Small Doors: How to Run a Surprise Advent Challenge at Work

December is the hardest month to run a wellness challenge. Calendars are full, people travel, and nobody wants another leaderboard to worry about. But December also has one tradition almost everyone already loves: opening a small door every morning to see what's behind it.

This guide turns that tradition into an Advent challenge for your workplace. Every day from 1 to 24 December, participants open one "door": a small task that takes a few minutes, like a thank-you message, a walk after dinner or a screen-free meal. They don't know what's coming until the morning it's revealed. They mark it as done, and the doors add up.

It takes about an hour to set up, and then it runs itself.

How the Advent challenge works

• 24 doors, one per day, from Tuesday 1 to Thursday 24 December.
• The doors are a surprise. The full list is never published. Each door is revealed at 7:00 in the morning.
• Participants mark each door as done in the app. One door a day, nothing to sync.
• The goal is 20 of 24 doors, so a busy day or a holiday party doesn't knock anyone out.
• Five kinds of doors rotate, so no two days feel the same: move, connect, recharge, kindness and outdoors. Some days are wildcards with two options, and weekend doors are bigger and family-friendly.

Step 1: Create the challenge

In YuMuuv, go to Challenges and select Create. Company admins can create a company-wide challenge. Anyone else can create a private challenge for up to 10 people, including family and friends (more on that below).

1. Activity type: scroll to the bottom of the list and choose Custom. Name it "Advent door". Custom activities are logged by hand, which is exactly what you want here.
2. Period: choose Custom Period and set 1 to 24 December.
3. Leaderboards: pick an individual leaderboard, a team leaderboard, or both. A Collective leaderboard also works well if you want everyone opening doors toward one shared total.
4. Challenge type: choose Daily target and set the daily goal to 1. Progress then counts the days a door was opened.
5. Goals: add a goal of 20 days. For team leaderboards, choose AVG so small and large teams compete fairly.
6. Configuration: turn on Challenge chat. Set a Daily limit per user of 1, so nobody can catch up on a whole week in one evening.
7. Details: name it something like "24 Small Doors", add a prize if you have one, and write a short description (a template is below).

Review and select Create. Our help centre has the full guide to creating a challenge.

Suggested description: Every morning from 1 to 24 December, a new door opens at 7:00. Behind it is one small thing to do that day. Do it, mark it as done, and see how many doors you can open. Open 20 and you're in the prize draw. No one knows what's behind tomorrow's door, not even your team captain.

Step 2: Schedule the doors

The surprise is what makes this challenge work, so the doors need to appear on their own each morning. You have two ways to do it.

Option A: scheduled announcements (recommended for company challenges). Open Announcements from the profile circle in the top-right corner and select Create Announcements. For each door:

• Title: "Door 7 is open"
• Message: the day's task, plus one line on why it matters
• Image: a simple door graphic with the number makes each morning feel like opening a calendar
• Schedule: that day at 7:00
• Recipients: filter by this challenge, so only participants get it
• Notification: choose to notify users, so the door arrives on their phone

You can schedule all 24 in one sitting in late November. Then December takes care of itself. The help centre explains how announcements work.

Option B: post in the challenge chat. If you're running a private challenge, or you'd rather keep it personal, post each morning's door in the challenge chat yourself. It takes a minute a day, and people can reply with photos right under the door.

Step 3: Keep the surprise alive

A few small touches turn a to-do list into something people look forward to:

• Same time every morning. People start checking at 7:00 the way they'd check a real calendar.
• Shuffle the types. Never put two doors of the same kind back to back.
• Wildcard days. Two options, the participant picks. It gives people a little control in a busy week.
• Teasers. Now and then, post a hint the evening before: "Tomorrow, you'll want comfortable shoes."
• Bigger weekends. Saturday and Sunday doors can take 30 minutes and include family or friends.
• Celebrate in the chat. Post your own door photos and react to others. The organiser sets the tone.

The 24 doors: a ready-made Advent challenge list

Here's a full list, shuffled and ready to copy. Swap any door that doesn't fit your team.

Teams in Australia, New Zealand or anywhere else where December is summer: swap door 21 for "watch the sunset on the longest day" and make door 4 a shade walk instead.

Variations

Team version. Turn on the team leaderboard with AVG scoring. Teams of five to eight, mixed across departments, work best. Team chats give each group its own room to cheer each other on.

Family version. Anyone can create a private challenge in YuMuuv and invite up to 10 people, including family and friends outside the company. Post each door in the challenge chat in the morning, and let the kids decide who gets to post the photo. Our guide to family private challenges has more ideas.

Deskless version. Every door above works on a shift. For teams without desks, swap door 16 for "eat your break somewhere new" and post the doors before the first shift starts.

Add steps. Want movement to count too? Run a light steps challenge alongside the doors over the same dates. Keep the step goal modest; December is not the month for personal bests. Door 18 pairs well with our guide to moving after you eat.

Prizes that fit the season

Keep prizes small and fair. A draw among everyone who opened 20 doors keeps the whole company in the game until 24 December, not just the most organised few. A team that opens the most doors together could pick a charity for a small donation.

The takeaway

The Advent challenge works because it asks so little: one small thing a day, a surprise each morning, and a reason to talk to each other in the busiest month of the year. Set it up once in November, and December runs itself.

Not on YuMuuv yet? Book a 20-minute call and we'll help you set up your Advent challenge in time for 1 December.