9 Examples of High Converting Christmas Email Newsletters [+ Subject Lines]

Email DesignNataly Birch and Andrian Valeanu • December 14, 2023 • 11 minutes READ

It is the most wonderful time of the year, including the email marketing universe.

The great thing about Christmas is that subscribers are already primed to make purchases. Everyone is seeking presents for loved ones in December. Therefore, all you have to do is push your audience a little bit and channel their initiative in the right direction.

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Crafting Perfect Christmas Email Templates

Christmas is a time for joy, warmth, and connection with our loved ones. Sending a Christmas email is a modern and convenient way to spread holiday cheer and keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. This guide will help you create the perfect Christmas email, from the subject line to the sign-off, with tips on personalization, design, and content.

1. Choosing an Engaging Subject Line: Your subject line is crucial, as it determines whether or not recipients open your email. Make it personal, festive, and attention-grabbing. Examples include:

• “A Merry Update from the [Your Last Name] Family!”
• “Sending Warm Wishes for a Joyful Christmas Season”
• “Unwrap Our Christmas Newsletter – Full of Love and Laughter”

2. Personalize Your Greetings: Begin your email with a warm and personalized greeting, addressing the recipient by name if possible. This makes the email feel more intimate and thoughtful. For instance:

• “Dear [Recipient’s Name],”
• “Hello, [Recipient’s Name]!”
• “Warmest Christmas Greetings, [Recipient’s Name]!”

3. Design and Layout: To make your Christmas email visually appealing, consider incorporating the following elements:

• Festive colors: Use traditional Christmas colors like red, green, gold, and silver to set the mood.
• Themed templates: Many email platforms offer holiday-themed templates that can help you create a polished and festive design with ease.
• Images: Include personal photos or festive illustrations to make your email more engaging.

4. Share Updates and Highlights: Use the email as an opportunity to share highlights from your year or recent events. Consider including:

• Family news: Share updates about your family members, such as new jobs, graduations, or major milestones.
• Travel and experiences: Mention any exciting trips or experiences you’ve had during the year.
• Photos: Showcase your favorite memories from the year with a few well-chosen photos.

5. Express Gratitude and Well Wishes: Take the time to express gratitude for the recipient’s friendship or support during the year. Then, extend warm wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Examples include:

• “We’re so grateful for your friendship and support throughout the year.”
• “Wishing you all the happiness your holiday can hold!”
• “May the magic and wonder of the season fill your heart and home.”

6. Sign-Off with Warmth: End your email with a heartfelt sign-off. Examples of festive sign-offs are:

• “Warmest Wishes,”
• “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,”
• “With Love and Joy,”

Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns

Today’s strategies for Christmas email campaigns include two stages.

Everything begins with sneak peeks and preview emails that stir up interest, nurture subscribers, increase excitement, and hook the audience. Christmas shopping season kicks off on BFCM weekend. Therefore, you can start sending out email newsletters filled with festive vibes at the beginning of December.

Get a head start by sending an email on the first of the month. Send subsequent reminders about your store or products once or twice a week, choosing the best time for your clients. Remember, pushing too hard can turn off potential buyers, so make it unobtrusive. Use personalization to open the dialogue with the right tone to meet the mood of the crowd and keep the holiday season going.

Email Newsletter from Party Pieces

Starbucks

The Next Stage

The second stage begins on the eve or right during celebrations. Christmas and the days that surround it – usually one day before and one day after – are the perfect time for stellar offers. Send out the best deals, engage people with extra perks, and make this day magical.

Contacts will be bombarded with email newsletters from retailers as well as friends and relatives. However, if you did everything right with the sneak peeks, then you will easily get through.

The Post-Christmas Stage

For some email marketers, not everything ends on Christmas day. Keep going with the campaign. The third stage includes the post-Christmas email newsletters. It is used to get the most out of the festive mood. After all, New Year’s celebrations are coming, and people will be in good spirits. Plan post-Christmas email newsletters to coincide with the New Year’s rush, creating a consistent experience.

Subject Lines

If you fail with the subject line, then you will fail with everything else. Creating an attention-grabbing headline that compels users to open the email newsletter is crucial.

What can you do to create the high-converting subject line? Here are useful tips:

• Start with congratulations. It’s obvious yet effective, especially on such a magical day as Christmas.
• Invoke curiosity, hinting about a mystery gift inside.
• Highlight the value of your offer from the first seconds.
• Point out urgency. It goes without saying that Christmas offers are time-sensitive; however, it does not hurt to remind contacts with properly chosen words like Sale Ends Tonight, Only Today, Final Hours, etc.
• Play the FOMO (fear of missing out) card.
• Use puns. Christmas is a family holiday; therefore, it is quite reasonable to use puns to create a cordial and friendly mood as well as show everyone that you are also in high spirits.
• Use emojis. There is a whole bunch of seasonal glyphs that instantly bring a festive spirit to contacts’ inboxes.

Christmassy subject lines to try:

1. The Very Merry Sale!
2. Happy Holidays!
3. Christmas Deals starts now!
4. The Most Wanted Christmas gifts!
5. Christmas is ALMOST Here!
6. Add some sparkle to Christmas dinner!
7. What Makes The Perfect Gift? 50% OFF Everything!
8. Fun & Festive Holiday Picks!
9. Christmas MIRACLE! 40% OFF Everything!
10. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!
11. Jingle bells! Jingle bells rock! 60% OFF!
12. The Joy of Giving! The Christmas Sale is on!
13. Last-minute Gifts, Santa-Approved!
14. Heigh-Ho! Heigh-Ho! It’s Off to Gifts We Go!
15. Share Joy!
16. Under the tree, shipped for free!
17. Ho-Ho-WHOA! 50% OFF!
18. Ho Ho Ho…Christmas starts today!
19. Santa’s worked his magic! Get 30% Off‏!
20. The Stocking Stuffers to please anyone!
21. Deals as red-hot as Rudolph’s nose!
22. Enjoy Rudolph-tastic Christmas gift offers!
23. Day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas!

What’s more, spice things up with festive emojis. Use glyphs that show:

• Christmas tree
• Elf
• Deer
• Cookie
• Family
• Snowflake
• Snowman
• Wrapped gift, and more

Ideas for Christmas Email Marketing Campaigns

During the Christmas holiday season, you can try various shopping incentives. The most popular and beneficial ideas are the following.

#1. Gift buying guides

The first rule of every high-converting email newsletter is to share content that delivers value to subscribers. Vigilantly created gift guides are one of the best ways to realize it in practice. Remember your audience will make purchases not only for themselves but also for relatives, friends, and even colleagues. Therefore, inspire those who are in doubt.

Gift Well From SchoolHouse

#2. Wishlists

Unlike the previous email newsletter, this one should include stuff that customers were interested in during the year. It is here where you need to analyze buyer preferences to hit right to the point.

Wishlist from Free People

1973 Ltd

#3. 12 Days of Christmas

Run the Gift marathon is a true way to bring the Christmas season into digital expanses. It will help to boost anticipation, hook contacts to Christmas emails, and keep them intrigued. Make every offer count and, most importantly, valid during the day.

12 Days of Christmas from J.Crew Factory

#4. Rewards

Offering something special in the Christmas spirit is a normal thing. Everyone does that. And you know what? It works because people like presents. If you can’t give something material away, you can always create digital stuff like printable stickers for Christmas or even an ebook with tips on how to survive the holiday.

Email Newsletter from Fundbox

#5. Thanks and Congratulations

The Christmas holiday season is one of the most awaited events; it is one of those beloved holidays when the magic happens. Therefore, sometimes, it can be truly beneficial to show your gratitude to the audience and congratulate them with a beautiful digital card.

Saying thanks helps to build stronger relationships, contribute to the overall email marketing strategy, and enhance the brand identity.

Happy Holidays from J Jill

Curate Labs

Examples of High-Converting Christmas Email Template

It goes without saying that the design of an email newsletter should stay in line with the festive season. Top off your email with some Christmassy stuff, sprinkle it with golden glitter, and add a touch of magic.

To get a head start, use Postcards. It enables you to build free Christmas newsletter templates with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface based on a modular system and more than 100 pre-built handcrafted blocks. Not only will you create a template that will work consistently across all mobile devices, browsers, and email readers, but also get an ESP-ready code for integration with all the popular email services such as MailChimp, Moonmail, SalesForce, etc. Use it to assemble the layout quickly, edit the content, and populate it with festive images, illustrations, and gifs.

To get some inspiration for what blocks to include, what décor to use, and what triggers to push, we have created a collection of high-converting Christmas email newsletters done by professionals.

Email Newsletter by Carol’s Daughter

Email Newsletter by Carol’s Daughter is a classic example of Christmas email blasts. Every inch of this template inspires the holiday spirits and gives off magical vibes. Background, call-to-action buttons, typography, and even graphics meet the holiday mood.

The hero area is the star of the show. It brings value to subscribers from the get-go. Since it is a flash sale, it comes as no surprise that the team has stressed urgency. They added two round clocks with moving hands before the CTA to make this message stronger.

The email newsletter from Carol’s Daughter is a pleasant symbiosis of gorgeous festive design and smart marketing tricks.

Email Newsletter from Terrain

The email newsletter from Terrain is a perfect example of how to weave brand identity with a holiday makeover. The team used the most popular products in their shop as tools for creating a magical, cozy, and homey atmosphere.

On top of that, it is a small gift ideas guide. Note there are no signs of sale whatsoever; only the best products are featured in an alluring manner, and CTA that is seamlessly integrated into the content.

This approach is excellent because your subscribers do not feel the pressure. They see the email newsletter as a suggestion enjoying its beautiful aesthetics.

Merry Christmas from Pacific Place

Much like in the previous example, the team behind Pacific Place has not departed from its brand identity. Their email newsletter strikes the tone of Christmas but still stays true to its businesslike roots.

Featuring a picture of a plastic assembly kit for Christmas day in gorgeous golden finishing, it screams holiday on all fronts as well as gives you hints about what you can get in the mall during the winter season.

Note the team has used just two colors — gold and red — to bring festive vibes to subscribers’ inboxes.

Email Newsletter from Nasty Gal

The team behind the Nasty Gal Christmas email campaign knows how to bring valuable content to the audience.  While everyone was showing the discounts, the team was informing users about shipping. It is one of those things that matters during the holiday rush. Everyone wants to get their presents on time.

The email newsletter provides subscribers with a helpful guide on how to get your order before the big day, avoiding the risk of staying disappointed during Christmas. On top of that, the team has also included several best buys to remind potential clients what is waiting for them in the store.

Email Newsletter from Godiva

When it comes to pre-Christmas campaigns, Godiva shows us how to nail it. Their first email newsletter with a Christmas vibe was sent right on Black Friday. Since it is generally believed that the winter holiday season begins on the last weekend of November, this email newsletter could not be more relevant.

The first thing that strikes the eye is the magical atmosphere achieved with the help of traditional Christmas decorations, light bulbs, and chocolates that give the design a delicious appearance. The best deal is elegantly laid on the table, and CTA is perfectly delineated. Here the atmosphere is magical, and the offer is almost literally appetizing.

Email Newsletter from Home Goods

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me… Well, of course not a partridge in a pear tree, but still something valuable and totally on point.

Home Goods treated subscribers with not just “12 Days of Christmas” but an overwhelming “30 Days of Christmas.” Their email newsletter has included the traditional calendar, where each day is marked with its own special offer. This approach builds interest from early December and keeps the audience engaged and intrigued, making them check their inboxes each day to find out what is next.

The next two email newsletters came from different companies. However, they both have demonstrated that the “less is more” approach is beneficial for any event, and Christmas is no exception.

Email Newsletter from J.Crew Factory is a one-screen email newsletter that has nothing more than just the best deal announcement and several decorative elements. Nevertheless, it is enough to establish a festive mood, draw attention toward the offer, and make people click on the link.

It is all done with just a clever illustration, animated detail, and a catchy phrase based on the beloved childish story written by Robert L. May, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Simply brilliant.

Email Newsletter from VS does not have any red nose, but it is also a high-converting Christmas email newsletter based on minimalism principles.

The email newsletter hits the point. First of all, the team included a compelling discount that occupies the lion’s share of the available space. Second, they strengthen the impact with an additional offer that covers shipping costs. Finally, they emphasized the active time window as well as stressed urgency.

On top of that, note the design. It is also minimal, yet it fits the bill. The team has used a two-tone color scheme that is spruced with some glitter giving the email newsletter a beautiful festive makeover.

Last But Not Least

Christmas stands aside from other holidays, such as Halloween or Thanksgiving with its magic atmosphere; however, when it comes to email marketing, it does not differ from the others. It obeys the same rules and benefits from the best practices. Therefore there are several things you should do to refine your campaign and achieve the best result; for instance, analyze the previous campaigns.

Analyze Previous Campaigns

Analyzing previous Christmas email campaigns is crucial. It gives you insights into what worked or what did not to steer your current campaign in the right direction. Use purchase history, customer behavior, and preferences, along with stats to figure out:

• What type of products were a success
• What kind of audience was eager to buy
• What time was the best to send blasts
• What subject lines saw the best open rates
• Did images work as effectively as illustrations or GIFs
• What marketing tricks worked
• What Christmas ideas brought the best click-through rates

On top of that, always segment. Segmented emails bring relevant content to the audience resulting in higher conversion rates.

To detect the content, subject line, and design that drive the more conversions you should do split tests as well. It’s important to make sure you overcome all limitations, and that your email newsletter is browser-compatible, works consistently across all popular email readers, and looks great on each and every mobile device.