Explore a wonderland of creativity with our handpicked Christmas card ideas. From traditional to trendy, discover the perfect way to share holiday cheer and make your greetings unforgettable.
DIY Christmas cards are so fun to create. They’re a fantastic keepsake for friends, family, coworkers, and clients, and offer a wonderful opportunity to leave an impression that will last well into the new year.
We’ve put together the ultimate guide to crafting your own homemade Christmas cards and stationery for the holiday season. From geometric, minimal Christmas cards to laser-cut holiday cards, you’ll find Christmas card ideas to suit every recipient.
How to Make Your Own Christmas Cards
Christmas cards are a simple yet memorable gesture that tells colleagues, clients, friends, and family that they’re in your thoughts at this special time of year.
DIY Christmas cards can be created by hand or with digital software. The advantage of using a design program is that you can easily edit your card design as you work, and create multiple copies of your card in a few clicks.
Joyous Christmas greetings card by Cindy Rahardja.
There’s a wide range of software apps and programs you can use to create a DIY holiday card.
For photographic or collage card designs, an image-editing app like Adobe Photoshop will do the trick.
For illustrative designs, try a vector app like Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator.
For a mixed-media card design—with text, graphics, and photos—a design layout program like Shutterstock Create or Adobe InDesign can help you bring everything together.
You can share your finished holiday card with friends and family as a printed Christmas card or a digital file.
For digital holiday cards, you can even add some easy animation effects to your Christmas card template using an online app like Shutterstock Create. Try it out!
Now that you know more about how to create your own holiday cards, you’ll likely be in need of some inspiration! Read on for DIY Christmas card ideas to help channel your festive creativity.
You’ll find a wide variety of creative card ideas, both traditional and contemporary—intricate laser-cut cards, luxurious metallic designs, grungy collages, and more.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Geometric Christmas Card Inspiration
- Collage Christmas Card Inspiration
- Folk Christmas Card Inspiration
- Metallic Christmas Card Inspiration
- Traditional Christmas Card Inspiration
- Cut-Out Christmas Card Inspiration
License this image via ArtLina.
1. Geometric Christmas Card Inspiration
Minimalist Christmas cards have become increasingly popular, and these simple yet striking holiday cards really do stand out from the crowd.
Look to geometric vector graphics and strong color palettes to create a minimalist card design for corporate Christmas cards or for an edgy alternative to traditional card styles.
Vector software like Adobe Illustrator is a great choice for crafting the perfect geometric Christmas card. Try reimagining traditional holiday elements—like Christmas trees, snowflakes, and reindeer—in their simplest geometric forms.
Tie a bow on your stripped-back design with clean sans serif fonts and bold, simple color.
Clockwise from top-left: License these images via Marish, Paul Craft, and Creativeprism.
Clockwise from top-left: Happy Holidays graphics by Yuliya Bakulina, elegant greetings cards by Darko Vujic, and minimalist Christmas cards by Marcin Zygan.
From top: License these images via Marish and Marish.
2. Collage Christmas Card Inspiration
Grunge may not be the first thing you think of when brainstorming Christmas card ideas, but these inspirational examples might change your mind.
Collage Christmas cards combine a blend of photos, textures, graphics, and doodles to create an off-beat card style.
The perfect choice for the anarchists of the family, collage Christmas cards are cool and quirky, and they’re sure to raise a smile from even the most devoted Scrooges at your annual holiday gathering.
Use a photo-editing app like Adobe Photoshop to pull together a variety of holiday collage elements, and lean into punk-inspired neon or black for an authentic grunge result.
Or, why not use pictures of friends, family members, or pets to give your card design a personal touch?
Clockwise from top-left: License these images via Master1305, Master1305, and Anton Vierietin.
License these images via Roman Samborskyi and Master1305.
License this image via Molesko Studio.
3. Folk Christmas Card Inspiration
Folk-inspired Christmas cards look to old traditions and folkloric designs, often sourced from the styles of rural Scandinavia, which have a particularly strong association with Christmas and wintertime.
Folk holiday cards tend to feature elements lifted from nature, like woodland animals, or they embrace the spirit of hygge—think cozy log cabins, roaring fires, and hand-crafted Christmas decorations.
You can use folk illustrations in a contemporary way, integrating them into a woodcut-style card design or illustrative artwork. Create a funky folk effect with bright pastel or neon colors, naive-style illustrations, and hand-drawn fonts.
These folk Christmas card ideas are truly magical, and make the perfect whimsical gift for the nature-lovers in your life.
License these card templates via Lena Solodovnikova.
4. Metallic Christmas Card Inspiration
Dial up the glamour this holiday season with a luxurious metallic Christmas card. Metallic foiling can be added to print card designs, giving your cards beautiful tactility and shine.
Alternatively, use glitter textures or metallic backgrounds on digital greeting card designs to mimic the shine and shimmer of gold, silver, and copper.
Christmas falls at the darkest time of year, so it’s no wonder we look to metallics to bring light and beauty to holiday decorations. The beauty of metallic cards is that they often only need simple designs—the metallic detail will catch the eye and do most of the aesthetic work.
Give your Christmas cards a Japanese-inspired kintsugi look with delicate gold threads or brush strokes, or look to geometric Art Deco styles to bring vintage glamour to a holiday card design.
License this image via esk1m0.
Joyous Christmas greetings cards with hot foiling by Cindy Rahardja.
5. Traditional Christmas Card Inspiration
Traditional Christmas cards might include religious imagery or references to the story of Christ’s birth, like the Star of Bethlehem or a donkey.
Alternatively, a traditional holiday card might simply look to Christmas celebrations of the past to lend inspiration for a contemporary design.
We can credit the Victorians for many of our modern Christmas traditions, including the Christmas tree and brandy-soaked Christmas pudding! As such, these traditional Christmas card ideas are heavily influenced by Victorian Christmas festivities and vintage holiday imagery (like nutcrackers, traditional Christmas foods, and Dickensian illustrations).
Cards in this style often feature ornate designs and classic Christmas colors like red and green—but that doesn’t mean traditional greeting cards have to be stuffy! You can bring a contemporary twist to a traditional style with a modern font, cartoon illustration, or symmetrical design.
Shining Light Christmas cards by Fundamental Studio.
License these images via lyeyee and Radiocat.
Laser cut Christmas cards by Zipeng Zhu.
6. Cut-Out Christmas Card Inspiration
Delicate lace patterns and crystallized ice formations provide the inspiration for this ethereal holiday card style. Cut-out Christmas cards can be used to create intricate pop-up designs or simple card creations that mimic the look of snowflakes or textiles.
You can cut out your own designs at home using a cutting board and craft knife, and many print-on-demand (POD) services offer laser-cutting prints online.
All you need for this cut-out Christmas card idea is a beautifully-designed laser-cut card template. These vector templates can be edited using vector software (like Adobe Illustrator) and prepared for printing and cutting on your computer.
Try a simple snowflake design or a laser-cut gate-fold Christmas card that opens to reveal a festive message within.
Laser cut Christmas cards by Zipeng Zhu.
Clockwise from top-left: License these images and templates via Swetapol, Aleksey Fefelov, and Abracadabra11.
License this laser-cut template via Olgastocker.
DIY Christmas cards will always bring something extra special to your festive celebrations! Whether you begin with an easy-to-edit card template, combine different graphics for a mixed-media result, or create your own unique design from scratch, your homemade holiday cards are guaranteed to delight your recipients.
Take Your Christmas Cards to the Next Level with Shutterstock Flex
Need beautiful photography to make this year’s Christmas cards pop? We’ve got you covered. With Shutterstock Flex, you’ll have all-in-one access to our massive library, plus the FLEXibility you need to select the perfect mix of assets every time.
License this cover image via olliulli.
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