Adventura – Interactive Advent Calendar vs Christmas Countdown Widget

An interactive advent calendar for WordPress, built from a polished design prototype (light, warm, modern). 24 doors with three states: today (open), past/participated, locked. Per-door entry flow: sponsor → prize → quiz → optional social → form → confirmation with a ticket number. Quiz without right/wrong feedback — participants only pick an answer; only the admin sees the evaluation. Content (sponsors, prizes, quiz questions, logos, prize images) is editable through the door editor. Configurable: color theme (Berry/Fir/Amber/Custom colors), layout (Grid/Staggered), door style (Tile/Circle/Gift), quiz mode (Guided/Single page). Custom colors: accent, background and text color freely selectable via color picker. Statistics dashboard with key figures and a bar chart of entries per door. Multiple prizes per door, with a configurable number of winners; the draw distributes the prizes across the winners. Optional per-door PayPal donation button; recorded donations grant an extra lot and, above a threshold, a guaranteed direct-win prize. Winner draw: random pick per door, optionally only among “all correct”, winner list with CSV export. Email confirmation to participants (template with placeholders) and optional admin notification. Prevents duplicate entries: one entry per email per door. Entries are stored in a dedicated table; admin list with filter and CSV export. Progress is remembered per browser via localStorage. Gamification: progress bar, “streak” indicator and confetti (plus optional sound) when completing a door. Countdown to the next door right in the calendar header. Live preview in the settings: theme, colors, layout and texts are shown instantly as a mini calendar. Gutenberg block “Adventura” with live preview and display options in the sidebar (in addition to the shortcode). Newsletter integration (Mailchimp, Brevo, CleverReach) with opt-in in the form and double opt-in. Reminder emails via opt-in: daily WP-Cron send with one-click unsubscribe. Invite & refer: personal invitation link per participant, referral tracking and top referrers in the dashboard. Spam/cheat protection: honeypot, time trap and IP rate limit. GDPR tools: integration with WordPress data export and data erasure plus a suggested privacy policy text. GDPR-friendly: fonts are served locally, no requests to Google. Usage Add the shortcode to a page: [advk_calendar] Optional attributes override the settings per page: [advk_calendar theme="tanne" layout="scene" door_style="ornament" quiz_mode="single"] For a preview outside December, a fixed day (1–24) can be set under Adventura → Settings → “Force today’s door”. To publish a public winners list, add the shortcode: [advk_winners] Notes for Developers When an entry is saved, the action advk_entry_created is fired (parameters: entry id, day, email, ticket number, extra) — suitable for sending a confirmation email or handing data to a CRM, for example. The fifth parameter extra contains first name, last name, the opt-in flags for newsletter and reminder, and the referral code. External services This plugin does not connect to any external service by default. No data leaves your site unless you explicitly enable and configure the optional newsletter integration under Adventura → Settings → Newsletter. When — and only when — you enable the newsletter integration, choose a provider and enter your own API key, and a participant actively ticks the optional newsletter opt-in checkbox, the plugin sends that participant’s data to the provider you selected so they can be added to your mailing list. The data sent is: the participant’s email address and their first and last name. It is sent once, at the moment the entry is submitted with the opt-in checked. No data is sent for participants who do not opt in, and nothing is sent if the integration is disabled or no API key is set. Cloudflare Turnstile (optional bot protection). When you enable Turnstile under Adventura → Settings → Cloudflare Turnstile and enter your own site and secret keys, the entry form loads the Turnstile widget script from challenges.cloudflare.com, and on submit the plugin sends the widget token (and the visitor’s IP address) to Cloudflare’s siteverify endpoint to check that the submission is not a bot. This happens only while Turnstile is enabled. Service by Cloudflare, Inc.: Terms of Service: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ — Privacy Policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ You can choose one of the following newsletter providers. Each is a third-party service with its own terms and privacy policy; please review them before enabling: Mailchimp — email marketing service. Used to add opted-in participants to a Mailchimp audience/list. Data sent: email address, first name, last name. Terms of Use: https://mailchimp.com/legal/terms/ — Privacy Policy: https://www.intuit.com/privacy/statement/ Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) — email marketing service. Used to add opted-in participants as a contact. Data sent: email address, first name, last name. Terms of Service: https://www.brevo.com/legal/termsofuse/ — Privacy Policy: https://www.brevo.com/legal/privacypolicy/ CleverReach — email marketing service. Used to add opted-in participants as a receiver in a group. Data sent: email address, first name, last name. Terms of Service: https://www.cleverreach.com/en/terms-of-service/ — Privacy Policy: https://www.cleverreach.com/en-de/privacy-policy/

The Christmas Countdown Widget displays a cute Santa Claus counting down to Christmas in your sidebar. On Christmas day Santa displays a “Merry Christmas” greeting to your visitors. Since the countdown automatically updates each year and starts the countdown over again on the day after Christmas, you can leave it in your sidebar all year round if you want! The Christmas countdown will appear in your sidebar on a transparent background so it looks good with any theme. NEW! You can use the shortcode [countdown] to add the countdown to any post or page. You can also use ‘[countdown-right]’ to float the widget to the right, or ‘[countdown-center]’ to center the widget on your page. For more information about Santa’s countdown, visit ChristmasWebmaster.