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The small print

Terms of service

Last updated 3 November 2026

These terms are the agreement between you and us when you build a house in Advent Village. We've tried to write them in plain English. If something here is unclear, write to us at hello@theadventvillage.com and we'll explain.

No. 1Who we are

Advent Village (theadventvillage.com) is run by a sole trader (empresário em nome individual) established in Portugal, trading as Advent Village. The seller's legal name, geographic address and tax number are available on request at hello@theadventvillage.com. You can reach us at the same address.

In these terms, "we" and "us" means the seller above. "You" means the person who buys a house. The "recipient" is the person you make the house for.

No. 2What you're buying

When you pay, you get one house in this year's village. A house is a personal advent calendar with 24 doors:

  • You fill the doors with text (up to 1,200 characters per door) and photos (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 6 MB each), using your private edit link. You can change them any time while the house is online.
  • You get a separate link for your recipient. Door 1 opens on 1 December and door 24 on 24 December, each at midnight in the time zone you choose. If you buy in December, the doors for days that have already passed are open straight away.
  • Your house has a sign on the public village map. The sign shows the house name, and the map also shows the house's style, country and plot. The house name starts as your two names (for example "Ana ♥ Mum"); you can change it before you pay and later.
  • We show you which doors your recipient has opened.

Your house stays online until 30 June of the following year (for this season, 30 June 2027). After 24 December every door stays open until then. See section 10.

The village works in a current web browser (on a phone, tablet or computer) with an internet connection. You don't need an app or an account, and neither does your recipient.

Houses are sold from 1 October until 25 December at 12:00 UTC (the moment Christmas Eve has ended everywhere on Earth). Outside that window you can visit the village but not buy.

No. 3Price and payment

All prices are in euros and are final prices:

  • a house on Cosy Lane: €4.99;
  • a house on Main Street: €14.99;
  • a house on Village Square: €29.99.

Main Street and Village Square have the same house and the same 24 doors as Cosy Lane. You're paying for the address.

  • Special styles (Lighthouse, Windmill, Treehouse, Townhouse) cost €1.99 more, when you build or later from your house settings. The other styles are included.
  • More houses: once you've bought a house, you can build another house this season on Cosy Lane for €3.99 instead of €4.99, using the offer shown after you pay.

The total shown before you pay is the total you pay. There are no delivery costs, taxes or other fees on top. We don't charge VAT: Advent Village is a small business exempt from VAT under article 53 of the Portuguese VAT Code (Código do IVA), so our invoices say "IVA – regime de isenção". We issue an invoice for every purchase, as Portuguese law requires; if you'd like a copy, write to us at hello@theadventvillage.com.

You must be 18 or over to buy. You pay once. There is no subscription and nothing renews. Payments are processed by Stripe, with the payment methods Stripe shows you at checkout. We never see or store your full card details.

When you start paying, we hold your plot for 30 minutes. If the payment isn't finished in that time, the plot is released and nothing is charged.

No. 4How the contract is made

You choose your plot, style and names, check everything on the review step, and press the pay button. You can go back and correct anything before you pay. The contract is made when Stripe confirms your payment. We then send your private edit link to the email address you gave us, or to the one you gave Stripe at checkout. That email is our confirmation of the contract, so please keep it. If you add a special style later, Stripe sends you a receipt for it.

The version of these terms that applies to you is the one on this page on the day you paid (see the date at the top). You can save or print this page.

No. 5Your right to cancel and refunds

You can cancel within 14 days of buying, or any time before 1 December if that is later, for a full refund. This includes your legal 14-day right to cancel, and we never ask you to give it up. How it works is explained on our refunds page, which forms part of these terms.

Your private edit link is the key to your house. Anyone who has it can change your doors and your house settings. There is no password. Keep it to yourself.

Your recipient's link lets anyone who has it see the doors that have opened. It isn't listed on the map or in search engines. Only share it with the people you mean to.

We can't tell who is using a link. If you lose your edit link, use Email me my link: type the email address you paid with and we'll send the links for your houses to that address, and only there. If a link ends up with the wrong person, tell us at hello@theadventvillage.com as soon as you can and we'll help.

No. 7What you put in your house

You keep all rights to what you write and upload. You give us permission to store it, copy it as needed to run the service (for example backups and resized images), and show it to anyone with your house's links, only for as long as your house is online. For your house name, country, style and plot, you also give us permission to show them publicly on the village map and in village counts.

You're responsible for what you put in your house. In particular:

  • You must have the right to use every photo and text you upload.
  • If a photo or message shows or names other people, make sure they would be happy with it, especially children.
  • Your house name is public. Keep it friendly and keep private details out of it.
  • Follow our content policy, which forms part of these terms.

We don't read the doors as a routine. We may look at a house if someone reports it, or if we need to fix a problem with it.

No. 8Removing content

If a house name or a door breaks the law or our content policy, we may replace the house name with a neutral one ("A house"), delete a door's text or photo, or, in serious cases, remove the house. We'll tell you what we did and why, by email, unless the law stops us or there's an emergency. You can reply to ask us to look again. The content policy explains how.

If we remove a house within the refund period in section 5, we refund it in full. After that period we don't refund a house removed because it seriously broke the law or the content policy, unless the law requires it.

No. 9If something goes wrong

Your house must work as described in these terms for the whole time it's online. That's your legal guarantee of conformity (in Portugal, Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021). It's free, and nothing in these terms reduces it.

If your doors don't open on the right day, or your house doesn't work as described, tell us at hello@theadventvillage.com. We'll fix it free of charge, as quickly as we can. If we can't fix it within a reasonable time, or the problem is serious, you can ask for a lower price (a partial refund) or end the contract and get back the money for the time it didn't work, or all of it.

We keep the village up to date and secure during the season. Short interruptions for maintenance or because of our hosting providers can happen; we keep them away from December mornings wherever we can.

No. 10After Christmas

After 24 December, all doors stay open until 30 June of the following year. Then we delete the house, its doors and its photos for good. Houses can't be kept longer or carried over to the next Christmas, and there's no download, so save any photos and messages you want to keep before then.

If you want your house deleted sooner, write to us at hello@theadventvillage.com from the email address on the house, or tell us the house name and plot number and we'll check it's yours. Deleting a house early doesn't give a refund, except under section 5.

We keep a short payment record for longer, because tax law requires it. Our privacy notice explains this.

No. 11Our responsibility to you

We're responsible for loss you suffer that is a foreseeable result of us breaking these terms or not using reasonable care and skill.

We're not responsible for:

  • loss that neither you nor we could have foreseen when you bought the house;
  • problems caused by a link you shared, by your device or internet connection, or by events outside our reasonable control;
  • photos or messages you didn't keep a copy of. Advent Village is not a backup service, so please keep your own copies.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our responsibility for death or personal injury, for damage we cause on purpose or through gross negligence, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit, and nothing affects your rights as a consumer.

No. 12Changes

We may update these terms, for example when we add languages or features. The version you agreed to when you paid applies to your house, unless a change is required by law or only improves things for you.

We may improve the village during the season, but we won't take away anything described in section 2 from a house you've already bought. If we ever had to make a change that affects your house negatively, we'd tell you in advance by email, and you could end the contract and get a refund.

No. 13Complaints and disputes

If you have a complaint, write to us first at hello@theadventvillage.com. We'll answer within 15 working days, usually much sooner.

You can also:

  • make a complaint in the Portuguese electronic complaints book, the Livro de Reclamações Eletrónico;
  • go to a consumer dispute resolution (arbitration) centre, such as the CNIACC, Centro Nacional de Informação e Arbitragem de Conflitos de Consumo (cniacc.pt);
  • go to court (see section 14).

No. 14Law and courts

These terms are governed by Portuguese law. If you live in another country, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live: these terms can't take that protection away.

You can bring a claim in the courts of Portugal or of the country where you live. If we ever need to bring a claim against you, we can only do so in the courts of the country where you live.

No. 15Language

These terms are written in English, and the English version is the binding one. Versions in other languages are translations provided for your convenience. If a translation differs from the English text, the English text prevails, except where the mandatory law of the country where you live requires otherwise. We answer messages in English or Portuguese, and do our best in the site's other languages.