Days to Christmas: Countdown

Shake your phone and the snow swirls: the countdown now lives in a glass snow globe, with an elf who waves, Christmas hits from Apple Music, and a free sensory Advent.

Days to Christmas is the cozy, calm way to count the sleeps, and to make every day of December a little sensory adventure.

A SNOW GLOBE YOU CAN SHAKE The countdown lives inside a glass snow globe with a real village in it. Shake your phone and the snow swirls, drag to spin the scene, tap to nudge the flakes, turn the phone over and watch them fall the other way. Hold the glass for the full-screen globe, and keep an eye on the cabin: an elf comes out to wave. A Snow Globe widget puts the number in the glass on your Home Screen, and the Mac gets the same globe with a Shake button.

SENSORY ADVENT CALENDAR: FREE Behind each of the 24 doors is a simple activity for one of the senses: crunch fake snow, jingle bells, smell a clove orange, taste a candy cane, blow bubbles by the tree lights. Made with autistic and sensory-seeking children in mind, but every family loves them. Nothing to buy: every door is free, and a gentle daily reminder tells you when tonight's door is ready.

SANTA TRACKER & LETTERS TO SANTA See where Santa is on Christmas Eve and, before that, how far the North Pole is from your country and what time he'll reach you (around 10 p.m., so be asleep). The workshop sends a daily report as the sleeps run down, you can replay the whole flight around the world, and children can write a letter to Santa by speaking or typing it. A few hours later, Santa writes back by hand, and the app can read his letter aloud.

SANTA'S GLOBE, IN YOUR ROOM Put the world on your table and watch the sleigh fly the route, stop by stop, in augmented reality on iPhone and iPad, or as a globe you can spin with your hands on Apple Vision Pro.

SELFIE WITH SANTA Pop a Santa hat, beard, glasses or reindeer antlers on everyone in the picture, stand Santa beside you, and share the photo. Faces are found on your device, and nothing is uploaded: the picture only exists if you save or share it.

CHRISTMAS HITS FROM APPLE MUSIC Twenty-four Christmas hits, from Mariah and Wham! to Slade and Bublé, playing the moment the app opens. With an Apple Music subscription they play in full, even when the phone is locked; without one you hear 30-second previews. Reorder the list, add any song from Apple Music, and share it as a link. Friends with the app get it as a list of its own, and their own list is never changed.

THE COUNTDOWN, EVERYWHERE • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets that update at midnight • A Live Activity in the Dynamic Island on Christmas Eve • Apple Watch, Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro • Count in sleeps, days, hours, minutes, or heartbeats • Six scenes as a snow globe, painted or photographic: Classic, Midnight, Frost, Forest, Gingerbread and High Contrast, or a photo of your own tree behind the countdown (Premium) • Share a picture of the countdown with friends

ACCESSIBLE BY DESIGN • Full VoiceOver support and a spoken countdown • Calm mode turns off snow, sparkle, parallax and haptics • Follows Reduce Motion and Dynamic Type • High Contrast theme, free for everyone

GIFT LIST Keep a simple list of who you're buying for and tick things off as you go. Each Advent door suggests a matching sensory gift you can find on Amazon.

PREMIUM The countdown and every Advent door are free, forever. Premium adds the pretty: all six scenes, painted or photographic, your own photo behind the countdown, extra snow and sparkle in the app and widgets, and unlimited people on the gift list. Choose Lifetime (pay once, every Christmas, on every device signed in to your Apple ID) or This Christmas Only (a season pass that runs until 1 January). No auto-renewing subscriptions.

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Privacy: no accounts and no tracking. Your gift list stays on your device.