Christmas packaging: how to design one

Creating a Christmas packaging, as well as being a great way to promote your business and to make your brand known, means getting straight to your customers' hearts, making them excited thanks to the Christmas spirit and feeling special. The key, therefore, lies in finding the best way to present your products during this holiday period, adding a personal Christmas touch and going to produce packaging ad hoc for the occasion.
 
 
Even if Christmas still seems far away, in reality, it will be a moment that we will find ourselves during coloured lights, Santa Clauses, and Christmas decorations. At the end of the year, the Christmas spirit is felt more and more, and in this, the Christmas packaging does its part.
 
Creating a  Christmas packaging with a unique and quality design always proves to be an effective way to promote your business or make your brand or product known. Especially to medium-small firms, it becomes essential to stand out from the competition.
 
In a previous article, we talked about how vital Christmas marketing is for a brand, and we gave you some marketing for Christmas to put in place to be able to move at your best during this holiday season. Today, however, we want to see with you how to create a Christmas packaging that highlights your product and your brand and give you some tips to design it with ease. Find out what are our tips for creating your own Christmas packaging!
 

Christmas' colours: choosing the right ones

Everyone knows, the two absolute colours par excellence that they remember at Christmas are green and red. The range of Christmas colours can undoubtedly be more comprehensive, but these two will always remain a certainty. By using red and green for your Christmas packaging, even if only for trim details, you can't go wrong. The reference will be immediately apparent to everyone. The use of these two colours in a Christmas package creates a clear link with the period of the year. And if you don't have in mind to create a Christmas packaging in all respects, you could still think of inserting a small detail that brings back the colours of Christmas.
 
The green-red combination is lovely and representative of Christmas. However, it is not suitable for any brand. The use of gold, associated with white or black, turns out to be an exquisite solution even for more minimal brands and luxury. On the other hand, if you want to get a more elegant touch, rather than a "welcoming" one, we can rely on the timeless gold, black and white. And if you play with the typical colour of Kraft paper, even the simple use of white, printed in screen printing, can give life to an excellent Christmas packaging, straightforward and clean but effective.
 

Symbols & Icons

The colour sure helps to recreate the Christmas spirit, but maybe not as much as the pictures. Choosing typical Christmas symbols and icons to create a pattern that acts as a background for your packaging will make it clear to everyone that yours is a Christmas packaging explicitly designed for the occasion. But be careful. It is essential to know how to choose the correct symbols
 
Golden stars, snowflakes, Santa Claus, gift packages, candied fruit, reindeer, bells and Christmas trees, whoever has more; whether you want to create a minimal or more elaborate packaging, you will not go wrong starting with one or more of these symbols. Use them to create a pattern or choose some to use in detail; try to combine them wisely, like in Christmas sweaters.
If you know how to choose the correct symbols, regardless of the combination of colours you choose, they will immediately recall the holiday period and convey the typical magic.
 
To put them on your packaging, you can act in 2 ways: draw them from scratch or find a vector version online. Many free images and vector sites can help you with this. I would recommend Freepik; here, you will find many resources available also for free and downloadable that you can use within your projects. [P.S. Remember to check the Licenses of the resources you use, whether images, videos, or audio].
 

Typographic Font

Another small detail that can make a difference is the choice of font. The character, as well as the icons, is remarkably evocative. It can bring back a memory and arouse emotions, so you have to know how to choose it carefully, to be able to recreate the Christmas spirit. Some typographic fonts can already remember Christmas by themselves. In contrast, others acquire a Christmas touch only when combined with certain elements such as illustrations and colours, so understand which ones are the most suitable.
 
In any case, if you want to recreate the right atmosphere for Christmas packaging, you have to rely on calligraphic-style typefaces, which always turn out to be very traditional and elegant. At Christmas, the tradition fits perfectly. An alternative to calligraphic ones can instead be retro-looking fonts, such as those that recreate typing, or those that were used in posters or on book covers; both when used in combination with Christmas colours such as red, white and gold, they allow to obtain a Christmas touch of solid impact.
 

Special Workings: so on and so forth

The possibilities of digital printing are almost infinite, and at our disposal, there are now several unique processes, which you can use in your projects. Go beyond print and think big. The embossing is an excellent solution for luxury brands who want to make their packaging even more elegant and sophisticated. It represents a complete detail and is always very effective.
Use hot foil to highlight some details of your packaging; it will add value and a pinch of Christmas spirit to the simplest of products and offer a unique finishing touch. If you don't have a particular project in mind, you can even think about hot stamping your brand; you will see how the result will change already.
 

Right material

The natural colour of the Kraft paper, the classic beige-brown typical of this paper, always makes it very versatile for different packaging solutions. A slightly rustic design immediately creates a sense of familiar "warmth" and knows how to make the most of its simplicity. Furthermore, it represents one of the most sustainable solutions that a brand can choose. They are the right choice to give that touch of sustainability to the Christmas packaging of its brand.
 

Custom inserts and internal dividers

Another helpful idea for your Christmas packaging, not in terms of graphics, but structure and functionality, can be adding internal dividers and inserts of various types. By doing so, your packaging will remain tidier when opened, and your products will be more protected as they will not be able to move. One of those minor details makes the difference; this type of foresight will give the customer greater attention in producing the pack.
 

Customized Labels

If you don't feel like creating Christmas packaging from scratch or already have a supply of boxes that you want to reuse, labels are the right solution for you. Labels always prove to be an excellent solution, also in terms of costs, as they represent a simple detail that allows you to use your usual packaging and make it personalized with minimal effort. A simple cardboard box can look different with a custom-designed label. Just draw it in a Christmas theme, and you have created an excellent Christmas packaging.
 

Some more advice...

Remember that helpful information must always be relevant. The Christmas spirit must not distract your attention from the main objective, which is to sell the product and provide all the necessary information with it.
 
Don't forget the excellent taste. In the last article, we saw how important it is for a brand to produce personalized Christmas packaging, but be careful not to be too excessive with elements that resemble Christmas; it is good to use them but not to the detriment of good taste!
 
 

Here are some tips we thought we'd share with you! Unleash your creativity to create packaging that conveys the Christmas spirit. And don't forget, if you need to print your personalized Christmas packaging, don't hesitate to contact the Labelado Team, we will be happy to accompany you on this little Christmas adventure!
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