How Many Days Until Christmas? Free Christmas Countdown

To see how many days until Christmas, open the free countdown timer, choose Countdown to a date, and pick 25 December at 00:00. It shows the days, hours, minutes and seconds left, updating every second, and gives you a link you can send to family so they see the same countdown. Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday; from 1 December there are 24 days to go.

The number changes every day, so the countdown page is the reliable answer. This post covers how to set one up, a few quick reference numbers, and ways to use the countdown at home, at school and at work.

Set up your Christmas countdown

1. Open the free countdown timer and choose Countdown to a date.
2. In Count down to, pick 25 December 2026 and set the time to 00:00 (midnight at the start of Christmas Day).
3. Type a name in Name (optional), such as "Christmas 2026" or "Grandma arrives".
4. Read the Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds boxes. The full date is written underneath, with "in your time zone".
5. Press Copy link to this countdown to share it.

The link holds only the date, time and name you chose. When someone opens it, the countdown runs on their device to midnight in their own time zone, which is what you want for a family spread across countries: everyone counts down to their own Christmas morning.

If your family celebrates on Christmas Eve, set 24 December and an evening time, like 19:00, instead. When the countdown reaches zero, it says It's time!

Quick reference: days to Christmas 2026

Counting from the start of each date to Christmas Day, not counting Christmas itself:

From	Days until 25 December 2026
1 November 2026	54 days (7 weeks and 5 days)
29 November 2026 (first Sunday of Advent)	26 days
1 December 2026	24 days
18 December 2026	7 days
24 December 2026	1 day

For any other start date, the free date calculator gives the exact count, plus the number of weeks and weekdays, which is useful if you're counting working days before the office closes. The guide on calculating days between two dates explains when to tick Include the end date.

Advent, briefly

Advent traditionally begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. In 2026 that's Sunday 29 November. Most Advent calendars, though, simply run from 1 to 24 December: 24 doors, one a day, with Christmas the day after the last one.

That gives you two natural countdowns:

• A daily calendar from 1 December, with one small thing each day.
• A weekly rhythm from Advent Sunday, with something special on each of the four Sundays (29 November, and 6, 13 and 20 December in 2026).

Advent ideas that pair with a countdown

A countdown page on a shared screen is a good anchor for a 24-day calendar. A few ideas that don't need a shop-bought calendar:

• Activity calendar. Write 24 small activities on slips: bake biscuits, watch a Christmas film, make a card for a neighbour, go and see the lights. Draw one each morning.
• Giving calendar. Put one item a day into a box for a food bank or a charity collection, and drop it off before Christmas.
• Story calendar. Read one chapter or one short story each evening.
• Kindness calendar. One small act of kindness per day, ticked off on the fridge.
• Photo calendar. One photo a day of something festive, then turn them into a collage on Christmas Eve with the free collage maker.

To pick the day's activity at random, put your list into the free wheel spinner and tick the option to remove the winner after each spin, so each idea comes up once.

Countdowns for school and work

• Classroom countdown to the holidays. Set the countdown to the last day of term at home time and leave it on the board. See classroom timer ideas for more.
• Office party. Share a countdown link to the party date in the team chat.
• Secret Santa. Draw names fairly, with nobody picking themselves, using the free random name picker; the Secret Santa draw guide explains the steps. Then share a countdown to the gift exchange.
• Shop and parcel deadlines. Retailers and postal services publish their own last dates for delivery before Christmas, and they change every year. Check them, then set a countdown to your last order date so it doesn't sneak up on you.

Christmas around the world

Most countries celebrate on 25 December, with Christmas Eve on the 24th the main event in many families. Several Orthodox churches that follow the Julian calendar celebrate Christmas on 7 January. If that's your Christmas, set the countdown to 7 January instead; the page works for any date.

And once Christmas is done, the next countdown is a week later: see counting down to New Year, including which countries see midnight first.

Next year

Christmas 2027 falls on a Saturday. Any time after this Christmas, you can set the countdown to 25 December 2027 and share it again; the link keeps working because it only contains the date and name.

Start the countdown

Open the free countdown timer, choose Countdown to a date, pick 25 December, and share the link with everyone who's as excited as you are.