It’s almost the last month of the year. Christmas is coming up and a good focus point for many of us. I think we all prefer to end 2020 on a positive note.
In one of my latest blog posts, I summed up 24 ideas for you to put into your own ‘advent’ calendar. Hence these are also the Tremento Tribe Calendar entries for this month.
You can use our Advent Calendar template to create your posts all the way up to Christmas. We added a few extra posts which you can use for New Year’s.
Your own Christmas deal(s)!
Essential for YOUR Christmas Advent Calendar: your Christmas deals. Share the special offer you’ve got. Promote the heck out of it. It’s fine: there’s plenty of commercial noise during December. However, to stand out of the crowd, I’d recommend being a little extra creative. This advent Calendar is a great way to do just that. You can promote your deals all throughout the calendar and at the bottom of pretty much every single post. A subtle line is often enough to stay top of mind.
- Happy Christmas quotes
Let’s start off your Christmas advent calendar with a positive, happy Christmas quote. You can find my favorite ones right here: https://nl.pinterest.com/trementomedia/christmas-quotes/
Found a good quote? Use our Advent Calendar Templates and drop your favourite quote in them. You can see a few of our examples down below.
- Christmas movie tips
Who doesn’t love a good Christmas movie?! We sure do! I went looking for a list of Christmas movie classics, so you can pick your favourite one and just drag and drop it into our Christmas templates (the Advent Calendar). Maybe your number 1 movie isn’t on the list though: feel free to throw in another movie.
A good tip? Go to giphy.com and see if there are any GIFs available from your favourite movie: https://giphy.com/search/christmas-movie
You can then save the GIF, upload it to canva and put it into the template, as we did in the examples down below.
Watch how you can save a GIF from Giphy right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMPYqE3JZ-w&ab_channel=AFanOfAction%E2%84%A2
- Christmas songs or playlist
It’s gonna be a lonely lonely Chrismassss, without you
Unfortunately, that’ll be the truth for many people this year. BUT, NO TIME TO SOB! Let’s brighten up the mood and plan those Zoom Christmas Meetings. What better way to lift up the vibe and bring in the cheer than with a good Christmas playlist?
Today, share a list of your favourite Christmas songs. Or pick one today and share another one next week, same time, same day of the week. You could easily turn this post idea into a recurring one.
In case you are looking for some Christmas music inspiration, I’d recommend checking out the many playlists on Spotify. Be careful reposting music though: your post may get taken offline when you do so due to copyright infringes. I recommend staying under 30 seconds, preferably 15, when you repost a song. This is often allowed. Or copy and paste something that’s already on YouTube (like, literally the same link instead of uploading the music yourself).
You can find a Spotify playlist full of musical examples right here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0QDF5YDFRl3lJESWhoQXH8
- Christmas GIFs (funny ones, brighten up the mood!)
I’ve already mentioned Giphy before, but I’m going to do so again today. With good reason though: GIFs are awesome. They are funny, relatable and there are SO many options. Oh, and: they are visual. Meaning they give you some slack, because you don’t have to go and snap a good picture or video yourself. You can just repurpose content made by someone else.
So today, find a Christmas GIF that truly brightens up the mood. Something that makes you laugh, and preferably Christmas related.
https://giphy.com/search/christmas-funny < for example!
Again, you can then save the GIF, upload it to canva and put it into the template. See the exxamples down below.
Watch how you can save a GIF from Giphy right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMPYqE3JZ-w&ab_channel=AFanOfAction%E2%84%A2
- Decoration tips
No better way to bring Christmas into the house – or your feed – than with some Christmas decoration! Bringing those decorations into your Instagram or Facebook feed is easy with our Christmas Advent Calendar. But… what about the decoration tips?
You can either come up with a creative DIY (corona-proof) tip yourself, or you can pick one from the lists below.
1 > https://www.oprahmag.com/life/g23939784/christmas-decorations-ideas/
2 > https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/craft-ideas/g2996/trash-to-treasure-christmas-crafts/
Pick on that best fits your place and brand!
Spark, Foster, Move? Yes:
Spark: Introduce your DIY idea
Foster: Explain the idea
Move: Challenge your followers
- Recipe tips (food and drinks!)
Christmas is all about family and… food! Hence this advent calendar entry. Share a typical Christmas recipe today, or something about your own Christmas deal/buffet/menu if you run a restaurant.
You could share photos, videos or recipes. Old pictures, new pictures, whatever you want!
I’ve attached a few Instagram posts for you as photo-inspiration:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6pmt2goUju/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6h0HO-IlGl/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6RGPbmJNC0/
In terms of recipes, well… you know where to go. Google is your friend. And your recipe books.
- Discount codes
Popular in December and on any advent calendar: the discount code. A good way to surprise and delight your followers. Give away special discounts on stays at your place or food/drink items.
Some ideas?
Coffee for €1, a free cookie with your hot chocolate or 10% off your booking.
You can do whatever you like!
Spark, Foster, Move: first name the discount, then explain the discount, then ask people to share the discount!
- A giveaway
The highlight of most advent calendars is… the giveaway. Of course.
An advent calendar isn’t complete without it. Even a DIY advent calendar at home has some small-gifts-for-yourself. And so should your online, digital advent calendar.
What you giveaway, is up to you. But with the crazy times we’re going through, we recommend a gift voucher.
We went ahead to create a gift voucher for you that matches the style of the advent calendar. You can add a value and name for your gift voucher yourself!
We recommend announcing the winner at the very end of the calendar, on the 24th.
- Shout-out
Share the merry, share the fame: give a shout-out to one of your followers or someone you admire on your social channels today.
Doing a shout-out is a great and simple way to benefit from influencer-marketing. Normally, it’s the influencer who will give YOU, as a business, a shout-out. But doing it the other way around may lead to empathy from someone you might want to work with in the future. Whether that’s an individual or maybe a small business that would make a good partner. Like a nearby restaurant, coffee place, BnB or hotel.
- Repost a follower
Christmas is all about sharing and creating moments TOGETHER. This year, the ‘together’ part will be a little… difficult. But hey, that’s where the world wide web comes into play.
Social Media is THE best place to create these moments globally, together. Or with your family who you won’t be able to visit this year. And no, I’m not necessarily talking about Facebook or Instagram. Facetime could also be ‘social media’.
But for today’s post, my suggestion is to repost a follower. Again, to ‘share moments together’. Take a look at previous reviews or tagged pictures, pick your favourite and download the photo. Put it into our advent calendar template and share away! 🙂
- Pictures from your area or food
Just because we’re doing the advent calendar this month doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be talking about your area or food again.
Option 1: head out and snap a pretty Christmas- or Winter themed photo from your area.
Option 2: make something Christmas related (gingerbread cookies, anyone?). Make your prettiest food picture to date: look on Pinterest for ‘christmas food’ and you’ll find plenty of photo inspiration.
- Behind-the-scenes
With only one more week until Christmas, now’s a good time to show the behind-the-scenes of your preparations. What are you doing for Christmas this year, and what does it take to prepare accordingly?
Take people behind the scenes and show them your/take them with you:
- DIY Christmas projects
- Christmas grocery shopping (online?)
- Christmas decoration-day
- kitchen preparations
- recipes you are considering
- and so on!
- Christmas gift tips
The majority of the people will have bought their big Christmas gifts by now (especially this year, with the corona virus going on). But… there’s always that last-minute-gift-shopping that needs to be done.
Today, give your followers some gift-tips. Don’t just give 1 though, try to give a few and put ‘gift card for our place’ in there. For example: tip a book, a gadget, an interior-related thing (plants, anyone?) and.. a gift card to your place! 😉
This way, you don’t have to be overly sales-y and you are serving all of your audience.
- Christmas to-do tips
There are plenty of things we can do with Christmas but this year does require us to be a bit more creative. Indoor do-tips are all the rage and as are things people can do in small groups (if not alone).
No big Christmas markets or theatre shows are likely to be organized, hence… the stay-safe-and-merry Christmas tips.
Here are some of the to-do tips you could give to your followers:
- Bake a big batch of Christmas cookies
- Organize a Christmas movie party with your friends and/or family via Zoom
- Write Christmas cards or letters. This year is definitely one to remember – and a year where that card or letter will be extra adored!
- Get puzzling!
- Or play some other board games.
- Organize a pub quiz via Zoom (or another platform) with your friends
- Send out random gifts to your friends
- Go for a nice, long walk outside
- Snap some corona proof family pictures
- Order food at [place]
- Read a Christmas book
- Whilst sipping hot chocolate or glühwein
- Or go all out and shake up a good Christmas Cocktail
Minimalized list:
- Bake cookies
- Christmas movie party (via Zoom)
- Write Christmas cards/letters
- Get puzzling
- Play board games
- Virtual pubquiz
- Random gifts
- Go for a walk
- Family picture
- Order food at [place]
- Read a book
- Sip on hot chocolate or glühwein
- Christmas Cocktails
- Christmas festivities tips (if there are actually still events happening nearby: tell people about them, be an advisor)
If there are any Christmas festivities planned in your town or area, then this post in the advent calendar is your chance to shine a light on them. Choose an event (or multiple) you love in particular and give them some well-deserved attention.
- Throwback to Christmas in your youth
Dive into your old photobooks and find some Christmassy photos from your youth. I promise your followers will love these. Try to keep this post in the advent calendar as personal as you can (whilst staying true to your brand’s voice).
Maybe add a fun anecdote, tell a story or throw in some good jokes. Try to recreate the atmosphere that people see in the photo through your texts. Use a few words that spark the magic.
Charmed, enchanted, magical, memorable, spectacular, mesmerizing, fairylike, dreamy, miraculous, captivating, stellar, bedazzled and splendid are all good words to use.
- Christmas story (share a complete short story)
Winner of all stories is forever going to be Disney (in my opinion). For Christmas this year, they created this awesome short story (which might just be the perfect one to repost to Facebook this year, during this advent calendar post):
Unfortuntely Instagram doesn’t let us share complete videos like that. You can solve this by putting the video into multiple posts though.
Here’s what I recommend:
- Go to https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+christmas+ad and find a video you love. Check the length of the video in advance.
- Then go to https://www.videovor.com/en/instant-downloader and download the video.
- If the video exceeds 60 seconds, then cut the video on your computer either with video software or https://online-video-cutter.com/. Make sure each clip is 60 seconds or less.
- Upload the clips to canva and throw them into one of the templates that has a big image frame (these can be found from 29 – 40 in the canva file)
- Download the right ‘pages’ as .mp4 files. Make sure to download them seperately, so 1 by 1 if you need to download multiple (if your initial video exceeded 60 seconds).
- Post it!
I’d recommend keeping it simple though and looking for a video <60 seconds. This way you can skip step 3 and simplify step 4 and 5.
- Christmas YouTube favourites
YouTube is literally packed with Christmas related videos. From people visiting Christmas markets, to Christmas pranks, Christmas unboxings and much more. Look up the category you love most, find a video that suits your brand and upload it to canva.
You could, for example, look up vloggers who visited your area or place during Christmas in recent years. Or find a movie fragment that fits your brand well.
- The prettiest Christmas photos from around the world
Christmas is a global event. This year even more, since we get to ‘celebrate Christmas virtually’ anyway.
Plenty of reason to show people what Christmas looks like worldwide AND in your place. So go ahead and find some celebrative holiday pics that you like at:
https://unsplash.com/s/photos/christmas-city
Or: from your own archives!
And then, let’s create a carousel, or GIF or video, or a collage.
- Your own wishlist
Although this advent calendar is all about ‘giving’ to your followers, there’s no harm in sharing a little personal wish, as well.
I do recommend keeping this non-materialistic. Share your wish for 2021, either for global society, your friends and family, your followers or.. YOU.
I, for example, wish to grow my business even further in 2021 and to go at least on 2 or 3 trips abroad. The last time I travelled was back in March, just before the pandemic truly hit us. And uuuugh, let me tell you, I can’t WAIT to corss the border again!
- Christmas poem
Who doesn’t like a good Christmas poem? Poems can be emotional, funny, short and sweet, long and though-provoking. They are so versatile: there’s literally a poem for everyone.
In today’s advent calendar post, I want to challenge you to share a short and sweet poem with everyone. 4 phrases would fit perfectly into any of the available advent calendar templates.
Check out these:
- https://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/funny-christmas-poems.html#short
- https://www.hallmark.com/christmas/christmas-cards/?prefn0=tone&prefv0=Thoughtful+%26+Nice&srule=featured-best-sellers
- Your own Christmas interior
If you are anything like me, then you love going for a walk during the Winter just to peek into people’s houses. The Netherlands happen to be the perfect country for this, with houses aligned right at the street and many households leaving their curtains open.
And let’s be honest: there are few things more magical than completely decorated living rooms. Christmas lights, tiny villages and dressed up fireplaces. I like all of it.
Here’s the thing though: your Christmas interior will be a hit in the virtual world. It’s a bit like window-peeking but without the chances of getting caught. You’re basically allowing people to take a look inside!
And yes: that’s a marvelous feeling for most of us.
So, make sure everything looks picture-perfect, and then snap that Christmas interior shot. We promise it’ll do well!
In terms of texts:
- Spark: “My favorite Christmas decoration is…”
- Foster: more about that ^
- Move: “Do you have any special decorative items at home?
- Christmas news
Share a letter from Santa to your followers today. Tell them the latest Christmas related news: the number of tables you managed to book this year, the number of people you are going to deliver food to, the number of rooms booked at your place, or whatever else.
Make it Christmas related and be positive. Don’t have any bookings or orders or reservations? Then turn to the global news and find some happy, Christmas related news! It could be as trivial as you’d like, or as serious as you want it to be, but I wouldn’t recommend sharing negative news right now.
You can talk about what locals did for an elderly home, or the beautiful show the kids performed at school, etc.
- Merry Christmas + Giveaway Winner
Meeeeeerrrrry Christmasssss!
Wish everyone a very happy, merry and fun Christmas this year. End your Advent Calendar with a merry Christmas wish for all your followers.
If you decided to host a giveaway, then you should also draw/choose the winner today. If possible, I’d recommend ‘going live’ on Instagram/Facebook to do this draw.
