Web Development Advent Calendars for 2015
For a few years now web developers around the world have celebrated Saturnalia Christmas with advent calendars covering topics related to the web. Some come and go, but you’ll probably recognize a few regulars on this list.
I may have missed some, so please pass them along if you know of any. As I learned in prior years where I have tracked them, I don’t know them all on December 1, and update accordingly. Some of this is because the sites don’t promote the new calendar on the home page.
1. 24 Ways
24 Ways, the one that most of this think about for web development calendars, is back again. It’s been going strong since 2005 and based on its history this year should have some good articles.
2. Perl Advent Calendar
Perl Advent Calendar goes all the way back to 2000 (and back then looked a bit more like a traditional advent calendar, too) and has been dispensing tips for Perl developers ever since.
3. 24 Jours de Web
24 Jours de Web is starting its second year as an advent calendar for web folk. Written in French, it is clearly primarily targeted at French speakers, but a round of Google Translate will open it up to far more readers (like me).
4. UXmas
UXmas is not happening this year as a full-blown calendar, however the @merryuxmas Twitter account promises daily links leading up to Christmas day.
5. Lean UXmas
Lean UXmas collects the most popular articles from the Agile & Lean UX News mailing list, presented throughout the month.
6. Webkrauts
Webkrauts has an all German advent calendar, and it also dates back to 2005. It covers general web topics, but being in all-German readers like me will benefit from a Google Translate version of the page.
7. 24 Pull Requests
24 Pull Requests is less an advent calendar than it is an effort to mobilize developers. The goal is to get developers to send a pull request every day in December (up to Christmas), thereby supporting your favorite open source projects. There are even Coderwall badges for those who collect those sorts of things.
8. SysAdvent
SysAdvent is targeted to systems administrators, but there is a some cross-over to web developers. It has posts dating back to 2008, so there is plenty of good material there if you’re too impatient to wait for each day to be revealed.
9. Performance Calendar
Performance Calendar hails this as the speed geek’s favorite time of the year, ostensibly because of the tips it has been offering each December since 2009. It isn’t just server optimizations you’ll find here, so don’t shy away because you’re not a system admin. While I had it last year, it hadn’t launched when I posted this, so I’ve rectified that.
10. A Web Design Advent Calendar
A Web Design Advent Calendar by Michelle Barker is a solo project using CodePen to offer a new link each day. It’s a great example of how sometimes a personal project is the best way to play with and understand new techniques.
11. 24 Days in December
24 Days in December is a PHP-specific advent calendar. It looks like its goal is to give back to the same community from which the author has learned, which is a good metaphor for the holiday.
12. The Content Strategy Advent Calendar
The Content Strategy Advent Calendar is not a technical calendar but instead is focused on providing advice and tips on all things content related. There are different authors each day.
13. It’s a Shape Christmas
It’s a Shape Christmas is also new to me. It looks like the theme centers on providing free Christmas-themed shapes that you can download and use as wallpaper on iOS devices.
14. Golang Advent Calendar
Golang advent calendar is brand new to me. I’m not quite sure if each day will be a new post on Medium, so I leave it to you to parse that.
15. Marketing Advent Calendar
Marketing Advent Calendar from Bop Design promises to share something on marketing, web design, social media, and more every day up until Christmas (though it seems they are all live now). I found this on Deborah Edwards-Onoro’s own advent calendar post.
16. FastMail Advent 2015
FastMail Advent 2015 is a collection of technical and/or informative posts, and probably some that are just amusing (like screen shots of the FastMail home page dating back to 2001). I missed it in last year’s round-up, but Deborah Edwards-Onoro made me aware.
Miscellany
It looks like Amazon Web Services calendar may be returning based on its request for authors, though I see nothing on the site today.
Previous Years
I started tracking these in 2010. Since then some have come and gone. For the ones not returning, in many cases the content is still out there. Take a look and maybe you’ll find an older article that is useful today.
Barely Related
IT Adventskalender: Jeden Tag öffnen wir einen Port in der Firewall.
— Rem0te (@grauhut) November 30, 2015@aardrian you missed your chance to do a meta-advent-calendar…post a link to a new advent calendar every day…
— patrick h. lauke (@patrick_h_lauke) December 1, 2015
Leave a Comment or Response