Our top 5 Christmas packaging designs
Christmas is an opportunity for brands to capitalise on high consumer spending, emotional connections, and intense media attention. By aligning themselves with the holiday spirit, and creating bespoke Christmas packaging and campaigns, Christmas can be one of the most innovative times of year. Lets take a look at our top 5 favourite packaging we have seen this year!
Fortnum & Mason
A new one for 2024 is the Fortnum & Mason striking Christmas packaging collection designed by London based agency, Otherway, featuring artwork by renowned illustrator Olaf Hajek. The fresh new design aims at targeting a broader and younger demographic, especially social media-savvy food enthusiasts whilst celebrating the brand's iconic heritage.
I personally love the story it tells by reflecting on the whimsical interpretation of British flora and fauna tying into the roots of their festive season's magic, and especially love that each hero product tells its own narrative.
For example, specifically looking at the packaging design for the King George Christmas Pudding, it captures the festive spirit with its deep purples, burgundies, and golds, complemented by metallic accents for a celebratory touch. The combination of the delicate illustrations and the use of classic serif fonts with ornate details reinforces a luxurious and timeless aesthetic because the attention to detail ensures that the product captures the magic of the holiday season while adhering to contemporary design. The packaging is so appealing that it encourages reuse as a keepsake, adding value and highlighting sustainability.
The Fortnum & Mason 2024 Christmas collection is an example of how iconic brands can innovate while staying true to their heritage, proving that design is a key driver of storytelling and customer connection in the retail space. This is further displayed in their Christmas display in Piccadilly!
Walkers
Walkers have created a perfect balance between novelty and familiarity for their Christmas marketing campaign. This is alongside new limited edition flavours such as Sensations Honey Glazed ham, Beef Wellington, King Prawn and Marie Rose sauce, Christmas pudding and Pigs in Blankets flavours.
By creating hype with one-off flavours and refreshing the classics, Walkers elevates their brand as a whole, and taps into the festive spirit by enticing new and existing customers. I also love the bright fun colours with traditional motifs and ribbons so that everyone feels they are unwrapping something festively unique. Walkers is a great example of how a household name can unite their customers for Christmas - whilst also introducing new people to their iconic flavours!
Diptique
Another luxury brand who has elevated their packaging for Christmas is french luxury fragrance brand DIptique. Going for a whimsical and cheerful collaboration with British artist Lucy Sparrow, Diptique have contrasted their usual sophisticated style for fun and nostalgic prints on their packaging. Lucy Sparrow is a felt artist who is well-known for her handmade quirky felt installations.
The felt pieces perfectly capture the magic and nostalgia of celebrating Christmas as a child. I personally love the balance between craftsmanship and sophistication, with fun lively colours and homely decorations. It also demonstrates a brands ability to redefine a category, whilst refreshing their image to appeal to a whole new band of consumer.
Jo Malone
Again for the luxury scent brands, another stunning packaging design released this year is the various designs Jo Malone has done for its gift sets. Jo Malone’s aim this year was for: “Winning gifts, jazzy knits and festive hits. Our Christmas collection brings the razzle-dazzle”. They have applied this to three different patterns for their gift sets.
The first design is a stylish yet imple two toned print, which has a subtle yet effective silver glitter texture to give it a bit more flair. This is a perfect embodiment of their luxury reputation whilst also adding a novelty feel to their gift range. The right hand side design is a brighter yet equally sophisticated, with a bit more of a quirky aesthetic.
This last one also uses an effective silver and gold tone glitter texture to enhance the classic pattern. Compared to the other two this feels more traditional and rounds out the whole collection nicely.
Jo Malone has not just relied on their reputation for luxury this Christmas and has used it as an oportunity to reinforce their timeless packaging to match the expensive price tag of their gifts.
Costa Coffee
Lastly, another lovely packaging design that has come out this year is the 2024 Costa coffee cups! These launch alongside their festive menu, and are different designs depending on the drink size.
These festive cups are adorned with illustrations that show different Christmas catch ups, with vibrant pink and the iconic Costa red waves. From gift exhanging to winter walks with a Costa in tow, the illustrations demonstrate how Costa can be a part of your Christmas plans.
Having beautifully illustrated cups is a great marketing technique as people share on social media which is effectively free marketing and makes people want to go to get the limited edition cups. The colours are also very popular at the moment and are an aesthetic that is guaranteed to gather a lot of attention.
Creating novelty and limited edition coffee cups is a great way to connect with customers during Christmas as well as enhancing your brand recognition, whilst standing out from competitors.
Christmas is now a huge marketing campaign for all brands, as gift-giving culture only gets bigger each year. Will you be buying any particular branded Christmas packaging this year?
