Christmas Countdown! vs Christmas Countdown Live 2026
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Christmas Countdown!
Track the exact time remaining until Christmas 2025, down to the second or even heartbeats. Choose from fun characters to accompany your countdown and share your excitement with friends and family. Enjoy festive music while you wait for the holiday.
- Precise countdown (days, hours, minutes, seconds, heartbeats)
- Multiple time modes (weeks, nights, seconds, heartbeats)
- Six festive companion characters
- Social media sharing
- Christmas music playback
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The app that keeps you updated to how many days, hours, minutes, seconds and even heartbeats there are until Christmas 2025. There are multiple 'time-modes' including counting down the number of total weeks, nights, hours, minutes, total seconds or heartbeats until Christmas. Choose between 6 characters to keep you company while watching the countdown! Characters include: • Santa Claus • Snowman • Christmas tree • Reindeer • Skater Share the countdown with your family and friends to all of your favourite social networks! Including Instagram! Listen to Christmas songs whilst watching the time tick closer to Christmas.
Christmas Countdown Live 2026
Track the exact days, hours, and sleeps until Christmas Eve with a live home screen widget. Customize with festive themes and enjoy snowfall animations to bring the holiday spirit to life.
- Live home screen widget
- Real-time countdown (days, hours, sleeps)
- Customizable themes (red, green, blue)
- Snowfall animations
- Compact size (under 1MB)
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How many sleeps until Christmas? Loved by 2,000+ people worldwide, Christmas Countdown puts a live countdown right on your iPhone home screen - no app opening needed, ever. Rated 4.8 stars. Free. Under 1.5MB. LIVE HOME SCREEN WIDGET Add the widget once. It updates every second - days, hours, minutes, and sleeps until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, all year long. SLEEPS, NOT JUST DAYS We count sleeps. Because that's how everyone actually thinks about Christmas. FESTIVE THEMES Choose from classic red, pine green, or ice blue. Switch any time. SNOWFALL ANIMATION A gentle snowfall plays in the app. A small detail that makes it feel right. DEC 24 OR DEC 25? Swedish? The app detects your locale and automatically counts down to Christmas Eve. Everyone else gets Christmas Day. TINY BY DESIGN Under 1.5MB. The lightest Christmas countdown on the App Store. HOW TO START 1. Download Christmas Countdown - it's free 2. Long-press your home screen and tap Edit 3. Add the Christmas Countdown widget 4. Watch it count down live all season CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN PRO Unlock additional themes and support independent development. One-time purchase or subscription - your choice. Ready? Add the widget and start counting. Christmas only comes once a year.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Christmas Countdown! at none against Christmas Countdown Live 2026's 3. Christmas Countdown! also leads on ratings volume (71K vs 2.3K). Christmas Countdown Live 2026's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, rating, review sentiment and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Christmas Countdown Live 2026 sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Christmas Countdown! asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Christmas Countdown! against 4.8 for Christmas Countdown Live 2026. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Christmas Countdown! has 71K ratings behind it against 2.3K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 90% and 90% positive.
Christmas Countdown! ships an update every 3 months, Christmas Countdown Live 2026 every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Christmas Countdown! | Christmas Countdown Live 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (71K ratings) | 4.8 (2.3K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 89.9% of reviews — better | 89.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 71K — better | 2.3K |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jack McLean | Benoit Deguine |
Customer experience
Christmas Countdown!
Christmas Countdown Live 2026
User reviews
Christmas Countdown!
From 71K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ⭐️ Excellent Christmas countdown app
- 🎄 Helps get excited for Christmas
- 🕰 Provides multiple countdown metrics (days, hours, minutes, seconds, weeks, sleeps, heartbeats, breaths)
- 🎅 Cute Christmas-themed characters and backgrounds
- 🎶 Festive Christmas music
Room to improve
- 🔔 Annoying notifications/reminders
- 💰 Premium features like music selection should be free
- 🤖 Heartbeat and breath counters are not personalized
- 🙄 Occasional countdown inaccuracies reported
Christmas Countdown Live 2026
From 2.3K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎄 Great Christmas countdown app
- 🕰️ Accurate countdown
- 💻 Useful widget
- 🎨 Customizable themes
- 🎅 Captures Christmas spirit
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional countdown issues
- 🔍 Widget doesn't show full countdown details
- 🔧 Some features not fully functional
Bugs and requests
Christmas Countdown!
Reported bugs
2 issues- Countdown sometimes off by a day
- Occasional app crashes or freezes
Requested features
3 requests- Add more Christmas song options
- Include countdown for other holidays
- Allow users to customize their own countdown metrics
Christmas Countdown Live 2026
Reported bugs
3 issues- Countdown not always accurate
- Widget not working on some devices
- App freezing or crashing
Requested features
5 requests- Add Apple Watch support
- Include more countdown details in widget
- Implement Christmas mini-games
- Provide notification options
- Add more customization options
In-app purchases
Christmas Countdown!
No in-app purchases
Christmas Countdown Live 2026
- Premium$1.99
- 1 Gift$1.99
- 3 Gifts (or 1 big!)$4.99
Questions
Is Christmas Countdown! free?
Is Christmas Countdown Live 2026 free?
Which has better reviews, Christmas Countdown! or Christmas Countdown Live 2026?
Do Christmas Countdown! or Christmas Countdown Live 2026 have ads?
Which is updated more often, Christmas Countdown! or Christmas Countdown Live 2026?
Other comparisons
