8+ Creative Christmas Newsletter Ideas & Examples

Christmas is just around the corner! 

The preparations are in full swing—you can see the festive lights coming on, start to smell the turkey, and hear the carols in the distance. 

It’s also time to start sending out your Christmas email campaigns. That’s the best way to spread the holiday cheer and thank your employees for their hard work and customers for loyalty. 

But where do you even start?

Here!

We’ll give you Christmas newsletter ideas and show you how to write a successful holiday campaign.

Christmas newsletter ideas for better engagement

Before we get to the great templates with beautifully designed backgrounds, you should remember one thing. Your “Happy Holidays” newsletter campaign will be a flop if you don’t fill it in with great content. 

So, here are six best Christmas newsletter ideas to ensure your holiday campaign is a success.

1. Pick a catchy call to action 

First, decide what you want to get out of this Christmas newsletter campaign.

Ask yourself why you are sending out these holiday emails. Do you want a high click-through rate? Conversions? Or increased customer satisfaction?

Decide what’s the most important outcome for you and optimize your holiday newsletters to reach that goal. For example, if you aim to increase sales, you’ll need to optimize the campaign for mobile devices, send your email at the right time, and include a clear call to action (CTA).

Here are some examples of Christmas CTAs you can incorporate into your client communication:

Here’s how Starbucks uses creative ideas to send the pre-Christmas deals alongside season’s greetings:

Also, you can use proactive chatbot messages to encourage newsletter signups and grow your customer base. For example, you can use rule-based chatbots (Flows) to welcome your website visitors and offer them discount codes in exchange for their contact information. This way, you’ll grow your email list and the potential clients will be satisfied with the deal. Win-win situation.

Read more: Learn how to use proactive live chat for your Christmas marketing strategy.

2. Get shoppers to open your letter

Engaging subject lines and great content are a must! But your subscribers need to see your holiday greetings come through first. So, keep in mind that the time you send your Christmas business newsletter campaign matters. A lot.

Especially since the open rate drops from 12.6% on December 22nd to a mere 3.4% on December 25th.

Think about it. Who’s going to scroll through emails on Christmas Day? Nobody.

So, make sure you send the email earlier on to give yourself an advantage when it comes to your subscribers opening the campaign. 

Read more: Discover the best Christmas marketing ideas to boost your sales this holiday season.

3. Include gift suggestions and playful poems

Another one of the December newsletter ideas for business is to repurpose the “12 days of Christmas” by putting your products into the song’s lyrics.

For example, if you have a clothes store, this could go something like:

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me: A Dungarees in a Fur Scrip  On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 2 Purple Gloves and a Dungarees in a Fur Scrip On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 3 French Berets 2 Purple Gloves and a Dungarees in a Fur Scrip

You get the point. 

You can also match some of your products to your customers’ family members, partners, and friends. This way, you relieve the shoppers from the stress of not knowing what to buy for their loved ones. At the same time, this can increase your online sales as all the gift recommendations will be coming from your store. 

Here’s how MeUndies provides gift ideas to its customers:

4. Make a countdown

You should consider adding a countdown timer as an addition to your email. It can truly make the click-through rate go through the roof! 

Why is that?

Because this is one of the Xmas newsletter ideas that play on the FOMO effect. As studies show, people make impulsive purchase decisions when they feel like they’re missing out on something. And about 69% of Millennials admit they experience this fear. 

So, simply add a clock that counts down the days until your sale is over, or until the shopper knows they’ll get their products on time, or any other date of your choice.

One of the holiday newsletter examples comes from Thorntons:

Don’t you think that this email will persuade at least half of the recipients to get the alphabet truffles for their loved ones?

5. Provide free and fast deliveries

Free and fast deliveries are important aspects for shoppers all year round. But especially during the Christmas season! This time, people worry that the presents for their family and friends won’t arrive on time for the Christmas party. 

In fact, research shows that 62% of customers expect their order to arrive within 3 days of the purchase. Our study into Black Friday trends confirms that. We found that fast and free delivery are the two most important factors when it comes to shopping for online deals. 

Here’s how ASOS uses this Christmas newsletter strategy:

What you need to do is remove the fear of late deliveries for your clients by putting forward a message that their order will arrive on time for Christmas.

You can even go a step further and tell your subscribers what actions you put in place to get their products delivered faster.

So, simply say something like “We’re working 24/7 tirelessly to get your order to you on time!” or present more details. For example, if you increased the number of delivery trucks and got more “helping elves” on board for the period, then state it in your Christmas holiday newsletter to increase customer trust and confidence.

6. Add a game 

Another holiday newsletter idea is to include games and use social media to spread the word.

You can do this by sending a Christmas trivia, scavenger hunt, or other games attached to your Christmas email newsletter. Let your clients enjoy it during the Merry season. 

You can also prepare a Christmas competition. For example, if you choose to do a scavenger hunt for your clients, then join the game. Make the hunt about your company and put your Christmas products into the checklist. Then, give your clients a few days to send you photos of themselves holding the products and a checklist back. The first few people can win a prize.

This is a good Christmas newsletter idea to show your company is a fun place and attract your customers to interact with you. They’ll also have to visit your store to pick up the items from the list, and once they’re there, you have a great chance of making a sale. 

7. Use a playful tone for your offer

When writing Christmas newsletter greetings to your customers, staff, and business partners, ensure you use a light voice. You might think that it doesn’t match your brand voice—but here’s where we’ll stop you.

A light and playful tone in a Christmas message to clients is perfect for everyone from law firms all the way to kids’ stores. 

That’s because it’s the time of the year when everyone wants to feel a little bit like a kid again, forget all their worries, and have a cozy time with their loved ones.

So, whether your December email topics are aimed at your employees or clients, you should ensure they’re heart-warming and cheerful! 

Look at this example from Rifle Paper:

8. Beware of Grinches 

Be careful who you’re sending your “Happy Holidays” newsletters to. Because some of your customers and subscribers might not be big fans of this holiday.

How are you supposed to know? Well—that’s tricky. Because you can’t be sure. One Christmas campaign idea to help you win those clients over is to make your email fun. Try to make the recipients smile and engage with your brand through happy, all-inclusive content. 

Also, remember that even Grinch came to love Christmas in the end! So ensure your email brings joy to everyone, even if they’re not in a cheerful mood—yet. 

Now you know what you should include as your Christmas newsletter content. See what works best for your company, and don’t be afraid to mix and match the suggestions. Something unique and very effective might come out of it!

How to write a Christmas newsletter: tips & tricks

For your emails to be effective, you need to keep your goals and your target audience in mind. Ensure you personalize it for the recipients and put your message across in a fun way. 

Okay, but where do you start?

With creating great Christmas subject lines!

Write an engaging holiday subject line

First of all, what do you write in your Christmas email subject lines so that customers actually open your email? This is very important as it’s the first step for them to see your beautifully crafted Christmas-themed newsletter.

Contrary to popular belief, you should not use emojis in the subject line. 

We know, we know—it’s Christmas!🎄🎅🤶

But this can really do more harm than good. A study shows that emails that have emojis in their subject line have a 6% lower open rate, over 40% more unsubscribes, and a higher abuse complaint rate. 

A better idea would be to just wish them a Merry Christmas and briefly say what they should expect from your email campaign. So, if you send them offers or games, include that in the Christmas newsletter subject line. 

For example:

Read more: Find out more about email subject lines, how to write them effectively, and what to avoid. 

Personalize your Christmas newsletter header 

Put on a big “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” header—it’s a Christmas email campaign, after all!

And make it more personal by including the recipient’s name in the header. A study found that personalized emails generate six times higher transaction rates than general newsletters. Don’t miss out on that opportunity.

What better way to personalize your holiday communication than by addressing it directly to the person reading it? 

Your Christmas email header is your virtual first impression, so make it good and engaging. That way you can get the customer to keep reading the holiday newsletters you prepared for them.

Read more: Learn how to write a professional email header with tips and examples.

Use an eye-catching Christmas newsletter layout

Your Christmas newsletter background should focus on your offer and what can you do to make your shoppers’ holiday extra merry.

But don’t forget that this is a Christmas newsletter email! So, don’t just reuse one of your other email marketing campaigns. Make something special for the occasion. This will increase the effectiveness of your emails.

Speaking of the layouts, let’s look at some of the top templates you could use as your holiday email backgrounds.

Christmas newsletter examples

The best way to start a “Happy Holidays” newsletter campaign is by researching templates and getting inspiration from them. You can then use the Christmas newsletter samples or create your own email by mixing and matching the examples together on tools such as Designmodo, Photopea, or Canva.

Some of the best Christmas newsletter template examples include:

Template	Free	Recipient
Teal Winter Illustrative	✅	Employees and partners
Friendly	✅	Customers needing help with Christmas preparations
Modern	✅	Churned customers
Card	✅	Addition to your newsletter to customers
Year in review	$20💰	Employees
Christmas sale	$15💰	Customers who abandoned their carts
Christmas offer	$2.99💰	Subscribers of fun companies
Gift recommendations	$9.90💰	Showcase your products to clients

Okay, let’s go over the Christmas email ideas for business one by one, starting with some free options.

1. Teal Winter Illustrative Christmas template

These free Christmas email templates are minimalistic but elegant. You need to log in to Canva to use them, but the process of signing up shouldn’t take longer than a minute or two. You can customize the template to your needs by changing, removing, or adding any of the elements, like graphics, video, music, and text. 

And once you finish personalizing the newsletter, you can download it in the file type that suits you best. Available file types include PNG, JPG, PDF, GIF, and MP4 video. You can also freely share this holiday newsletter idea with any of your employees so they can view or even edit it.

Canva is also available on mobile devices, so you can edit, download, and play around with these Christmas business newsletters on the go. 

Recipients: 

• Best for sending to employees and partners of your company

Main benefits:

• Fully customizable
• Can be shared and published on any channel
• Millions of images, icons, and graphics available 
• Downloadable in JPG, PDF, GIF, and other file formats 

Price:

• Free to use

2. Friendly business holiday newsletter 

With these free holiday email templates, you can include some tips for Xmas preparations alongside the “Happy Holidays” wishes. You’ll need to learn how to use Canva to make the most out of it, but the platform is straightforward, so you can quickly understand its functions.

After signing up for a free account, you get instant access to this holiday newsletter example, as well as many other layouts. 

You can fully customize it with thousands of different elements, such as images, icons, and graphics. This idea also lets you share some recommendations for Christmas decor, meals, and other preparations. 

Recipients:

• Best for small businesses who want to show how their products can help customers with preparations
• Great family Christmas email templates when you want to include some DIY holiday tips and suggestions for your close ones

Main benefits:

• Edit and download on any device 
• Share and publish on any channel
• Wide variety of graphics, photos, and videos 
• Collaborate in real-time with other team members

Price:

• Free to use
• Premium ($10/month)

Read more: Learn how to use Tidio’s contact list and save emails from your site’s visitors into segments automatically.

3. Modern Christmas newsletter

This is one of the best holiday newsletter ideas because it helps you share the festive spirit with your customers and attract the churned clients back to your doors. You can download this template straight away and personalize it in Photoshop, HTML, or Outlook. 

This is one of the editable Christmas newsletter templates that is modern and has a dark background with beautiful design. It’s clear but captivating to help you attract customers to click through to your store and use the special offers you have in stock.

You can fully customize the look of this free Christmas newsletter example to match your needs. So, if you prefer to go with a different color scheme because your company’s primary color is blue, then go ahead and tweak it. This way, your subscribers will get a familiar look when they open your email.

Recipients:

• Best for attracting churned customers back
• You can also send it to your existing customers and include a special gift for them

Main benefits:

• Fully customizable
• Useful suggestions for the text input
• Easy to use for beginners
• Download in PSD, Outlook, and HTML

Price:

• Free to use

Read more: Learn more about what ecommerce customer retention is and strategies to build stronger relations. Check out some of the best retention software and what it can help you with.

4. Christmas card newsletter

It’s more of an addition to your December campaign. This template is in the form of a Christmas card and adds an extra personalized touch for your clients.

Depending on your brand’s image and personality, you can make it fun and quirky or heartwarming and uplifting. 

It brings modern twists to the classic December newsletter template and includes an editable front and back. You need to sign up to be able to use this free holiday newsletter example. But once you do, you can change the photos by simply double-clicking on the images, and the same goes for the text. This saves you time because you create the card in mere minutes. 

Recipients:

• Everyone you’re sending a Christmas letter to
• Best for sending alongside your email to add an extra personal touch

Main benefits:

• Easily customizable
• Simple design
• Double-sided
• Printable version available for download

Price:

• Free to use

Moving on—

Those were the free Christmas newsletter templates you could edit and use for your campaigns. Now let’s go through some of the best paid options out there.

5. Year-in-review business Christmas newsletter

This is one of the Christmas work newsletter ideas perfect for an end-of-the-year recap as it lets you celebrate and share the big accomplishments. 

For this holiday newsletter template, you get an email with instructions on how to use it, how to crop photos, and general information about printing it right after your payment. There are three layouts included in the email, and you can use any of them.

All the photos and text are customizable, but the font stays the same. You’ll need seven landscape photos (6×4 format) and three vertical photos (4×6 format). The photos can be in BMP, PNG, JPG, and GIF files for your convenience and freedom of personalization. These sample holiday newsletters are available as a digital download in PDF and are designed to look best in letter size (8.5 x 11 inches). 

 Recipients:

• Best for sending to employees
• Perfect as a family Christmas newsletter with family photos and family members’ milestones

Main benefits:

• Instructions and advice provided 
• Designed for both print and digital format 
• All text and images are customizable
• Only PDF download 

Price:

• $20

6. Sale newsletter

Santa already arrived at your store and brought some Christmas sales in his bag? This holiday newsletter example is the perfect solution to display your products. And you’ll get instant access to this one and many others on the website after signing up for an account.

The design of this Christmas email template with the ticking clock will create a feeling of a last-minute chance to get your products. It can also engage a type of customer who fears missing out. 

You can drag and drop elements to edit all the text and photos. It’s fully responsive for mobile devices, and it helps you show your products clearly and effectively without distracting the potential customer.

This fun Christmas newsletter idea works on most email service providers, such as Outlook, Gmail, MailChimp, etc., so you can send your campaign easily and fast. It was tested on 57 email services, and you can export it to HTML email builder, Outlook, Gmail, and MailChimp.

Recipients:

• Best for sending to your customers who abandoned their shopping carts

Main benefits:

• Drag-and-drop editor
• Fully responsive 
• Exports to Gmail, Outlook, MailChimp, etc.
• Simple design

Price:

• Pricing plans for unlimited templates from $19 to $69/mo
• Free 14-day trial available

Read more: Learn how to write effective abandoned cart emails, why people abandon their carts, and how to increase your cart recovery rate.

7. Christmas offer newsletter

Sales are common and popular in this Holiday season. To jump on that trend, you need a newsletter. But not just any newsletter. You need a funny Christmas newsletter template to engage customers to click through and start their holiday shopping with your sales. 

That’s what these sample holiday newsletters are all about. They’re not classy or chic, but they will bring a smile to the faces of your clients.

You can customize the text on the template, but the design will stay the same. It’s easy to print out and use as a digital product. So, you can send your Christmas holiday wishes to customers both as a physical copy and an email campaign.

Recipients:

• Best for sending customers to easy-going businesses

Main benefits:

• Easily printable
• Customizable text
• Simple to use

Price:

• Free to use

Read more: Discover how Endeksa used Tidio to boost its lead generation by 138%.

8. Christmas newsletter with gift suggestions

If you want to show your products as gift recommendations for loved ones, this is an elegant and stylish way to present them. You get an email after making the payment. It includes a link to the template available in Canva and instructions for accessing it.

You can edit this unique Christmas email by changing the colors, text, images, and other elements. Then, download the finished work to send out or share with colleagues to gain their opinions first. 

This gift guide is not directly compatible with Mailchimp or other email marketing platforms. The file must be exported from Canva and then uploaded directly to the email marketing campaign.

Recipients:

• Best for ecommerce boutiques to showcase the products to customers as perfect gift suggestions

Main benefits:

• Fully customizable 
• Easy export as a PDF file 
• Instructions for accessing the template included

Price:

• $12

Christmas newsletter follow-up

Christmas email marketing doesn’t stop at Christmas. After the Christmas cheer has been shared with family and friends, it’s time for your prospects to treat themselves to some deals. So, send out post-Xmas newsletters and messages with special offers to your clients.

You can include New Year’s wishes and make the receiver feel special with your email. This can improve customer experience with your business and boost your brand image. 

Here are some New Year newsletter ideas:

• Year-end and post-Christmas special deals
• Extensions on the sales for loyal customers
• Discounts on Christmas-themed items

Remember to be understanding to the people who missed your deals because they were spending family time with their loved ones. The best end-of-year newsletter ideas include extending your wishes, being genuine, and appreciating their loyalty to your company.

Also, try using an AI chatbot, like Lyro, to promote post-Christmas deals and offer support for exchanges or returns. This will ease the workload of your customer service reps and provide instant support to your client straight from your website pages. 

Support Christmas newsletter subscribers with Lyro AI

It’s important to have active customer service on your website and communication channels to support visitors. Especially during the Holiday season. 

And if you’re running sales and offering discount codes promoted in your newsletter, it’s convenient for your clients to be able to get their questions answered right away on your site. 

So, implement Lyro to ensure your customers get instant help and your business doesn’t lose any sales. This chatbot can distribute discount codes, answer all of the common inquiries, and recommend products to your website visitors.

Give it a go today!