Last-Minute Holiday Website Design Ideas to Delight Visitors
The holiday season is a time for joy, generosity, and connection—a sentiment that extends into the online shopping experience. With the spirit of giving in full swing, customers eagerly search for gifts, deals, and products that add a festive touch to their celebrations.
For web designers, this creates an incredible opportunity to help clients infuse the holiday spirit into their websites. This ensures their sites are optimized for holiday shoppers and creates memorable experiences that drive engagement.
At the end of the year, clients aren’t always looking for extensive redesigns. They may just want last-minute tweaks and festive updates that delight visitors and encourage conversions. This guide shares 13 holiday web design ideas to help you prepare clients for the influx of shoppers, setting their businesses up to maximize revenue and bring joy during the festive season.
1. Ready sites for seasonal purchases
For ecommerce sites, the holidays mean many visitors are ready to shop—but only if the purchasing experience is smooth. No matter how stunning a website is, slow load times or clunky navigation can turn potential buyers away.
Improve the shopping experience by:
Simplifying navigation
Style the site’s navigation to include clear, compelling categories like “Holiday Deals” or “Gift Ideas.” This reduces friction for customers looking to make a purchase.
Improving speed
Optimize images and reduce page sizes to improve page loading speed. This keeps visitors engaged and on the site.
Making the site mobile-friendly
Format the site’s appearance in device view so aspects of the purchasing process are as responsive on smartphones and tablets as on computers.
Pro tip: Use Squarespace analytics to identify and optimize high-traffic pages for conversions ahead of the busy season.
2. Build a festive landing page
It may be too late in the season to redesign an entire site for the holidays, so focus on creating a holiday-specific landing page instead. This page can serve as a hub for all holiday promotions, events, and products. A well-crafted landing page captures attention and encourages visitors to explore and purchase with ease.
Quick, impactful festive landing page ideas include:
A holiday gift guide featuring curated product collections
A seasonal site banner to highlight holiday deals
A gallery block featuring holiday-specific products or bestsellers
Example: A client selling handmade candles could have a landing page titled “Perfect Gifts for the Season,” showcasing their best-selling holiday scents, along with a timer counting down to free shipping deadlines.
Pro tip: Use Squarespace’s image editor to quickly create eye-catching visuals and graphics for the holiday landing page.
3. Customize with holiday-themed fonts and colors
A few subtle changes to fonts and colors can transform a site’s appearance into something festive without compromising the brand’s identity. Squarespace’s global style settings make this process quick and hassle-free.
Suggestions for holiday-themed styles include:
Adding green and red accents to buttons or headlines with the color picker
Using cursive or serif fonts for headlines to evoke elegance and tradition
Experimenting with gold or silver accents in sections like banners or calls to action to offer a celebratory touch that lasts through New Years
Pro tip: Keep the client’s brand identity in mind and ensure any changes can be easily reversed after the holidays. Create a style guide that includes the client’s brand colors and fonts and make a list of any changes you made so you can quickly revert the site back to its original state.
4. Write dedicated holiday content
Words matter, especially during the holidays. If your client struggles with crafting the right messaging, offer to help create or edit content that reflects the season. Thoughtful, seasonal content builds an emotional connection, inspiring customers to engage and return.
Ideas for holiday-themed content include:
Blog posts like “Top 10 Holiday Gifts Under $50” or “How to Make the Most of Holiday Promotions”
Product descriptions and categories and tags that include phrases like “limited-time holiday special” or “perfect for gifting”
A seasonal email campaign, complete with festive imagery and links to relevant products
Backgrounds and images that include words like “joy,” “merry,” “cheer,” and “magic” to evoke holiday emotions and resonate with shoppers
Pro tip: In addition to preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consider crafting promotional content for Giving Tuesday and beyond. November and December are great months for driving sales and supporting meaningful causes. Help clients meet their charitable goals by donating a portion of proceeds to a charity you and your clients value.
5. Display pop-ups and announcement bars
Pop-ups and announcement bars are simple yet effective ways to highlight holiday promotions, events, or deadlines.
Use cases for pop-ups and announcement bars include:
A pop-up offering 10% off products or services in exchange for newsletter signups
An announcement bar sharing free shipping deadlines
A pop-up announcing an upcoming online or in-person event
An announcement bar highlighting sitewide discounts
6. Place newsletter forms throughout the site
Holiday traffic offers a prime opportunity to grow your client’s email list. Adding well-placed newsletter blocks ensures they can continue connecting with customers after the season ends, turning holiday shoppers into loyal, year-round customers.
Best practices for holiday newsletter forms include:
Placing forms on high-traffic pages, like the holiday landing page or shop pages
Offering incentives with messages like, “Sign up to get exclusive holiday deals.”
Incorporating holiday-themed imagery alongside newsletter blocks to create a cohesive and festive experience for visitors
Pro-Tip: Use Email Campaigns to send active clients and prospects beautifully designed, branded newsletters. You can strategically repurpose your client’s existing holiday content. Plus, with mail merge tags, you can personalize emails by adding the subscriber’s first or full name. Learn more about personalizing email campaigns.
7. Set up product inventory waitlists
Create a waitlist when a product is out of stock so shoppers can receive a notification when that item is available again. Well-implemented waitlists can be a simple yet powerful tool for maintaining customer loyalty, maximizing revenue, and enhancing both customer experience and business operations.
Pro tip: Use advanced ecommerce features to enable waitlist sign-ups and help clients keep their customers informed with stock updates. Disable the feature when inventory is replenished.
8. Include holiday imagery
A picture is worth a thousand words, especially during the holidays. Festive imagery evokes warmth, nostalgia, and excitement, drawing visitors deeper into the shopping experience. Ensure images are consistent in tone and quality to maintain a professional, cohesive look.
Potential themed visuals to feature include:
Snowflakes, twinkling lights, or gift-wrapped boxes as background images
Cozy scenes of families celebrating or enjoying your client’s products
Product images styled with holiday elements like pinecones, ribbons, or ornaments
9. Design a seasonal logo
A festive update to your client’s logo is a small touch that can make a big impact. This temporary logo can be used across their website, social media accounts, and email campaigns. A holiday-themed logo signals to customers that the brand actively engages with the season, fostering a sense of community.
Ideas for holiday-themed logos include:
Adding snowflakes, holly leaves, or twinkling lights around the client’s existing logo design
Using holiday colors like red, green, or gold to replace the usual palette
Displaying text in festive fonts decked with holiday visuals like ornaments, candy canes, and snowy backgrounds
10. Use holiday-friendly CTAs
Holiday-themed CTAs capture attention and inspire action. Infuse personality and seasonal language to encourage conversion.
Examples of festive CTAs include:
“Find the perfect gift” instead of “Shop now”
“Unwrap holiday deals” instead of “Learn more”
“Subscribe for holiday cheer” instead of “Subscribe”
Pro tip: Pair CTAs with relevant imagery or buttons styled in holiday colors for maximum impact.
11. Add a gift card option
Gift cards are the perfect solution to last-minute holiday shopping. They provide a stress-free gifting solution for customers while driving revenue and repeat visits for your client. Squarespace offers a seamless gift card integration solution for your clients’ online stores.
Pro Tip: Promote gift cards with pop-ups or announcement bars, such as "Short on time? Give a digital gift card!" Consider adding a limited-time discount to boost conversions.
Bonus idea: Add a custom checkout form for customers to send gift messages with their orders. Gift messages appear in the order details, which your client can print and add to the package.
12. Create discount codes
Offering discount codes is a quick and effective way to incentivize holiday shopping and drive sales. Squarespace empowers you to manage a range of discount options to fit your client’s various needs.
Pro tip: If you use Email Campaigns, you can integrate discount codes directly into emails. Consider offering exclusive discounts to subscribers to incentivize sign-ups and reward loyal customers.
13. Prepare abandoned cart recovery emails
Abandoned cart emails are a powerful way to recover lost sales and boost holiday conversions. You can help clients craft abandoned cart messages to include reminders about items left in the cart, special holiday offers or discounts to encourage checkout, or personalized messaging to re-engage customers. It’s important to send timely reminders but avoid overwhelming customers—think about how many holiday emails are sitting in their inboxes during this time of year. You’ll also want to customize the email to match your client’s branding and holiday aesthetic.
Pro tip: Use Squarespace analytics to track abandoned cart recovery success. You can view cart abandonment trends and measure the success of abandoned checkout emails. This panel includes a funnel that shows the typical path customers take from abandonment to purchase.
Quick holiday tweaks to delight visitors
The holidays are a magical time filled with opportunities for your clients to connect with their audiences and maximize revenue. By implementing these last-minute holiday website design ideas, you can help them create memorable experiences that resonate with visitors—and make the most impact.
Prepare for the holidays with related resources on the Circle blog.
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