American Greetings may well be gearing up to disrupt the advent calendar market by partnering with Peanuts Worldwide on its first-ever licensed digital version of this popular holiday product.  

In North America, premium kids advent calendars featuring things like mini-toys, books and simple LEGO builds can run as much as US$50. But AG’s digital Peanuts calendar is aggressively priced at US$10 in order to be accessible to the widest possible audience. And while many physical goods are facing potential price increases and supply chain shortages this holiday season (thanks to US President Trump’s tariffs), this product is safely positioned to avoid these uncertain market conditions. 

AG’s Peanuts digital calendar will be available for pre-order on the company’s e-commerce site starting in July, and then it’ll roll out on mobile devices and PCs in late November to count down the first 25 days of December leading into Christmas. But instead of chocolates and treats, it delivers a whole range of Christmas-themed games and activities.

This interactive experience kicks off on a home screen, where AG has mapped out the full Peanuts neighborhood, allowing fans to see how all of the franchise’s iconic houses, playgrounds and schools come together in a community for the first time. Users will unlock a new location each day to find a small animatic of one of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comics and a unique activity, which can vary from decorating a Christmas tree and wrapping presents, to completing puzzles and playing strategy games (mahjong, solitaire, match games) with the Peanuts cast. 

Elements of the main map will also change continuously throughout the experience—for example, days changing to night in sync with the clock on the host device, and more snow and ice from winter storms piling up closer to Christmas. “We wanted to give Peanuts fans a new way to experience the property that wasn’t just watching the show,” says AG executive director Rob Matousek. “By taking advantage of our experience and technology in this space, now they can play inside of that world and interact directly with the characters they’ve loved for years.”

AG has been developing online advent calendars for its Jacquie Lawson greeting cards subsidiary for the past 15 years, and these unlicensed products have sold more than 10 million units to date worldwide. According to internal data, 72% of each year’s unit sales are gifted to other people, and users engage with the core apps at least two times a day on average, interacting with unlocked games and activities for 14 to 20 minutes each time. 

But this is the first time the company has developed a digital calendar for a kids & family brand, and the timing couldn’t have lined up better, with Peanuts celebrating both its 75th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of iconic holiday special A Charlie Brown Christmas this year. 

“The goal of this project with Peanuts is to introduce a whole new audience to a product that, for us, has proven to be successful,” says Matousek. “It really allows us to be a part of each day of a family’s holiday season, which is at the core of what we want to do as a celebrations company to build more brand loyalty.” 

Looking ahead, Matousek notes that AG is evaluating more kids & family brands that it can leverage for future digital advent calendars. And while this first outing with Peanuts is themed around Christmas, he adds that the digital advent calendar model can easily be applied to other seasonal holidays and celebrations, including Halloween and Easter. 

“The way people are celebrating is evolving,” Matousek explains. “They’re finding different reasons to celebrate milestones, get together for events, and acknowledge new moments in their lives. For our business, it’s all about fostering those relationships and broadening that network because it increases participation and unlocks new opportunities for people to stay connected.”