Get Festive with Our Christmas Display Ideas for Retail Stores

It’s that time again to deck your halls, and most importantly, your store windows with festive decorations that draw in more customers. However, fun as holiday decorating may be, it can be difficult to come up with the perfect Christmas display ideas for retail stores every year. That’s why we’ve made a list of holiday dos and don’ts for making that perfect display that is unique, engaging, festive, and the perfect window into your business.  

Spin That Color Wheel

Holiday colors are a major part of getting festive, but there’s so much more that you can work with beyond the traditional red and green. Take some time to consider your own brand’s color theme and how you can pair it with other festive colors to bring out the holiday spirit in your branding. Some popular Christmas and holiday season color pallets include red with green and gold, icy blue and white, silver and gold, and even pink with lime and white can be worked into a holiday motif!  

When choosing the exact colors to play with, take some time to look into color theory. There’s a lot more you can do with colors than just pair complementary colors. Try using the same color with different hues, cold colors contrasted by a single warm color, etc. If all this jargon is making your head spin, you can also find some pre-made color palettes on Pinterest and similar sites. Just search “color palettes” and throw in a color you want to have included, then let the internet do the rest! 

Play to a Theme

With a season as rich with holidays and traditions as the Christmas season, there’s so many themes you can choose from. Snowmen, Christmas trees, candlelight, winter wonderlands, gifts, family dinners, the list goes on and on! Anything and everything you love about the holiday season can be added to your business Christmas decorations. Just don’t get too complicated; keep your focus on your theme. For example, you can dress snowmen up in your store apparel standing with some trees, but if you have fully decorated Christmas trees, Santa Claus, reindeer, and candles surrounding those dressed up snowmen, customers won’t know where to look. 

Retail Christmas window displays should generally include elements of what you sell. Sell food? Put it on display in a grand holiday feast! Sell clothes? Get those mannequins dressed to the nines in your most festive and fancy outfits! While a snowflake-covered window is pretty to look at, it won’t do much for your branding if customers don’t know what the snowflakes are supposed to attract their attention to. 

Get Shiny

Add some lights, tinsel, or anything shiny! Tap into the natural crow brain in your customer base and draw their eyes with lots of shiny decorations. Whether it’s twinkling string lights, shiny glass ornaments with your logo, sparkling tinsel, foil wrapping paper, or even a neon sign shaped like a snowflake, nothing draws the eye like a little light and sparkle. 

Of course, you don’t want to be blinding, either. Try to place that light and sparkle in a way that draws the eye to your products on display. For example, place your string lights around and behind your products to create give a background glow, or set them out in a nest of tinsel. These are just some retail store holiday decorating ideas to get you started, so feel free to incorporate sparkle and glow in your own unique and exciting ways! 

Show Don’t Tell

To draw in a crowd, your retail Christmas window displays engage with both the holiday themes you chose and with your customer’s imaginations. Selling food? Show Santa’s elves taking a lunch break with your holiday specials! Selling clothes? Show off your Christmas morning pajama options with mannequins gathered around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. Show the experience that your products can offer with active scenic displays. 

Of course, not everyone has the window size they’d like to set up the perfect holiday scene. For smaller displays, add in action with the little details. Put out a display cake with a slice taken out, show holiday sweaters holding hands (or holding sleeves?), even copy shops can make a little Christmas scene out of paperclip people and paper trees! Got nothing but flat space? A picture is worth a thousand words and can fit a lot of exciting holiday magic. 

Put Your Name On It!

An easy way to make sure your holiday decorating ideas for your windows are bringing customer attention to all the right things is to include your company logo in your decorations. This means custom logo Christmas ornaments hanging on your display tree, a banner with your branding along the top of the window, specially made holiday logo t-shirts on the snowmen and reindeer, etc. Show your customers that your branding can be at the very center of the holiday season. 

Of course, you don’t have to limit your branding to your window displays. Design your own custom holiday logo and put it all over your store! Put it on your employee’s shirts and hats, on your computer mousepads, and on little holiday giveaways that you pass out to customers and employees. Going the extra mile when it comes to bringing the holidays to your brand not only improves employee morale, but it also gives customers a memorable and joyful experience with your company. 

P.S: When Should I Decorate for Christmas?

Even though many people have strong opinions about decorations for Christmas going up before Thanksgiving or Halloween, the answer really depends on what you have planned for the other holidays. If you don’t have anything planned for Thanksgiving or Halloween, you can really start decorating right away! While some Grinches may grumble, nobody is going to actually skip your store for being festive earlier than they like, and it’s better to get those Christmas shoppers early rather than last minute. However, if you have decorations or special Thanksgiving promotions you want to give attention to, wait until after Thanksgiving Day to throw up those button-eyed snowmen.  

When it comes to putting together Christmas display ideas for retail stores, it can feel difficult to keep things fresh and exciting every year. However, a little trip down the rabbit hole of internet aesthetics will give you all the inspiration you need to be the display everyone wants to put on their Instagram. A holiday or winter theme, strings of lights, eye-catching color combinations, an active approach, and, of course, your custom branding are the perfect recipe for a grand holiday display.