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The Advent calendar

In December PiggyTask becomes a winter village: every door opened switches on a light in it. On top there is a Christmas market and four games — one to cheer for, one to bake in, one to decorate and a kart race.

The winter village

The Advent calendar in December is the winter village. At the top the village lies in the night, and every door opened switches on a light somewhere in it. Below you get to the calendar, four games, the cookie plate and the leaderboard.

On devices with 3D graphics the winter village is a 3D village square on two islands joined by a glowing wooden bridge: on the market square the calendar house, bakery, Christmas tree, tree vote, market and cookie plate; across the bridge in Elf lane the craft hut right at the bridgehead, plus the Secret Santa workshop, "Tasty Snow!" with its leaderboard, and the Christmas Cup. A path of lights leads from the market square to the bridge. Swipe sideways, tap the bridge or the path of lights, or tap the sign at the top edge to switch sides — the character then walks across the bridge. A red dot on the sign means something is waiting on the other side.

The doors

One door a day with a reward. Doors are scratched open ("wipe the snow away!"), which turns out to be the actual fun for younger kids. With several kids the turn rotates — "today it's Lisa's turn." Some doors hold a star coin (more on that at the Christmas market).

The finale is 25 December (24 December in the German version) and has a surprise of its own — we won't give it away here.

The Christmas market

New in 2026: a shop of its own that is only open during Advent — headwear, transformations, frames, titles, snacks and Christmas items for the inventory. You pay with magic coins (1 to 3 per item) — or with a star coin: one coin gets any item, whatever it costs.

Star coins exist only during Advent and only for the market: behind some doors, in the Christmas bakery, at the Christmas tree, for the first win in the Christmas Cup and for a few special moments — sixteen at most, deliberately fewer than the market has items. It is a selection, not a checklist. The market closes a week after New Year's Eve; unspent star coins expire with it.

Items for siblings

Six Christmas items don't just land on your own avatar but on a sibling's:

• the Christmas stocking — fill it with three little treats and hang it up for a sibling
• the snowball fight — a snowball splats into a corner of the avatar stage; whoever is hit wipes it off or throws it back once
• the freeze spell — the sibling's avatar is stuck in a block of ice. Five taps break it free; left alone, the ice thaws after two hours. Others can freeze each child at most once a day, freezing yourself works any time.
• the mistletoe — one child hangs it up and picks someone from the family. They answer with a hug, a high five or a nose boop, and the mistletoe blooms for both of them until midnight. Without an answer, it goes back into the backpack at midnight. Each child stands under at most one sprig a day. In the winter village the family counts its mistletoe moments; at ten, a mistletoe wreath appears.
• the Christmas cracker — arrives at the market only after Christmas, from 26 December, and stays until the market closes. One child holds it out to someone in the family, the other pulls the far end until it goes bang. Nobody loses: both get streamers and confetti on their stage (until midnight, with every character and every crew) and a little toy that stands next to the avatar and pet until the end of the next day — yo-yo, spinning top, jumping frog, party horn, bouncy ball or pinwheel; tap it to play, drag it to move it. Whoever happens to get the bigger half also gets the New Year treat. On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day the bang comes with fireworks, and one of the toys is a mini rocket. If the cracker isn't pulled by the end of the next day, it goes back into the backpack. Without a sibling, the lucky pig pulls the other end.
• the lucky pig — also from 26 December. One child gives it to someone in the family; it sits on their stage holding a four-leaf clover, and as soon as the new year arrives it throws clover and confetti once. The recipient doesn't have to do anything. It stays until the end of New Year's Day, and each child has at most one. Without a sibling, it's for yourself.

So that teasing never turns into piling on, each child has at most one prank at a time (mistletoe, stocking and cracker aren't pranks): while a curse, a snowball or the ice is active, no second one can land. None of them ever covers a task. Without a sibling in the family, you hit yourself (for the mistletoe and the cracker, the lucky pig steps in).

Wax pouring

From 26 December the market also has wax pouring for each child on their own: a spoon and a bowl appear on the stage, one tap tips the wax into the water, it sizzles, and a figure rises — pig, star, heart, clover, rocket, fish, bell or moon. It stands next to the avatar until midnight. Nothing is interpreted; the figure is just a picture.

"Tasty Snow!"

The main game: 60 seconds of catching snowflakes. Every flake counts one, golden flakes three, raindrops cost one. How many points it takes to win depends on what the round sends from the sky — more in a thick snowfall than on a calm night — and grows with the doors opened. Kids who join later don't have to play against the target of 20 December straight away.

Every day has its own weather that changes the round — sometimes more rain, sometimes more golden flakes, sometimes a crosswind. Before the snow starts, a start screen shows the rules as pictures — what to catch, what to avoid, and what today's weather changes: on a thaw day there are three drops instead of one, in a blizzard a flake drifts sideways. The picture stays until the kid taps "Let's go!" — only then do the clock and the flakes start. Before starting, the kid picks normal or hard. On top comes a bonus challenge — "don't catch a single raindrop", for example — that pays a magic coin once a day, however often the game is played. You cap how many coins a challenge can pay with "Max magic coins per door"; at 0 there are none.

The game has a family leaderboard with two lists, Today and All of Advent — reachable through the "Leaderboard" tile in the winter village. What counts is not the number of flakes but how good the round was: long streaks without raindrops, few drops and golden flakes, all relative to the kid's own target. "Hard" counts one and a half times, and only rounds that reached the target make the list. That gives the younger sibling a real chance too, and "Today" starts fresh every morning.

The Christmas Cup is on the leaderboard too — with times instead of points. Only comparable runs are compared: each track (day, mirror, night) and class has its own list, switched with two rows of buttons. What counts is the best time trial time; Grand Prix (items, rivals) and family race (cinnamon stars for overtaking) don't count. Here too there's "Today" and "All of Advent", and parents are included — with a crown in front of their name, but with a place and medal like everyone else.

The Christmas bakery

The second game is the counterweight: no points, no losing. The kid bakes a tray of three cookies — following the recipe of the day; eight recipes take turns, each with its own dough colour and cookie cutters. Baking takes five steps:

1. Stir — with a finger in circles until the dough is smooth.
2. Roll out — push the rolling pin over the dough until it becomes a sheet.
3. Cut out — pick a shape and tap the dough.
4. Bake — take the tray out in time. In the golden zone the cookies turn golden brown. Too early they are still too pale and go back into the oven; too late they turn too dark — and stay that way on the plate.
5. Decorate — icing, sprinkles, pearls, chocolate lentils, icing sugar and stencils; new things arrive in the decorating box as Advent goes on. Kids can stay here as long as they like.

Every step shows as a picture what to do instead of only writing it down: an arrow circles while stirring, a finger taps the dough when cutting out, and when baking it taps "Take out!" exactly when the pointer is in the golden zone. As soon as the kid starts, the finger disappears; whoever does nothing for a while gets shown again.

Every finished cookie goes onto the cookie plate (24 of them). When it is full, the kid picks which old cookies make room. A cookie can be given to a sibling — with the baker's name on it. A tray that was started stays put and can be finished later; a new one only comes the next day. Kids who keep coming back are rewarded along the way — what counts is baking days, days with at least one finished tray, not how much was baked in one day or how full the plate is right now. A bar under the plate shows how far it is to the next surprise. There is deliberately no leaderboard here.

Trim the Tree

The third game can't be lost either — and it leaves something that stays: a Christmas tree of their own. Every kid has one tree per Advent. On the first day it is picked and set up, in eight steps:

1. Pick — the tree lot has three trees: Nordmann fir, blue spruce and noble fir, sometimes slim, sometimes bushy. Which three changes from day to day.
2. Carry home — pull the tree home on the sled.
3. Set up — put the tree into the stand and tighten the screws with circling movements. The stand is green, red or cast iron.
4. Net off — cut the net open from top to bottom; the branches spring open.
5. Lights — swipe across each layer; dashed lines show where the lights will hang. Warm white or colourful, more colours later (see below).
6. Decorate — drag ornaments from the ornament box onto the tree, or tap them. They hang exactly where the kid lets go. Moving and taking them off works any time, and there is an undo button.
7. Topper — drag a star or another topper onto the top.
8. Lights on — the room goes dark, the kid plugs in the lights and the tree lights up layer by layer.

The ornament box grows with the calendar

On the first day the box holds baubles in eight colours, shiny or matte, plus a gold and a silver star and two tree skirts (red felt, plaid). Everything else arrives on certain doors — on the same day for every kid:

The box has compartments (baubles, stars, St. Nicholas, forest, bells and candles, garlands and snow, under the tree). Pieces that haven't arrived yet already lie faded in their compartment and say "from 11" — so kids know what to look forward to. Whatever arrived since the last visit is marked "New!". The colour of the lights and the topper can be swapped on the finished tree any time.

Garlands go onto one layer of the tree (the same one again takes it off), the spray can is swiped across the tree (back and forth makes the snow thicker, until the tree is nearly white), and presents go anywhere on the tree skirt — towards the back too, up to 16 of them. On the finished tree, tiles lead to ornaments, skirt and presents ("Under the tree"), lights and topper; below them you put it in the profile or take it out again. On the profile the tree always shines steadily, even when "Twinkle" is chosen. On the profile the presents only appear under the tree on Christmas Eve — the first time, it sparkles briefly.

Kids who have baked in the Christmas bakery find a "From the plate" compartment in the box: the cookies from their own plate, each on a red ribbon. Up to six hang on the tree. The tree holds a copy — if the cookie is given away later or makes room on the plate, it still stays on the tree.

The craft of the day

Every day a craft is waiting in the craft hut, the same one for every kid. The craft hut is a station of its own: a card of its own in the simple view, and on the 3D village square the wooden hut with the workbench at the front of Elf lane. Tapping it starts the craft of the day right away; once today's is done, the hut shows what's coming tomorrow ("Back tomorrow"). The Christmas tree itself is for decorating.

• Paint a bauble — pick a blank, paint it with your finger (rainbow and little-star brushes included), sprinkle glitter — as often as you like —, put a cap on.
• Make a straw star — lay straws on the lines (each lands on the line where it is dropped), tie them with a thread, trim the ends all the way round.
• Salt dough ornament — knead the dough, cut a shape, poke a hole, let it dry in the sun, paint it and add dots.
• Fold a paper star — pick two paper colours, fold three times from a corner to the middle, pull out eight points.
• Decorate a pine cone — take a cone from the basket, dip it in white, gold or silver (the deeper, the more paint), add glitter, tie on a ribbon.
• Write on a gingerbread heart — pick a heart, trace the edge with icing, write or draw something on it, thread a ribbon through the hole.

The six crafts take turns day by day.

A finished piece can be given to a sibling — right after crafting or later from the box (pick the piece in "Homemade", then "Give away"). It lands in the other kid's "Gifts" compartment, with the crafter's initial on it. Pieces already hanging on your own tree stay there: a one-of-a-kind piece never hangs on two trees.

Every piece is one of a kind that only this kid has. "Onto the tree!" hangs it right away; after that it lies in the "Homemade" compartment of the ornament box and can be moved like any other piece. If there is no tree yet, the piece waits in the box until there is. A craft that was started waits until it is finished — until tomorrow, too. Getting the tree doesn't use up the craft: on the first day kids can do both.

Kids who keep crafting get a few rewards along the way — sparingly, since the tree is its own reward. What counts are decorating days: days with a finished craft, the first one being the day the tree lights up for the first time. Several crafts on one day count as one.

How many days are left shows under every finished piece. With "Max magic coins per door" at 0, the coin is left out.

After that the tree stands and can be decorated any time — that never costs a try. With "Put the tree in my profile" it goes into the kid's profile, like the pumpkin at Halloween: free to move, bigger or smaller. It stays there until the end of the grace period in early January and is back next Advent. A tree that was started survives an app restart. There are deliberately no points and no leaderboard — only the family tree vote.

As in the bakery, a finger shows what to do in every step — dragging the tree into the stand, circling around the stand, swiping along the cutting line. The same goes for the crafts.

The tree vote

In the Christmas world, a button below the games (on the 3D village square: the little hut with three fir trees next to the Christmas tree) leads to the tree vote: all of the family's trees side by side. On the weekends of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Advent (Saturday and Sunday) the family votes for the most beautiful tree; the result shows on Monday. From the Monday after the 4th Advent to December 23 the final runs, and on Christmas Eve the most beautiful tree of the year is crowned.

• Every finished tree in the family is up for the vote — one per kid, no sign-up needed. Tap a tree to see it full screen; there you can swipe through all trees and vote right away.
• Every kid has one vote, and the parents share one too (with the PIN). Nobody votes for their own tree. Votes can be changed until the round ends.
• During the vote you only see who has voted already, no running scores.
• On a tie, everyone tied wins.
• The weekend winner wears a little crown in the profile until the next result. The crowned tree gets a golden star that stays until the end of Advent.

You can switch the tree vote off in the season settings under "Tree vote".

The Christmas Cup

The fourth game is a kart race around the winter village: across the market square, through gingerbread lane, over the frozen lake, down the fir forest run, through the elves' workshop, the candy cane chicane and back over the northern lights bridge to the finish. A race has three laps of a good minute each; it gets darker from lap to lap — afternoon, dusk, and night with northern lights in the final lap. Kids drive their animal with everything they're wearing; whoever has the sleigh or the gingerbread kart from the Advent shop drives the matching kart.

The kart accelerates on its own; kids steer with the swipe wheel (touch), the stick (controller) or the arrow keys. Drifting through a curve charges a boost — on a phone it's enough to turn the wheel far and hold it. Along the way there are presents with wintry items (cinnamon star boost, snow globe shield, ice puddle, snowball, snowy owl, shooting star …), cookies, shortcuts and a few obstacles such as sliding roof snow and the gift press. Before a shortcut, glowing arrows show the lane and a hint says when it's time to hop (or do a trick). Karts that touch nudge each other aside. Even the leader gets hit now and then: owls and shooting stars come with a warning — hop at the right moment to dodge, and after a hit you're safe for a while. Snowmen and Santa's parked sleigh stand on the track: the sleigh stops you, a snowman bursts and slows you down — steer around or jump over with a trick. There are no hearts: anyone who slides off the bridge is caught by a snowy owl.

Three ways to race:

• Grand Prix — against three animal rivals with all items.
• Family race (from St Nicholas' Day) — against up to three of the family's ghosts at once, i.e. the best runs of siblings and parents. Parents join as soon as they have their own profile in "Who's playing?"; ghosts are only visible within the family. To make it more than "chasing", there are two extras: section duels — at every split and at the finish the last section is scored against each ghost, and whoever was faster earns a crown (briefly shown as "👑 +2", with a crown counter at the top). So even a kid who is behind overall wins single duels. The pop-ups deliberately use no sentences — a picture and a number are enough. And cinnamon star for overtaking: overtaking a ghost gives a cinnamon star back (at most three, once per ghost per lap) — the leader gets nothing from it, whoever is catching up does. Ghosts also give a slipstream.
• Time trial — against four elf ghosts, with bronze, silver and gold. Every best time trial run is saved and races as a ghost in the family race from then on; it also counts for the leaderboard. Times from Grand Prix and family race aren't saved, because items and extra cinnamon stars make them faster.

Later in Advent a mirror track (from the 13th) and Christmas Eve night (on the 24th) are added; the faster reindeer class unlocks after the first win, and for everyone from the 20th. The cup needs 3D graphics — on devices without it the card stays locked. On the 3D village square it appears as a starting gate with a kart.

The Secret Santa workshop

In the workshop one child makes a present for someone else in the family. It costs nothing and, like the bakery and the tree, is part of the winter village — on the 3D village square it is the hut with the pile of presents in Elf lane.

• Once per Advent week every child can give a present: from December 1st to St. Nicholas Day, then Monday to Sunday, until December 27th.
• Four steps, as pictures: who it's for (siblings or parents), choose the paper, drag decorations onto the present, put two items from the elf's box inside — then "Give it!".
• The elf's box: soap bubbles, helium, confetti, trampoline, frost window, snowman, sled ride — plus one special item each week that you can't get anywhere else: the snow globe (a minute of snow on the dashboard, shaking whirls it up) or the music box (stands next to the avatar until midnight and plays "O Christmas Tree"). The box is free and takes nothing from your own backpack.
• Unwrapping: whoever got a present sees a hopping present on the dashboard and "For you!" with the giver's avatar in the workshop. Unwrapped presents go onto the shelf.
• Only child: the elf brings a present every week.

Tries per day

Every game has its own daily allowance: by default one round of "Tasty Snow!", one tray in the bakery, one craft in the craft hut and two races in the Christmas Cup (every race started counts) — not one or the other. Getting the tree and decorating never count; kids decorate the tree as often as they like. In the season settings under "Advent games: tries per day" you raise it for each game separately or switch the limit off. Profiles with "Unlimited play, no game credits" are not limited anyway. More tries don't mean more coins, by the way: the bonus challenge still pays once a day.

Achievements

Advent comes with three hidden achievements, each worth a star coin. Which ones is for the kids to find out.

The screensaver in December

All through December the screensaver dresses up for Christmas as well — if it runs on your wall tablet, look up now and then.

How to switch the Advent calendar on or off, adjust the rewards of individual days and who can join in is covered in Events and seasonal calendars.

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