Advent Calendars for iPad Merge Tech and Tradition for Christmastime
Advent calendars allow expectant children to countdown the days until Christmas. Although the advent calendar has evolved over the years, from humble handmade paper creations to complex reusable wooden drawers that house treats or toy-a-day offerings by LEGO or Playmobil, the advent (pardon the pun) of an iPad-specific advent calendar is still novel.
Just Kids Apps created an advent calendar for iPad that is available to download in the Appstore for $3.99. Advent Calendar 2011 has all of the traditional details that make an advent calendar appealing. There are windows to open numbered from December 1 – 24 and festive illustrations by Viviane Dommann. The developer also used the iPad’s capabilities to ensure this is one calendar that children will want to revisit year after year.
The windows are tied to the iPad’s internal date settings, so there’s no peeking! When it’s time to open the date, tap box with the number of the date. The screen pans in to the window, the frame dramatically fades, revealing the artwork for that given day.
There aren’t just pretty pictures behind each window, the calendar also includes classic Christmas short stories such as O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi” and Virginia O’Hanlon’s Letter to the Editor and its famous “Yes, Virginia” response, poems, craft ideas, little games, and recipes, all of which are sure the help ease littlest ones anticipation for Santa’s arrival. While these activities are helping children manage their excitement, they might also be building new traditions for families to enjoy for holidays to come.
For storybook enthusiasts, Just Kids Apps also created the Heidi Advent calendar version of their Heidi book apps, which includes the abridged version of their previously released three-part Heidi book app (PadGadget, 4 stars). The advent calendar app allows readers to access one chapter of the story behind each window.
Just Kids Apps has shown how advent calendars for iPad can take a literary bent, but considering the flexibility of the platform, the possibilities are wide open for developers to create nearly any kind of advent calendar imaginable. Sound, video, 3D images, or small gifts, such as download codes for songs, could easily be integrated. About the only thing an iPad advent calendar can’t hide behind its digital window is chocolate.