Christmas newsletter ideas and templates for your festive campaign

7 Christmas newsletter ideas and examples from popular brands

A great Christmas newsletter is a combination of a great idea, a stunning design, and a killer email subject line – and at Sinch Mailjet we’ve decided to help you out with all three.

Coming up with a creative idea that will wow your audience and outshine the competition might sound hard, but this collation of Christmas email ideas is here to inspire your next festive campaign. We’ve even illustrated each of them with an example from a top brand that really hit it out of the park with their Christmas-themed newsletter. We’ll outline the key idea, what makes it great, and what we like about its execution.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at some Christmas newsletter examples.

#1 The Holiday bundle

We all know how effective cross-selling and upselling can be at driving revenue during the Christmas season. However, implementing an effective email campaign strategy that markets various, often unrelated products can be a challenge.

This Christmas email from New York City FC is a great example of how to combine different products by creating a holiday bundle – almost like a sort of Christmas hamper. Where else would you find a beanie, soccer tickets, and a lottery scratch card?

What we like:

• It’s a nice spin on your typical sales email that looks to boost sales by leveraging the Christmas spirit and holiday cheer.

• The color and Merry Christmas design scheme makes those unrelated products seem, well, related.

• Some of the items included are unique to this holiday season pack, creating a sense of FOMO if you were not to buy.

• The scratch card might seem random at first sight, but if you look carefully, you’ll see New York City FC partnered with the local New Jersey Lottery to create this unique, exclusive offering.

#2 The Christmas calendar

Who doesn’t love a Christmas calendar? Arguably, other than Santa himself, the reindeers, and a Christmas tree, calendars might be one of the most iconic symbols of the festive period – especially the edible ones. American online retailer Nasty Gal knows it, too. And while their digital version is unfortunately of the inedible kind, they were able to create a calendar to remind loyal customers of important shipping dates around the Christmas period, including valuable information around their shipping conditions.

What we like:

• The information is extremely useful to readers. How many times have you sweated on a present arriving pre-Christmas? More than once we think!

• Not only is the information useful, but it’s laid out in a way that’s easy for readers to digest.

• There’s a bit of clever world play with the title HOLY SHIP(PING)! that fits with their brand identity and stands out to readers. Always a good thing during the season of overcrowded inboxes.

• This design could be shared across social media, extending its use across the Christmas holiday marketing campaign. It might be possible to create a printable version, too.

#3 The last-minute shopping miracle

It’s December 20, the high street stores don’t have the gift you’re after, and you’re running out of options. So, what do you do? Panic, probably – vengeance from disappointed family members should be avoided at Xmas if possible. We don’t know what it is, but it’s in people’s nature to leave things to the very last minute – especially when it comes to holiday shopping.

Pet care brand Finn is aware of this and found a great marketing opportunity around it. They decided to give their last-minute buyers a little wiggle room, and even a nice reward for their tardiness.

What we like:

• Finn turned a customer problem into a marketing opportunity, delivering the kind of value that any frantic shopper would appreciate at a time like Christmas.

• The use of bright, contrasting, on-brand colors help the holiday newsletter stand out in a busy inbox.

• Did you notice they’ve also included the holiday bundling tactic, too? Remember, by bundling products or services together, you create an attractive package that not only simplifies the decision-making process for your customer, but also adds a sense of value.

• Finn also throw in a freebie Wall Calendar with any new subscription or bundle purchase, and...who doesn’t like a free gift at Christmas?

#4 The creative copywriting

When sitting down to write a holiday newsletter, had you thought about channeling your inner Robert Burns? Or drawing inspiration from the likes of William Wordsworth or Emily Dickinson?

No? Well, the team at G2 did, and produced this refreshingly original Christmas email, reminding subscribers that for every software review they submit to the platform, they would receive a $10 – the perfect gift!

Feels different, right?

What we like:

• With so many brands sending Christmas newsletters, G2’s poetic approach to copywriting offers a refreshing take on holiday emails. Making the reader smile goes a long way during such a busy period.

• The design layout is also simple and easy to read – a white backdrop with a light font, and no additional fluff.

• You immediately know you’re reading a poem with the four-line stanza structure, with the Christmas email finishing with a clear, contrasting CTA.

• The poem reminds readers of a traditional Christmas letter or Christmas card, again a novelty during our digital-heavy era.

#5 The educational newsletter

Incorporating educational content can set your Christmas newsletter apart from the sea of holiday season promotions filling up your subscribers’ inboxes. While everyone is busy showcasing their products and special offers, providing informative content adds a refreshing and unique touch to your communication.

It also helps to engage your audience on a different level, demonstrating that your brand is not only interested in selling but also in enriching the customer experience.

A well-executed example of this tactic is 8AM Creative’s newsletter, which includes a holiday season gift guide for subscribers who aren’t sure what to buy for friends and family this Christmas.

What we like:

• The sarcasm and irony intertwined within the copy is spot on with their brand voice:

  • There’s something for everyone, but nothing they really want.

• There’s a clear, standout CTA in a contrasting color – a highly effective tactic for improving your conversion rates.

• They also hint at some of the gift ideas you can expect to find within the guide, both within the grey banner and the images littered throughout the Christmas email. This form of teaser will encourage people to click on the CTA.

#6 The interactive email gift

Including an element of interactive content in your Christmas newsletter – such as quizzes, polls, or clickable images – captures the attention of your audience and encourages them to actively participate. This not only makes your newsletter more enjoyable but also increases the likelihood of your subscribers spending more time with your content.

In the true spirit of Saint Nicholas himself, LevelUp did just that by gifting their subscribers four interactive presents. All readers had to do was click the “Open me” button to virtually unwrap each box to discover what was inside.

What we like:

• The novelty of this present-opening email design will offer readers something different, something critical during such a busy season. Different makes memorable, and that’s exactly what you should be aiming to be during this competitive period.

• Interactive content is also key in boosting subscriber engagement. Enabling recipients to act without leaving the inbox improves conversions and simplifies the path to purchase.

• The simplicity of the email newsletter is also striking. One sentence and four presents, all labeled with an inviting “Open me” CTA. Who wouldn’t unwrap each one to find out what’s inside?

#7 The fundraising opportunity

You know what they say: Tis the season of giving! Christmas is widely recognized as a period of enhances solidarity and generosity. We are often in a more charitable and philanthropic mindset, making us more inclined to support worthy causes.

So, why make your Christmas newsletter all about selling or making profit? There’s no better time to connect with your audience – human to human. If you’re associated with a charity or – like many companies do – just looking to raise funds for a particular cause, there’s no better time to do so than at Christmas.

This is exactly what B2B marketing agency 1973 did (well, sort of). The team at 1973 organized a multiple-choice quiz where a randomly chosen winner that answered the questions correctly got to donate a set sum to a charity of their choosing.

What do we like:

• It shows a more human side of the company – something that’s often forgotten in B2B.

• It ties in perfectly with the Christmas gift-giving spirit and ultimately, it’s for a fantastic cause.

• It’s a great way to involve your audience. Not only are you donating to a charity of their choice but also using an interactive quiz to engage them.

• There’s an option to share the Christmas email with friends and family – another useful tactic for raising brand awareness.

• An important detail was included in the small print regarding rules. This is vital if you’re running a form of quiz or competition to avoid problems down the line.

If you want to get a full run-down on how to launch a holiday email marketing campaign, such as setting goals, content creation, and design ideas, check out this complete holiday emailing guide.

Christmas newsletter templates for your seasonal campaigns

So, we’ve given you some ideas on what content you could include in your Christmas newsletter, but wouldn’t it be nice to not have to start from scratch when it comes to designing your next campaign?

With Sinch Mailjet Email Editor, that’s one piece of the Christmas puzzle you don’t need to worry about. You’ll be able to use our newsletter template builder and our editable pre-set holiday email templates.

A selection of pre-built templates available in Mailjet’s email editor tool

Our template gallery includes a great selection of for all your holiday email needs – think Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, Halloween, as well as Christmas, of course.

To give you a better idea of what to expect of our editable templates, we’ve added some Christmassy examples below.

Christmas email newsletters

Traditional Christmas email newsletters aren’t necessarily 100% focused on showcasing every product that’s on sale. You might want to educate readers around the holiday season instead.

For example, imagine you own a tire company. While Christmas is the perfect time to promote an offer on your especially adapted Winter tires, it’s also timely to educate your customers on safe road usage, perhaps through a recently written guide. In this case, you’d need a Christmas email template that combines several different elements into one.

Let’s look at some examples from Sinch Mailjet’s template gallery.

Our “Holiday Chocolate”, “New Year’s Eve”, and “New Year Newsletter” templates give email senders the option to mix and match different content elements into their campaign to create their own personalized newsletter.

The “New Year’s Eve” template offers a main section above the fold for your most important element and CTA, and all templates offer the opportunity to showcase different products and promote content through the image placements and text blocks.

If you want to include blog content or featured articles, check out the dedicated section at bottom of the “Holiday Chocolate” template. You can change the order and push it towards the top if you want that section to stand out more in your Christmas campaign.

Christmas email promotions

While the holiday period is an opportune time to share educational content, there’s also no denying it’s a peak shopping period for your customers. By showcasing your products in a Christmas-themed newsletter, you leverage the heightened consumer interest, potentially leading to increased sales opportunities.

Let’s look at some of our templates that maximize the impact of your promotional campaigns:

Our “Holiday Gifts”, “Happy Holidays”, “Holiday sales”, and “Let it snow” email templates all offer different ways to showcase your products and offers.

The pre-built image galleries in the “Holiday Gifts” and “Happy Holidays” templates are ideal for uploading products that you may have going on offer around the festive period, or even for creating a holiday bundle for loved ones. The “Happy Holidays” template even includes a dedicated banner to highlight any potential savings – and features great Christmas décor too!

If you’d like to draw attention to just two or three items in your promotional email, then you can select larger image files from the gallery, as shown in the “Holiday Sale” and “Let it snow” templates.

And remember – you can tailor the templates and move sections around to create a Christmas campaign that really matches your needs!

Season’s greetings

Look, it doesn’t all have to be about sales, discounts, and last-minute shopping offers. At the end of the day, Christmas is all about connecting as humans, and wishing subscribers a genuine Happy Holidays creates a sense of warmth and personal connection between them and your brand.

Let’s have a look at a couple of our example templates:

Both our “New Year” and “Let it snow” templates feature a minimalist design that gives the email message space to breathe. Most importantly, it makes it seem genuine, as there’s no promotional content lurking behind the wrapping paper.

Minimally designed templates often have faster loading times, which is crucial with many of your subscribers checking emails on various devices (particularly on mobile). So, if you’re just looking to send a nice message to subscribers, opt for one of these.

Create festive-filled Christmas newsletters with Mailjet’s template builder

Excited about trying one of our Christmas newsletter templates to kick off your festive email marketing campaign?

Then go right ahead! You can find our templates in Mailjet’s Email Editor, which is available free of charge to all users. All you need to do is create a Sinch Mailjet account and begin designing your brand-new campaign.

And remember – no matter how good your holiday email is, if it finds itself banished to a spam folder nobody will read it. So before you press send, find out more about email deliverability best practices around the Christmas period.