Jacquie Lawson Greeting Cards and Animated Ecards

I have a question about old Advent Calendars (2019 and before)

Please note that the Advent Calendars referenced here are the discontinued products from 2019 and earlier. For the 2020 Nordic, 2021 London, and 2022 Sussex Advent Calendars, please see our FAQ section for the new Advent Calendars.

Can I still purchase the old Advent Calendars?

We regret that our old Advent Calendars are no longer available for sale. In accordance with our terms of sale, the Edinburgh and Cotswold Advent Calendars will remain available for use by those who have already purchased them for one year following withdrawal from sale, namely until the end of February 2023. Older Advent Calendars are unavailable.

On what devices can I use the Cotswold and Edinburgh Advent Calendars?

The Cotswold and Edinburgh Advent Calendars work in your web browser, and should work well on most modern iPads, Windows and Mac computers. They may also work on iPhones, and on Android tablets and phones, and indeed on any other device that has a web browser, including Chrome OS.

Do I have to be online to use the Cotswold and Edinburgh Advent Calendars?

The Cotswold and Edinburgh Advent Calendars run in your browser and as such they can only work when you are connected to the internet.

Can I download the Cotswold or Edinburgh Advent Calendar to my computer?

Sorry, no. The Cotswold and Edinburgh Advent Calendars use HTML5 technology and run only in your browser.

How do I open my Cotswold or Edinburgh Advent Calendar?

These instructions assume that you have purchased the Cotswold or Edinburgh Advent Calendar, or that someone else has purchased it for you as a gift. Either way you should have received an email which includes a link to the appropriate product page, and an activation code. If you did not receive the email, or if you've lost your activation code, then please follow our FAQ for lost activation codes. If you have the original notification email, please click the link in that email to go to the correct product page, or just go straight to the appropriate page below:

Then click the button to activate your Cotswold or Edinburgh Advent Calendar, and off you go! The first time you do this, you'll be asked for your activation code.

How do I switch to full screen mode?

The Cotswold and Edinburgh Advent Calendars run in your browser at your standard screen resolution and on Windows and Mac computers you can change the window size as required just like you would with any program. You can also switch to full screen mode. The steps required to do this vary according to your operating system and browser, but on Windows computers, pressing F11 usually does the trick!

I have a problem with my Cotswold or Edinburgh Advent Calendar

If you find a problem with these products please try the following:

Make sure you are not blocking or deleting our cookies, or clearing browser history – please see below.
Check if the problem is listed in the "known anomalies" list below.
Make sure you are not using Private Browsing, Incognito, or other similar browser setting.
Clear your browser cache. See instructions on how to clear your cache here.

Cookies

The Cotswold and Edinburgh Advent Calendars run using your web browser, and require the use of cookies to store your activation code and personalisations. Even if you have set your web browser to allow cookies, manually clearing cookies from your browsing history will result in the loss of your personalisations and will require you to re-enter your activation code.

Most web browsers also have a setting that clears your browsing history every time you close your browser. Usually this also clears your cookies, so you must ensure this setting is turned off.

The instructions for allowing and managing cookies in your browser are different according to the browser you are using. Please see how to manage and enable cookies here for each of the most common browsers.

Please note also that if you are running security software that clears cookies on a schedule, you will need to consult that program's Help/FAQ section, or contact your security software provider for more information on allowing cookies for our products. You will need to ensure that the following web address is added to the list of addresses for which cookies are allowed:

Cotswold: https://cotswold.jacquielawson.com
Edinburgh: https://edinburgh.jacquielawson.com

You can also read more information about cookies in general and how we use them on jacquielawson.com.

A Note on Local Storage

For the sake of simplicity, we use the term "cookies" in our FAQs and other documentation to refer to both cookies and local storage. Local storage is similar to cookies in that it provides a means for your browser to store data on your computer. We use cookies to store your activation code, as detailed above, but the personalisation data such as flower arrangements are actually held in local storage. Some browsers allow you to manage local storage separately from cookies; others do not differentiate. If you find your activation code is being cleared but your personalisations are not, that is because you have deleted our cookies but not our local storage – and vice versa. Please consult your browser documentation for further details.

Common misunderstandings and known anomalies

An internet connection is required for operation of the Cotswold and Edinburgh Advent Calendars, so please make sure your internet connection is up and running.
You cannot use Private Browsing, or incognito or other "private" modes to view these products. This is because these settings disable permanent cookies (see above). On an iPad, please follow these instructions to turn off Private Browsing.
On an iPad, if you add a bookmarks bar to the address bar, everything gets pushed down when you add a new browser tab. You can work around this issue by closing tabs or closing the bookmarks bar.
On iOS version 9, a number of odd things happen if you add the Cotswold or Edinburgh Advent Calendar to your iPad's home screen, so please create a bookmark instead. But in iOS 10 and later, adding the product to your home screen works well. However, if an iOS update is released while you're using the product, you will probably need to re-enter your activation code after the update.

It keeps asking me to activate again!

Your activation details are stored in a permanent cookie – see above. If your browser is set up to allow only session cookies, or to delete cookies when the browser is closed, then your activation details will not be preserved. You can find more details about cookies here, and instructions on how to enable and manage cookies here.

But I regularly clear all my cookies!

Most browsers have the option to clear cookies selectively for different websites, so you may prefer to delete only those which you do not want rather than clearing all cookies.

But if you really need to clear all your cookies while you're using the Cotswold or Edinburgh Advent Calendars, we suggest downloading another browser – such as Firefox – and using that browser (without clearing its cookies) exclusively for these products.

I've tried all this and I still need help!

If you need further assistance, please take the third option to the question below in order to contact our helpline. Please give full details of your setup including: