
In the Middle Ages, people already counted down Advent with chocolates.
It’s false
Before chocolate, Advent meant fasting: in the 5th century, the bishop of Tours set a fast before Christmas, starting on November 11, St. Martin’s Day.
The very first Advent wreath had one candle for each day.
It’s true
In 1839, in Hamburg, the theologian Johann Hinrich Wichern set up the very first wreath: one candle for every day until December 24, to delight the many children of the Rauhes Haus. The four candles came later.
The first calendars with little doors started on December 1.
It’s false
One of the very first, designed in 1920, started on St. Nicholas Day: eighteen windows, then a big door for Christmas. The museum’s copy still bears, in pencil, the name of the little boy who got it in 1928: Jochen.
In Germany, a whole town hall turns into an Advent calendar.
It’s true
In Gengenbach, in the Black Forest, its 24 windows light up one by one, every evening at 6 pm, as they have for more than twenty years. Works by Chagall and Warhol have adorned them. A trip for two, maybe?
Because it brings something new into your life together, one evening after another. In a study published in 2000, a team of psychologists at Stony Brook University, in New York State, gave couples seven minutes of either a new and exciting activity or a mundane task. After the new activity, couples rated their relationship as better than before, more so than after the mundane task.
An Advent calendar gives you twenty-four new moments in a row, at the busiest time of the year. And it doesn’t have to take all evening: in the study, the activity lasted only seven minutes.
On December 1, and it ends on the 24th: twenty-four doors in all. The season of Advent itself starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, between November 27 and December 3. On Advent for Two, the Lovely Couple calendar, each door opens at midnight Paris time, which is 11 pm the evening before in London and 6 pm in New York.
Moments rather than things: a love note, a treat, a date, a little challenge, a memory or a coupon to redeem. Save the real gift for the last door.
Twenty-four numbered envelopes, paper bags or little boxes are all you need, with one idea in each. Save the ideas that take time for weekends, and the best one for the 24th.
Focus on time together: most of our 24 ideas cost next to nothing, like a note, a recipe or a coupon. For whole evenings, dip into our romantic date night ideas at home.
Yes. For a homemade calendar, start with that day’s door and catch up on the ones you missed over the weekend, or make a shorter one that still ends on the 24th. On Advent for Two, that night’s door is waiting for you, whatever day you arrive.
The moment you’ve both been waiting for: a night out booked ahead, a letter, a weekend away for two. On Advent for Two, door 24 has a surprise in store.
