Christmas at the History Museum – History Lover's Advent Calendar

A hand-illustrated advent calendar for history lovers: open 24 hidden doors in a festive museum and name the great moment of world history behind each one.

Product description

It's Christmas Eve at the history museum. The visitors have gone home, the T. rex is wearing a Santa hat, and Santa himself has picked up a magnifying glass to give one last guided tour.

Hidden among the picture frames, display cases, dome windows, wooden crates and exhibits are 24 little doors. Behind each one is a hand-painted picture riddle showing one great moment in human history, from cave painters by torchlight to the first footsteps on the moon. Your challenge this December: find today's door, study the picture and name the moment in history. (A tiny Santa is hiding in every scene, too.)

How it works

1. Find the door. The numbers hide on a Viking sail, a pyramid, a hot-air balloon, museum crates and gold frames. They're not in order, so the search is half the fun.
2. Open it. A tiny hand-painted scene is waiting inside, like a Viking longship reaching a new coast, a quill signing a famous document or a fragile biplane lifting off the sand.
3. Guess the moment. What is happening, where, and roughly when? Talk it over at the breakfast table.
4. Check your answers on Christmas Eve. All 24 moments are sealed in an illustrated envelope, with the people, place and year for each one.

Why history lovers love it

• 24 milestones of humanity, one for every day of Advent: from the pyramids, the first Olympic Games and the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence, the Wright brothers and Apollo 11.
• A journey through time: the answers run in order, from 17,000 BC to 1989, so by Christmas Eve you've walked through the whole museum.
• A puzzle, not just a countdown: a small history quiz each morning that starts real conversations between kids, parents and grandparents.
• Hand-illustrated artwork: a cosy ink-and-watercolour museum hall full of details, including a dinosaur in a Santa hat, a knight holding a candy cane, a Liberty Bell, a Viking ship, elves dusting the exhibits and a cat asleep on a crate.
• Quietly educational: a lovely way to bring social studies and world history to life for kids.
• Screen-free and sugar-free: a calm daily ritual that lasts longer than a chocolate.

Perfect for

History buffs, history and social studies teachers, homeschool families, museum lovers, curious kids, grandparents who love a good story, and anyone who can't walk past a historical marker without stopping to read it.

What's included

• 1 illustrated advent calendar, A4 landscape (21 × 29.7 cm / 8.3 × 11.7 in), with 24 perforated doors
• 1 illustrated answer sheet listing all 24 moments, with the people, place and year for each
• 1 illustrated "The Answers" envelope to keep the solutions secret until Christmas Eve

Good to know

• The calendar contains no chocolate or treats. The surprise behind each door is a picture to guess.
• Answers are in English and cover world history, with several American milestones.
• Recommended for ages 7 and up (younger children love it with a grown-up as their museum guide).