Usually the theme was The Night Before Christmas. You punched out a few pages of cardboard bits and followed the ‘insert tab A into slot 1’ instructions to construct a three dimensional scene of a living room with a Christmas tree, presents, and chimney with stockings, and so on. (The effect was similiar to a pop-up card, but alas, it didn’t fold in/pop up on its own.) At the bottom you often inserted a booklet containing the words to The Night Before Christmas, but I remember us also having one with a Navity theme, and it didn’t come with a booklet. It wasn’t an advent calendar, just something from the dimestore that kids could put together and display.
We dismantled and reused them, often to the accompaniment of much Scotch tape, and still managed to go through at least half a dozen through the years…but I can’t remember the last time I saw one. I apologize for asking a Christmas question so soon after Halloween, but I figure if I’m going to track one down, I need to know what to call it so I can start looking around.