November 18, 2025
The holiday season is the loudest time of year on social media. Feeds fill up with gift guides, sales, countdowns and sentimental posts, and it becomes very easy for brands to disappear in the noise. As a social media agency, we live in that space every day, and we know how much difference strong visual design can make, especially in December, when attention is short and competition is fierce.
Holiday design is not just about adding snowflakes and glitter. It is about creating content that feels festive, stays recognisably on-brand and actually supports marketing goals. That looks very different for B2C and B2B brands, so our approach always starts with the audience.
B2C vs B2B: Different Goals, Different Feeds
For B2C brands, the holiday season is emotional and fast-paced. People are scrolling for ideas, buying gifts, planning events and reacting on impulse. Visuals need to grab attention instantly on a mobile screen. We lean into rich colour, warm imagery and very clear messaging. Offers, deadlines and benefits need to be readable in one or two seconds. Phrases like “Last chance”, “Order by [date]” or “Gifts under £X” work well when they are treated as design elements, not just lines of copy dropped on top.
Video and short-form formats matter a lot here: Reels, Stories and TikToks become key spaces for storytelling. We design covers and opening frames that communicate the main idea straight away, so even users who do not watch the full clip still understand the message. For B2C, a bit more sparkle, playfulness, and motion are usually welcome, as long as it does not make the core information hard to read.
B2B feels very different. Decision makers are closing the year, reviewing performance and planning budgets for the next one. They are less likely to be shopping for a Christmas discount and more interested in results, relationships and reliability. On platforms like LinkedIn, we keep holiday visuals cleaner and more restrained: more white space, a calmer palette with subtle festive accents, and layouts that highlight numbers and key points.
Instead of gift guides and flash sales, we often design year-in-review posts, case study highlights, “thank you to our clients” messages and previews of what is coming next year. The design reflects that: fewer decorations, stronger focus on data and headlines, and content that feels like a professional wrap-up rather than a seasonal advert. The brand should still feel human and warm, just not overly informal or chaotic.
Keeping Holiday Design On-Brand
Whatever the audience, we start with the brand and then layer the holiday mood on top. A quick way for festive content to feel cheap is to abandon brand guidelines completely. Instead, we extend them.
With colour, we take the existing brand palette and add two or three seasonal accents that fit. A cool, tech-driven brand might add a soft silver and a muted gold. A lifestyle brand with bright tones might introduce a deeper red and a forest green for December. Those accents appear in backgrounds, gradients, frames, buttons and small graphic details, while the core colours still do most of the work. Users should be able to recognise the brand even if the logo is tiny. We also design mobile-first. That means keeping important text big, avoiding long lines, and checking that layouts still work within the safe areas of platforms like Instagram.
Design Tricks That Work in the Holiday Rush
Carousels are one of our favourite tools at this time of year. For B2C brands, we treat them like mini landing pages. The first slide carries the hook – a strong visual and a very direct message. The following slides break down products, bundles or ideas, and the final slide gives a clear next step, such as visiting a link in bio or tapping through to a collection. For B2B clients, carousels are perfect for summarising the year: a headline on the first slide, a few slides of results and stories, and a closing slide inviting people to talk about next year’s plans.
Motion is another powerful trick, but we use it carefully. A subtle glow on a button, a slight shimmer on a headline or a gentle snow effect in the background can help a post stand out without turning it into a distraction. For B2B content, we tend to keep animation minimal: perhaps numbers that count up, graphs that draw themselves in, or a smooth transition between case study points. The test is simple: if the animation makes the message clearer or more memorable, it stays; if it just adds visual noise, it goes.
We also design with repurposing in mind. A single good photoshoot can support static posts, carousels, Reels covers, Stories and website banners. A well-designed infographic for a B2B client can be split into slides, turned into a short video, adapted for a presentation and reused in emails. This does not only save time; it also keeps visual identity consistent across every touchpoint in a very crowded season.
Accessibility and Final Checks
Holiday designs can easily go too far with low-contrast colours, busy backgrounds and tiny type. That not only makes content harder to enjoy; it can also reduce engagement and exclude part of the audience. We make a point of checking contrast, especially when using classic seasonal combinations like red and green, and we avoid placing essential copy over very detailed imagery. Key information is kept large enough to read comfortably on a small screen.
Where platforms allow it, we add alt text to images and captions to videos, especially when sound might be off by default. This helps more people access the message and quietly improves performance.
Before signing off any festive creative, we run through a simple mental checklist: does this still look like the brand, even with holiday styling; is the main message clear at a glance on a phone; does the tone match the audience, whether B2C or B2B; and does the design lead towards a clear next step, whether that is a click, a save, a share or simply a stronger connection with the brand. If the answer is yes, then the post is ready to join the holiday scroll with a real chance of being noticed. Get in touch with us if you want to elevate your festive game.