Holiday Blog Posts Ideas That Your Audience Will Love
The holiday season is a time that’s synonymous with shopping.
During the holidays (and in the months leading up), people are usually looking to buy something for somebody.
We often turn to Google and Pinterest for ideas on what to buy and what to create.
The holidays are a perfect time for bloggers to capitalize on the increase in interest in holiday-related searches by creating blog posts that are helpful and relevant to their audience.
It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in.
This guide is going to show you how you can write holiday blog posts that will help your website rank higher in search results this holiday season.
In this post, I share the why, who, what, when and how to write holiday blog posts that boost the traffic to your blog.
Why are seasonal blog post so important?
Most bloggers talk a lot about the importance of creating evergreen content.
Evergreen content, in short, is content that is not time-sensitive.
This is content that will continue to be relevant to your audience, even if they read it months after you’ve published it.
It’s advisable to focus your content strategy on evergreen content as it can help with SEO ranking. Google loves evergreen blog posts too!
While I agree that evergreen content should play a major part in your content strategy, there’s no denying that holiday blog posts are also helpful to drive engagement and traffic around the time of that holiday.
You won’t get traffic from holiday posts year-round, but the boost may be all you need to build brand awareness and boost sales. They’ll also drive traffic to your blog for future holidays.
Holiday blog posts must be tackled with care.
Who should be writing holiday blog posts?
Pretty much anyone!
Any niche can write holiday blog posts. It just comes down to making sure that your posts are helpful and relevant to your target audience.
If your audience is not interested in it, they won’t read.
That said, there are some niches that do better with holiday posts than others:
– eCommerce businesses (especially those involved in gift and holiday decor)
– Craft bloggers
– Home cooks/chefs
– Personal finance bloggers
In my experience, holiday blog posts also can really take off if you have a very visual product that your audience would love as a gift or use during the holiday season. Even those without holiday-specific products can still create engaging holiday content around all of the festivities.
What should holiday blog posts be about?
Holiday blog posts don’t have to only cover the holiday itself, but they do need to address the holiday season in some way. It should be about something that people are likely to be searching for around the Holidays.
For example: Around Christmas is a time when a lot of people like to start thinking about the New Year.
You could write a post about your goals for the New Year. Or even a reflection of the year that just passed.
People love to read posts like that around this time of the year.
Remember that Holiday posts are great but if they don’t relate back to what you do or offer on your website then it’s not going to be useful as a content marketing strategy.
When should holiday blog post go live?
You should try to have your holiday blog post live a few months before the holiday to give yourself enough time for people to visit your site, read it and take action.
If you are unable to make that deadline, you can just go ahead and share the post. Because it’s seasonal, it will be ready in plenty of time for the next year.
4 Types Of Content You Should Create For Your Blog This Holiday Season
Gift Guides
A gift guide is a blog post where you provide gift ideas to your readers. It can be general, but gift guides are most effective when these recommendations are for a specific subgroup of people- e.g gift guide for babies.
Bloggers of all niches can write gift guides. You just need to make sure that it relates to your niche.
Gift guides are also the perfect opportunity to make use of affiliate marketing.
For every gift you recommend, simply include an affiliate link to the product. If you choose to use affiliate links in your blog post, make sure that you have a clear disclaimer near the start of the post. It is important that readers know that the links they are clicking on may be affiliate links.
If you have a product-based business, the gift guide style of the post will be great for you. It provides an opportunity to showcase your products and recommend them as gifts.
As with all affiliate marketing, I would only advise recommending products that you have tried or you can stand by. A gift guide loses its appeal when it’s filled with hundreds of gifts that no one is likely to enjoy.
I plan to write a few holiday gift guides this year for my family travel blog.
Get started writing your gift guides early so that they can be ready for those who like to start their Christmas shopping early.
Remember to write for the shopper (not the recipient) when writing your holiday gift guides.
Blogmas
Blogmas can best be described as an advent calendar for the blogging world.
With a typical advent calendar, you get something every day. With blogmas, the gift would be your blog post.
It can take on a variety of forms depending on your niche.
I’ve seen bloggers share a new holiday-themed post every single day from the 1st of December till Christmas.
If you don’t have the capacity for this, you can do weekly holiday themed posts in the months leading up to Christmas.
Storytelling & Reviews
I wasn’t quite sure what to call this blog post type.
These are blog posts where you share your thoughts and experiences towards the season. For instance, last year I wrote a Year in Review post.
People really like to read posts like this because they get an insight into our minds.
For my reviews, I always like to highlight the highs and the lows and end with some lessons learned.
For holiday themed posts like this, it is important that they don’t come across as promotional.
You want to be able to share your thoughts and experiences without looking like you are trying too hard to sell anything in the process.
So instead of directly recommending products or services in these posts, I will usually just highlight what worked well for me and what didn’t.
If you want to write holiday themed posts like this, make sure that they are genuine. People will be able to easily tell if you are being disingenuous about your experience or not.
People love holiday themed content but only when it is authentic experiences from real people because there’s nothing worse than reading shallow holiday-themed content.
Holiday Themed How-Tos
how to make a gingerbread house or Christmas pudding. However, this type of holiday blog post does require a lot more work than your standard holiday themed posts since you actually have to make the DIY and then write about it.
You can also create a how-to around something that you do in your business around the holidays. E.g How to create a vision board for the new year.
50 Holiday Blog Post Ideas
To help you with writing your holiday blog posts, I’ve compiled a lift of blog post ideas to get your juices flowing. Use this list as a foundation and customize your post to fit your niche.
- Holiday gift guide
- Stocking stuffer gift guide
- Last minute Christmas gift ideas
- No-spend Christmas gift ideas
- How to save money on holiday shopping
- A Round up of the best Holiday deals at your favourite store
- A personalized holiday wish list
- Christmas Day gift haul
- Holiday outfit ideas
- Christmas pajama ideas
- Cozy winter outfit ideas
- Holiday makeup looks/ tutorial
- DIY wrapping paper ideas
- Easy DIY Christmas Decorations
- DIY Christmas wreaths
- Holiday Home Tours
- How to make your home feel cozy around the holidays
- Holiday tablescape ideas
- Chistmas Decor Haul
- Easy holiday crafts to do with kids
- How to make a gingerbread house
- Festive hot chocolate tutorial
- Recipes for your favoutite Holiday treats
- Christmas dinner ideas
- Holiday travel tips
- Best places to travel to for Christmas
- Christmas Markets in your city
- Where to go in your city to see Christmas lights
- Holiday events in your area
- Tips for hosting the perfect holiday party
- Holiday party hosting tips
- DIY gift bag tutorial
- Holiday themed what’s in my bag
- Your favoutite holiday traditions
- Favourite Christmas movies
- Your ultimate Christmas music playlist
- Favorite holiday candles
- What you do to put you in the holiday spirit
- How you find time to rest during the holiday season
- Tips to take care of your mental health during the holidays
- What are your New Year’s resolutions?
- Outfit ideas for New Year’s Eve
- New Year’s resolutions for your blog
- Recap of your year
- How to create a vision board fro the New Year
- New Years party outfit ideas
- New Years party makeup looks
- Tips to host the best New Years party
- Ultimate holiday bucket list
- Your favorite childhood holiday memories
Tips for Creating Holiday Blog Posts
1. Don’t Create All Your Holiday Content In One Go
If you find yourself struggling to write blog posts and meet deadlines towards the end of the year, don’t do it all in one go.
Spreading the holiday themed posts over a few months will ease your load and prevent you from having to rush at the end of December. This is especially important if you have other commitments like speaking engagements or an e-commerce business that needs attention too.
2. You don’t need to write holiday themed posts for the holiday season only.
You can write holiday-themed posts for the entire month leading up to Christmas and even after.
3. Make sure your posts are timely and relevant
Even though people will check your blog throughout January as well, holiday-themed blog posts lose their relevance very quickly after Christmas.
4. Make sure that holiday themed blog posts don’t overshadow other content on your blog and take up too much time or resources to create.
Creating holiday themed blog post should be a fun process but not something that drains you mentally or physically when it is already getting close to the end of the year
5. Don’t forget competitor research
Competitor research is crucial to your holiday post strategy.
Even if your holiday themed blog posts are all original, make sure to look at what other bloggers in the same niche are doing.
Do some research to see what’s popular, what’s working for them, and perhaps where there are gaps that you can fill with your holiday blog post.
You can even reach out and contact them beforehand to ask for their permission or insights on holiday-themed blog post ideas they have.
6. Don’t forget about your old holiday themed content too!
There’s no need to create holiday themed blog posts from scratch every year.
Your old holiday-themed content can be updated and repurposed for the new year. You will likely get more traffic on these types of posts than if you were to write a whole new holiday themed post anyway so it is a great way to save time while still providing value in your readers.
7. Don’t Be Scared To Share What You Don’t Like
It’s okay not to like something. Sharing holiday-themed posts that you don’t like will help others who are looking for the same thing in their holiday shopping by showing them what not to do or buy.
If it isn’t your cup of tea, share why and link a post that might be better suited to your audience’s needs.
What holiday themed posts have you written in the past? What kind of holiday posts will you be writing this year?
If you have ideas for holiday themed blog posts, share them below in the comments section!
