The Christmas countdown
What is a Christmas countdown? Well… I mean it really is just that. Maybe as a kid you did something like:
I know I did. To say that I loved Christmas is an understatement. It was the best time of the year. I can’t deny that the presents played some role in this, but it was more than that—it was the feeling of togetherness and of shared traditions and rituals playing out.
The whole idea of a Christmas countdown is a little funny. It’s not like it’s that hard to figure out how many more days until Christmas. Sure, in November it can be a little tricky but once you’re into December it’s hard to get it wrong1.
So what then is the appeal? To me it was part of the ritual and the tradition of Christmas. The magic of it. In our house, there was a strict rotation enforced for the advent calendars (we had two - one felt, one chocolate). Even if it was not “my day,” I still came downstairs excited to see one more ornament on the felt tree or another chocolate opened up. There was a sense of satisfaction in seeing the progress towards Christmas and knowing that that energy and excitement was something that the entire family was a part of.
At 12 I was getting into programming, following tutorials online and in books I’d beg my parents to buy. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with it. But it was never an academic pursuit, it was always about creating magic. I didn’t just want to make text appear on a black screen, I wanted to create things that would put a smile on people’s faces, to bring them a moment of joy or a laugh, even briefly.
The first iteration
The inspiration for the countdown came when I learned that not only could I send emails programmatically but that I could make it seem as if they were sent from anyone I wanted. It wasn’t a stretch to think that Santa too could send emails…
But there was something unexciting about just getting an email. I had my heart set on sending text messages but did not know how to pull it off. I mean I didn’t even have a cell phone at the time! All of this was simply to bring joy (or annoy) my cellphone-carrying older siblings and parents. The Internet was on my side and I discovered that the cell carriers allowed someone to send a text message to a phone number via email, for free! 💡💡💡
It was as simple as that. Every day at 7am my family would, willingly or not, get a text from Santa letting them know how many more days until Christmas. I’d be lying if I said I remembered exactly how I felt, but I look back now and can see the magic in that moment clearly.
This incarnation of the countdown lived on for years. Eventually I’d get my own cellphone and add myself. And there’d be the occasional tweak, like adding support for Cingular or ATT so that friends could get in on it too (we were and still are a Verizon family).
The second iteration
The countdown lived on as is until I went to college. I was a computer science major but was still attracted to programming far more for its ability to create magic than as an academic pursuit2. Did the countdown even need changes? To me its beauty was its simplicity. It really is just a daily text message.
But there were a few ways it could be better. Sending texts via email meant that they showed up as if the cell phone carrier sent them, a far cry from Santa Claus. And if someone replied, Santa wouldn’t talk back. Thankfully, the Internet had created a solution for me in the intervening years—there was now a way to send text messages programmatically from their own phone number! 💡💡💡
And so version two of the countdown was born. Santa now texted everyone from the same number3 and he could talk back. Instead of radio silence he’d follow up quickly with a snappy retort:
The countdown shipped and I found myself adding more and more friends to it as news spread. Eventually, I made it so that rather than bugging me to add someone to the countdown, they could go right to the source and message Santa themselves.
In 2011 there were close to 50 people receiving the countdown. At its inception I knew everyone on the list as they were quite literally my family. Now it was going to all sorts of people—college and high school friends, friends of my friends, friends of my siblings, relatives, and everything in between. This incarnation wasn’t some wild technical feat or display of expert programming skills but, if asked for a project I’m proud of, the countdown is at the top of the list. I’m proud to have helped create this daily moment of joy, of magic, for this group of people.
The lull
I graduated college in 2014 and started working full time at a technology startup in San Francisco. The job was one of the loves of my life. But doing technology professionally had the unfortunate side effect of killing my desire to build outside of work. I didn’t want to be sitting in front of a computer with what little free time I had.
Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to get the countdown going again, but I just didn’t have the energy. I’d think about it starting in early October, setting an intention to get to it next weekend or after work. Surprise surprise, Santa lay dormant.
The third iteration
Mid-November of 2019 marked 2 months job free for me. Other than a small project to track how much money I was spending4 I hadn’t gotten into any programming. This wasn’t how I thought it’d go. I expected to quit and suddenly find myself coding away for hours and hours, day after day.
I just didn’t feel like it though. I was stuck in my professional perspective of programming. I needed to get back to my 12 year old roots, back to the person who spent time programming not for some idealistic pursuit (or money) but so that I could create joy, whether for myself or others. I needed some magic.
I set out to rewrite the countdown, seeing it as a way of learning fancy new technologies that I hadn’t picked up while at my job. Do you see what a bad idea this was? That is not what the countdown needed and following this path would’ve meant another year with no Santa. I needed to wing it, to slap this thing together and get it shipped 🚢. It didn’t matter what the code looked like or how it worked, just that Santa would be ready to go the day after Thanksgiving, the traditional launch day.
This set me free. I threw together a new version of the countdown by digging through the old versions. I actually cut out some features to make it simpler. I still set out to use some new technology so that I could learn something new, but my number one focus was simply to bring Santa back to life. And back to life he came!
This picture is immediately after Santa went live in 2019 (right on schedule). When I was about to to “click the button” to ship the first round of text messages, my hands were clammy and my heart was racing. I hadn’t felt this way in awhile. In my mind I couldn’t help but worry about messing something up—like getting the number of days wrong (again) or accidentally spamming everyone with fifty text messages instead of one.
But even if it did go wrong, it wouldn’t of mattered. The countdown has never been about accuracy or perfection. As I’m sure you know by now, it’s about magic. And the magic was so real in that moment and still is. I felt it, saw it, and heard it from people reaching out to me, excited to see Santa back. And there are even replies to Santa! Yes, Santa shares those replies with me:
- “Santa!!!!!”
- “Missed you Santa”
- “Where were you the past four years Santa?”
- “YAS!!!”
- “Omg 😍😍😍this is the best”
- “YAY”
- “Yikes!!!!”
That last one is from my Mom, who didn’t appreciate the countdown as much when she had to play 🎅🏻 to the four of us. I think it’s growing on her now.
Have a wonderful Christmastime. Go create some magic for me.