Christmas Card Ideas and Trends in 2023

Lean into the childlike wonder of the holidays with a card inspired by arts and crafts! We love this trend’s doodle details, crayon-like textures, and playful use of colors. Just be sure to pair your favorite design with an equally fun family photo.

Whether in a classic palette of red and green or something unexpected like sunshine yellow or moody pink, we love the impact of this year’s color blocked holiday card trend. These cards look best when paired with simple typography and family photos in neutral colors (black and white photos are particularly beautiful!), and are sure to stand out in the mail.

The holidays are a time to celebrate abundance, and what better way to do so than with a more-is-more Christmas card? This year’s bold graphics trend leans into fun color palettes and playful renditions of classic holiday iconography like stars, ornaments, bells, doves, and holly.

Another twist on the arts and crafts trend, this holiday card idea is perfect for young families. A design inspired by a DIY paper garland makes for a card that feels like an elevated take on your kiddo’s favorite Christmas craft, while cards featuring blocky, collage-style prints of candy canes, ornaments, confetti, and lettering offer a more abstract take on the trend.

This trend draws inspiration from cozy evenings spent reading classic Christmas and holiday tales. Pulling on plenty of nostalgia, these Christmas card ideas all feature beautiful, storybook-inspired pen-and-ink illustrations and traditional color palettes full of soft creams, forest greens, deep blues, and pops of cheerful reds.

For a slightly elevated take on the DIY-inspired holiday card trend, go for a design that features flowing brush strokes and quick renditions of evergreen trees that look straight out of a sketchbook. We love how the organic, perfectly-imperfect style of these cards makes each one feel like a one-of-a-kind snapshot of your year.

Good things almost always come wrapped up in a pretty bow — and these holiday cards are no exception! This year’s bow trend is a bit of a chameleon, and can work across a huge range of personal styles and image types. If you’re loving vintage-inspired holiday cards, go for a design featuring bows that look hand drawn. Or pair your favorite family photo with a gold-foiled bow for a bit of holiday sparkle.

If you’re a fan of the groovy aesthetic of the 1960s and 70s, this retro-meets-modern trend is for you. Though each of our artists have put their unique spin on the style, all feature a family photo framed by a border of waves or squiggly lines. You can keep things classic with a design that pairs squiggly shapes with traditional tartan or sweet holly illustrations, or go full-blown funky with a card that pairs wavy framing in an unexpected olive and aqua color combination.

Continuing the perfectly-imperfect theme, designs featuring messages in fonts that feel artfully handwritten are another one of the year’s big holiday card trends. Our independent artists have used handwritten typography to provide unique framing for family photos — and the best part? The color of the text is fully customizable, so you can choose a color that provides eye-catching contrast to your photo or one that plays perfectly into the color palette of your image.

Our independent designers are forever inspired by tartan and plaid (the fact the pattern shows up in many of the other trends in this list is testament to that), but this year many have taken it up a notch with cards featuring classic — and not-so-classic — textile patterns. We love how these designs can give a rustic feeling to your Christmas card, but, when paired with gold foil and vibrant colors can also work for families who prefer a glam or even bold-and-bright aesthetic.

If you’re looking for holiday card ideas with a sweet, vintage vibe, these ditsy floral designs are for you. Calling to mind calico fabrics of the late 1800s, this trend is all about delicate maximalism, and we love how the little details add a cute, cottage-core aesthetic to whatever family photo you choose to feature on your card.

This bold and playful trend is the perfect Christmas card idea if your style leans a little bit preppy. We love how our designers have put a fun twist on classic stripes — rendering them in patterns that are plaid inspired, slightly off-center, or even distorted and wavy. For a softer take on the trend, look for a design that mixes stripes with soft tissue paper-inspired textures and muted colors.

Can’t pick just one favorite photo from this year’s family photoshoot? Or maybe your adult children are scattered far and wide, making it hard to get everyone together in one single snap for your holiday card? Then a multi-photo card design is going to be perfect for you. Minted’s collection of multi-photo holiday cards include designs that run the gamut from traditional to funky and fun, so you’re sure to find one you love.

You can’t go wrong with a Christmas card centered around the color of the season! We love how our collection of red holiday card designs all manage to feel classic and timeless — even if they lean into some of the trending holiday card styles we shared above. The best part? A pop of red typography or design elements will look great against nearly any type of family photo.

Wrap your holiday card in festive cheer with a design that features a beautiful illustration of a holiday wreath or garland filled with holly, mistletoe, evergreen, and little red berries. These Christmas cards are a beautiful choice if your style leans a little bit more traditional, or if you’re looking for a holiday card to send to your business’s treasured clients and customers.

A holiday card is meant to spread love and joy to everyone you send it to. So make your recipients feel like they’re unwrapping a present on Christmas morning by finishing off your envelope with a beautiful wax seal! A wax seal featuring your family’s monogram is a beautiful, old-world touch, or you could go extra festive with a wax seal featuring a christmas tree, snowflake, or bell.

Ensure your Christmas card doesn’t get buried deep in the basket of cards your loved ones receive by choosing a card that doubles as an ornament! Minted’s collection of holiday ornament cards features at ton of fun designs in a variety of aesthetics, photo layouts, and shapes, including classic round baubles, poinsettia-inspired flowers, snowflakes, and wreaths.

If Christmas cards aren’t your jam (or if you know you don’t have your act together to get cards sent ahead of Christmas or Hanukkah — no judgment here!), opt to send your nearest and dearest a New Years card instead. We love the opportunity to ring in 2024 with a card that recaps the biggest moments of the previous year, making these great holiday card ideas for newlyweds or as a way to celebrate the arrival of a new baby.

For a sophisticated way to add a bit of texture to your holiday card, opt for a design that features letterpress details. The printing style, in which words or patterns are pressed into thick cardstock and then filled with ink, results in Christmas cards that feel luxe, regardless of if you’ve opted for a design that leans traditional or is full-on funky (our letterpress collection has cards that fit both of these aesthetics…and everything in between!).

For a simple Christmas card idea that puts your family photo front-and-center, go for a postcard design. Minted’s selection of holiday postcards features a variety of styles, ranging from traditional season’s greetings to cheeky sayings perfect for young families whose kiddos may be on Santa’s naughty list.

Embrace the true spirit of Christmas with a card that celebrates all of the blessings you and your family have enjoyed this year. From messages of peace on Earth to those that praise the glory of God, you’re sure to find a faith-rooted design that speaks to you in our collection of beautiful religious Christmas cards.

Having fun with fonts is a great holiday card idea if you’re looking for a more minimalist design. The trick here is choosing the photo you want to use for your card first, and then finding a design where the typography frames it perfectly (our “use my photo” feature makes this super easy). And remember, you can always use Minted’s customizer to change the color of the typography to add just the right amount of contrast to your image!

If your favorite part of the holidays is twinkling Christmas lights and the chance to embrace your love of all that glitters, a foil pressed holiday card is the perfect idea for you. All of Minted’s foil-pressed holiday cards are available in eight foil colors, including sparkly gold and silver (which pair perfectly with green, red, and black card designs), shimmery icy blue, and warm rose gold.

A bit of humor won’t put you on the naughty list, so lean into your comedic side with a Christmas or holiday card that features a message that is sure to make your friends and family laugh. Minted’s designers have come up with cards that are as funny as they are cute — but if you’d like to customize one of our designs with a hilarious message of your own, we’ve rounded up 60+ funny Christmas card ideas, too.

There are a couple of genres of classic Christmas cards that you can choose from if you want to go for a design that is sure to be a crowd pleaser. The first puts the focus on illustrated details and fonts that lean into holiday nostalgia — think nutcrackers, ornaments, Christmas trees, and doves — and these types of designs are great options if you’re looking for photo-free holiday card ideas. The second pairs plenty of room for family photos with vintage-inspired fonts, colors, and retro-inspired prints like plaid and candy-cane inspired stripes.

Looking for holiday card ideas that are guaranteed to stand out? Go for a thoroughly modern Christmas card design! Contemporary designs forgo realistic illustrated details for abstract design elements, cool color blocking, and photos framed in arched shapes.