The Scouts’ Advent Calendar is illustrated by Henna Ryynänen

Henna Ryynänen has illustrated the 2024 Scouts’ Advent Calendar. Additionally, she is also writing a Christmas story to enrich the Advent Calendar experience, with episodes released every Advent Sunday.

Henna Ryynänen is an illustrator and graphic designer from Oulu, Finland. After a decade-long career as an Art Director in advertising agencies, Henna has been working as an illustrator since 2013. She is known, among other things, as the author and illustrator of the children’s book series “Myry.”

Baking gingerbread cookies, fetching the Christmas tree, and the traditional Scouts’ Advent Calendar are part of Henna’s and many others’ Christmas traditions.

“I remember from my childhood that my grandmother always had the Scouts’ Advent Calendar. When visiting her, I could spend long periods looking at the pictures while the adults had coffee,” Henna recalls.

As a young graphic designer, Henna worked in the same advertising agency as Lasse Katainen, who illustrated several Scout calendars, and thought it would be wonderful to illustrate an Advent Calendar herself someday.

Finally, Henna gets to illustrate the Advent Calendar. This year, both the illustrations and the Christmas story reflect her attention to detail and love of colors. Henna’s goal is to bring cheerfulness.

“I still want to make people smile above all else!”

The traditional Advent Calendar brings Christmas

The Finnish Scouts’ Advent Calendar always starts from the first Advent, often allowing an early start to the Christmas spirit. This year, the first Advent Sunday falls on December 1st, and traditionally, the windows are opened until Christmas Eve.

Unlike many Christmas calendars, the main picture of the Scouts’ Advent Calendar is completed as the windows are opened. Therefore, the content behind the window is part of the calendar picture, not a separate Christmas image.