The Best Christmas Ideas for Posts on Instagram (With Examples)

Have you been scouring the net looking for inspiration for December/Christmastime posts for your social media profiles? Try out these ideas for posts and garner hundreds of likes and dozens of comments. Take a look at our best Christmas ideas for posts on Instagram to get your creative juices flowing.

Christmas Ideas for Insta posts for your business

Every Instagramer has to diversify when it comes to planning posts for the platform. It might be difficult to achieve the desired reach and be happy with your metrics by just posting regular feed posts. Instagram gives you opportunity to branch out and utilize Stories and Reels. What kind of videos or pictures should you schedule to appear on your account? To answer that question, you will need to do your own research in your niche and see how people tailor their content to fit a specific medium. Explore the profiles in your field and learn from them, don't be afraid to experiment.

The screenshot posts presented below are supposed to be just an inspo material. You're not supposed to blatantly copy everything they represent. It's immensly important to bear that in mind, because otherwise we would infringe on somebody's copyrights. These screenshots can be your prompt. You may try to capture a similar scen or an atmosphere of the photo, study the elements of the carousel. Obviously, you can choose a similar frame in the same place or recreate the layout. Nevertheless, remember to include some personal touches.

Take a look at the examples we've gathered to get inspired for the Holiday season.

Christmas Ideas for Posts #1: Captivate people with festive scenery

There's no denying that Yuletide looks special mostly because of the December aura and very specific festive decorations. The photo has to reflect the ambiance of the place it was taken at and as if transport people to the land of Christmas fever dreams.

Hot cocoa magic

If your business is food related and you can spin your tale around holiday tea flavours and coffee aromas, then that theme comes to mind first. Select the most Xmassy mugs, cute marshmallows, and appetizing-looking adornments — and take a pic of the creation! Don't fret if your profile has nothing to do with beverages. People realise that everybody needs a hearty cup of warmness to make their workday better. Hence, prepare a festive backdrop, decorate your mug of hot cocoa with whipped cream or a cinnamon stick, and try to include your work/business in the pic somehow. You'll probably get extra likes if the hot drink photo has an amazing view in the background, like snowy mountains or a street with festive decorations and Christmas lights.

Free advertising with the perfect holiday setup

A hack for free Insta publicity? Well, the Christmas season is truly special in the sense that decorations can become more important for your business than your actual products. Investing in some showstopping festive ornaments for your entrance or wall can attract clients hungry for some Insta-worthy shots. What are we speaking of? Enormous candy canes, a Christmas tree weighed down by a flood of colour-coordinated decorations or nutcrackers to guard the entrance. Influencers will flock to your cafe or shop and give you free social media coverage. Then, you can repost their photos in your Stories and pull even more followers and visitors.

Display area extravaganza

If you have a display area close to the register, like the one presented in the photo, you can utilise it for promotional posts. The one below is used to showcase a restock of baskets. You can include all the necessary informations about the products in the captions. However, the trick is to take the right photo with your Xmas display proudly in the background. Provided that it is appealing enough, and the colours are bright and saturated, your post may stand out amidst other ones under that particular holiday hashtag and send some followers your way.

Leverage festive home atmosphere

Christmas interior pictures with a homey, cozy vibe attract legions of inspo-seeking Instagrammers. Furniture shops have been aware of that fact and employ that tactic in their strategy: they upload photos with their sofas, bookcases, and tables, but decked with boughs of holly, flickering lights and adorable Xmas ornaments. That's a great way to take advantage of the seasonal trends to push products, whether they're regular or holiday special type. Now's your turn to try out the Christmas home move, and aptly arrange your product somewhere in the adorned room. If what you're selling is a service, just show yourself in holiday attire at the centre of the photo. You'll appear more approachable and open to the customers.

Christmas Ideas for Posts #2: Sugar and spice, and everything nice

Some photos are beckoning from behind the screen, especially those with brightly-coloured Christmas delicacies. Our eyes love the rich colours, and our imagination pairs up with the rumbling stomach to "have a taste" of the holiday pies. Users often search for some inspiration for Xmas treats, or just want to feast their eyes on the sweets galore. You can use that human fallacy to your advantage and post content with delectable December desserts. Bakeries can prepare holiday specials that other people would also like to showcase on their profiles or in their Stories.

Flaunt those pigments

The trifecta of Christmas colours, emerald green, deep red, and gold, makes the photos pop, which can help them be singled out by the users on the Explore page. This company's post is an ad for macaron baking workshops. Instead of using a fake stock photo, they opted for a simple display of strongly pigmented macarons and adorable crimson baubles. What is more, their caption "CHRISTMACARON" sounds interesting and is catchy. You can recreate the colouring layout with your own flamboyantly hued products.

Details do the work

Christmas pastries are a staple on various Insta feeds. What should you do to elicit more heart reactions? Well, see the example below. Possibly they had a big following before, but maybe they just did something right? In the foreground of the photo we can see a fluffy cake. At first glance, just a regular one. But then when we take another look, we see the dark star in the middle, the dripping chocalate glaze, the slice of dried orange, the candy cane, and the snowy centerpiece. Arranging all the elements in that way and making that layout look amazing takes some skill and dedication. The picture is enticing, and then, when we get to the caption, we learn that there's a e-cookbook we can buy to produce equally mesmerising pastries. A lot more people will fill tempted to buy the product if they see wonderful results first.

Merry misspelling

This Polish corner shop franchise has a rather simple yet specific ad layout: plain background, a sprinkle of decorative features, the product in the centre, and a catchy caption or phrase to sell it. Imitating them makes no sense, but one can try to replicate the simplicity and straightforwardness of the ad. The trick is to find the right pun or wordplay combo to take people by surprise and make them smile

Christmas Ideas for Posts #3: Things that are sweet that you can't eat

Some Xmas-related things are sweet as candy but do not involve food or drinks. If you've posted enough festive foodie posts, then you might want to switch it up. Let's see what else that's sweet sells well on Insta.

Little ones bringing great joy

Just like the photographic studio in the screenshot below, you can start advertising your business with Christmas photoshoots as early as the end of October. Charming smiling little faces in a room decked with ornaments bring holiday cheer even to Instagram users. Children's laughter and smiles can be as sweet as the candy cane they're holding in an Xmas photo, and that's a good reason to try out a holiday photoshoot with kids to advertise bookshops, toy stores, stationer's, child clothes boutiques etc.

Cute and furry messengers

One of Polish bloggers called @sliwkowy.kompocik opted for a kawaii pet pic to promote her profile on Instagram. The idea behind the photo was that her chinchilla wrote a letter to Santa Claus. Furry pets in costumes make people click on the photo because we feel drawn to the adorableness. Dressed up pets plus a holiday theme equal an instant hit because who could resist taking a closer look at such a darling little thing!

Presents for pets

The noughties have forever changed the way people treat their animal companions. Now it's normal to give your pets presents, and companies know that very well. All the pet bed, toy, and pet food manufacturers utilise adorable cat and dog faces to market their products online. However, there are many other businesses that could possibly promote their profile or products with a lovely pet pic. These include pet portrait painters, jewellery-makers that specialise in animal-themed necklaces, rings, bracelets etc., and handicraftsmen that create leashes, harnesses and so on. If you have the means to do so, you can pay an influncer pet to be part of your campaign.

Christmas Ideas for Posts #4: Boast Christmas ornaments

Now, that phenomenon doesn't need explaining — Christmas baubles, tinsel, and holiday trinkets are what makes us feel festive. Internet users search for Xmas inspo on various platforms, but primarly peruse Instagram. Track down the most popular or the most fitting Christmas hashtags for decorations (such as #christmasdecor) and make your post easier to find and notice.

Merry handmade magic

Provided that you run your own handmade store and have a profile on a visual platform like Instagram, you should most definitely promote your account using crafted pendants, figurines, baubles, wreaths, and so on. Handmade products can usually be tailored to suit the client, which is a huge plus, and definitely what some people are looking for for special occasions. A decoration crafted by hand can constitute an amazing gift for somebody because it can be a reflection of their life, memories, friends, or pets.

Commercialising controversy

Those who are not afraid to be caught in the whirlwind of online controversy can try out manufacturing a product based around a hot topic. A good example would be the holiday decorations in the screenshot. People love to share links and images discussing controversial ideas and events, so you're bound to reach more Internet users. So if you're bold and can stand your ground, then that could be one way of gaining publicity.

Festive fragrances

Although we no longer use candles to adorn our Christmas trees, they remain immensely popular. All kinds of citrusy, wintery fragrances are tremendously popular in December, and scented candles have become a sort of a staple in homes across the globe in the last decade. Those who long for the special aroma of Christmas but are forced to stay at their apartments because of the circumstances, could potentially be some of your clients. And not only candle manufacturers can profit from photos featuring a candle. A festive photo that has decorative candles can be part of a post advertising a holiday-themed book, a home spa device, or a massage therapy session. You just have to place it aptly in your image to set a mood.

Christmas Ideas for Posts #5: Mesmerize with manicure

For some reason, all nail art on the internet is viewed with unflagging enthusiasm. A seasonal manicure is a must for every person that wants to keep being trendy. The longer, and the more extravagant the nails, the more attention they gain. You're probably thinking: well, yes, but what does that have to do with my business? We could venture to say that any business whose product can be shown being held in a person's hands can capitalize on nail inspo photos. Jewellery makers, tattoo artists, handbag manufacturers, candle and perfume producers, and even bookshops can take the right festive photo with their product at the centre being held by hands with a holiday-themed manicure. If you haven't tried out that move yet, you definitely should, especially if you market to female audiences.

Christmas Ideas for Posts #6: Woo the public with webcomics

If you haven't noticed, webcomics have been experiencing a revival in the last decade and continue being popular presently as well. Whatever platform the comic is published to, it will probably find its right audience. Obviously, if you don't have a graphic designer and a cartoonist on your team, you would have to commission a webcomic that would fit your profile, your brand, and the product you want to promote. However, there is another thing you can try out before spending money to pay an artist. Namely, you can use meme generators or recreate some more demanding meme formats in Canva. The one thing you have to decide on in advance would be the type of humour you want to include (like the one @hawradstudios uses). Or you can just rely on cuteness and Christmas-themed elements to boost your post (just as @artsyjadey did).

Christmas Ideas for Posts #7: Widen your reach with Reels

A few years ago there was no additional way an Instagram account could try to boost their reach for free. Well, Instagram itself has given us a new weapon to use, Reels. If you don't know that already, a Reel with the right sound can bring you ten or more times the engagement you would normally receive on your account. Your job would be to peruse the Reels others make to for inspiration, find the perfect sound (preferably one popular at that particular time), and post the Reel to your feed. Worst case scenario: it will not widen your reach at first try, but otherwise, there are no drawbacks.

Reminder: schedule your posts easily with Postfity!

Looking for a tool that will facilitate posting to multiple accounts? With Postfity you can schedule video or image posts to multiple social media accounts at once. What is more, you can schedule to different time zones, use ready-made post templates with hashtags. You can even create images in the Postfity Image Editor, and work with your clients with Drafts! See how to do it all by applying for a trial version.