It’s December 1st and you know what that means. Today marks the first day of Advent calendars!
For the past five years, I’ve published a roundup of Advent calendars for web designers, developers, programmers, content strategists, user experience professionals, digital marketers, any person who works on and creates content for the web.
I’ve done my research in the past few weeks to uncover what I think are some fun and interesting Advent calendars for web professionals.
You’ll find some of my long-time favorites in the list: 24 ways, Performance Calendar, SysAdvent, UXMas, and several new ones.
Can’t wait to open the doors for the daily tip, sketch, video, and other helpful advice about working on the web.
Sadly, some calendars from last year’s roundup have retired.
Take a look at this year’s roundup of calendars and let me know what your favorite is.
1. 24 ways
One of the first web design and development Advent calendars, the 24 ways calendar is back for the thirteenth year, with articles dedicated to daily web design and development articles for you.
2. It’s a Shape Christmas
Started in 2011, the It’s a Shape Christmas is a collaboration project from Shape that connects illustrations from students, graduates, and industry professionals.
This year’s calendar from Shape focuses on building the brand and promoting illustrators’ work.
3. UXMas Advent Calendar
A user experience digital advent calendar, the UXMas Advent Calendar offers a treat from some of the world’s leading UX specialists.
The first day kicks off with a heartwarming story by Paul Boag, from Boagworld.
4. Copywriting Pro Advent Calendar
Learn how to write like a true copywriting pro with daily advice from the Copywriter Pro Advent Calendar.
Every day you’ll get a mini-copywriting tip when you subscribe to their mailing list.
5. Content Strategy Advent Calendar
As they did last year, Gather Content has curated a video-based Content Strategy Calendar, with transcripts.
Each day a content strategy expert will discuss hot content topics, share tips, and discuss their plans for 2017.
6. 24 Accessibility
New this year is my friend Dennis Deacon’s advent calendar, 24 Accessibility. Dennis has curated a series of digital accessibility articles written by knowledge experts from around the world.
I was glad to recommend three colleagues for his calendar, can’t wait to read their articles!
7. Sys Advent Calendar
One of the oldest technology-focused Advent calendars, the Sys Advent Calendar highlights technology articles dealing with systems administration, engineering, devops, home automation, and management.
8. Perl Advent Calendar
One of the oldest Advent calendars, the Perl Advent Calendar presents 24 merry days of Perl.
9. Perl 6 Advent Calendar
Learn something cool about Perl 6 every day in the Perl 6 Advent Calendar.
10. 24 Days in December
While 24 Days in December is focused on the PHP programming language, the articles are written for anyone working in the web community.
For example, the first article in the 2017 Advent calendar discusses how to go beyond your full-time job to meet, contribute, and get to know people in your community, no matter whether you’re a developer, designer, programmer, user experience professional, or other knowledge worker.
11. Advent of Code
You’ll enjoy small programming puzzles in this year’s Advent of Code calendar. The puzzles are self-contained and each puzzle calls upon different skills.
Eric Wastl is the creator, who also is created Vanilla JS and PHP Sadness. I like that Wastl offers puzzles for both beginner and expert.
12. Christmas Experiments
One day, one artist, one experiment is how David Ranai describes his Christmas Experiments Advent calendar.
Since 2012, the calendar has been highlighting top web creatives and newcomers, …made by the community and given to the community.
13. AWS Advent
The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Advent calendar focuses on the Amazon Web Services platform, publishing articles about security, architecture, and design for the beginner to expert user.
Their advent calendar starts December 25, so I don’t have a direct link.
Here’s their AWS Advent announcement post, which will hopefully be updated with the link on December 25. You can also follow AWS Advent on Twitter.
14. Lean UXmas
Top agile and lean user experience articles are delivered daily in the Lean UXmas calendar.
You’ll find the most popular Agile & Lean UX News mailing list articles in the calendar, curated by Kathryn Leach and Adrian Howard from QuietStars.
15. Performance Calendar
Performance Calendar has been around since 2009, but I removed it from this post earlier in the week when I couldn’t find any reference for 2017.
Turns out, they’re still looking for performance articles for their 2017 calendar!
Can you help? Have something interesting to share about web performance? Submit your article.
16. Happy Gridvent
Another new calendar this year, Happy Gridvent, is from Jon Hickman, who plans to share a CSS grid related treat every day during Advent.
17. Merry CSSmas
Tommy Hodgins has put together a fun Advent calendar, a tweet-a-day calendar all about CSS.
Follow him on Twitter at @merryCSSmas to get your daily CSS treat.
18. Daily Chart Advent Calendar
While it’s not related to web design and development, I included The Economist Daily Chart Advent calendar because I’m interested in how data is represented in charts, maps, and visualizations.
Their Advent calendar highlights the 24 most popular maps, charts, visualizations, and interactive features in 2017.
19. Digital Downloads Advent Calendar – 2017
Georgina Thorne is giving you the gift of marketing in her Digital Downloads Advent Calendar, where you’ll find a new download every day.
Day one is a marketing content planner, of course! Note: you’ll need to provide your email address to download the content.
20. WordPress Advent Calendar 2017
Nice! It’s been a couple years since I’ve found a WordPress Advent calendar. I was happy to discover WordPress Advent Calendar 2017 by Inpsyde earlier today.
Each day you’ll find a mix of WordPress info, including tutorials, plugins, vouchers, and tips as well as how works at their agency.
Have you found any other web-related Advent calendars? Share them in the comments!
Hi Deborah, great post. Definitely something for everyone. I’ve bookmarked a few to visit each advent day.
Hi Eloise,
Glad you found the calendars useful. Lots of great info today to kick off the month!
Hello,
Great collection! There is also http://redonion.se/calendar/ with various useful web design, UX, UI and web developer info nuggets each day!
Best,
Frida
Hi Frida,
Thanks for sharing another great Advent calendar. I like how Red Onion gave the basics for Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for Day 9, shared concerns about AMP, encouraged readers to decide for themselves by providing a list of helpful resources. Well done!