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For any creative, the holiday season is the ideal time to explore your creativity and expand beyond your current audience, it is also a time to improve sales if you own an online store. Because the possibilities are endless during the holiday season, the question shouldn’t be if you should create anything, but rather what should you create? We’re answering that question today by detailing ideas that work for many creatives.

Artists

Seasonal Artwork

People enjoy celebrating the jolly season with seasonal decor. And what better way to do it than with seasonal artwork? As an artist, this the ideal time to introduce your work and artistic style to a new audience is during the festive season. People are more likely to enjoy artsy and elaborate designs over the holidays and are willing to justify extravagant spending.

Your artwork doesn’t need to be elaborate or seasonal. Using the season’s colors green, red, and gold in abundance is enough.

Art for Everyday Items

Because people are buying gifts at this time of year, you should always look at producing art that can be transformed onto a notebook or scatter cushion, or a similar household item. You can then use a service like Threadless or Society6 to print and ship your designs on items.

Musicians

Holiday Music

Every year Mariah Carey comes on the radio or is played in stores. The song “All I Want for Christmas,” which was released in 1994 and written in one hour, has earned Mariah Carey $60 million in royalties. Why? Christmas song selections are scarce, especially those from mainstream artists. But, listening to carols and Christmas songs puts us in the holiday spirit. Besides, Christmas songs are nostalgic, and people will continue to play them at that time of year to reminisce.

That said, if you want your music to get recognition, consider releasing a holiday-inspired song. Regardless of the genre of music you make, people are likely to enjoy a good song.

Even an anti-carol parody like Danny Gonzalez’ Kill Santa Claus has garnered over 12 million views on YouTube.

Gamers

Longer Streams

The Christmas break is coming and people are going to be cold and more likely want to binge-watch content over that period. Give them what they want, and start streaming more frequently and for longer. For those who aren’t interested in traditional Christmas content, your streams will be a welcomed break.

Highlight Reels

Highlight reels are better for viewers who won’t watch an entire stream but want to see the best takes from the stream. You can do this for longer game reviews or streams, and upload it to YouTube or IGTV. This is also a great way to introduce your streams to others who may not see it on Twitch.

Game Reviews

Why do game reviews at this time of year? The simple answer: gifts. People want gift ideas, whether they’re purchasing gifts for themselves or others. Reviewing new or even old obscure games can help you gain a new audience while the information you provide is valuable to the viewer. You can spend time playing each game in-stream, so viewers have an idea of whether or not they’ll enjoy the game.

Content Creators

Seasonal Content

People want entertainment – especially free entertainment – during the holidays. That’s why the “vlogmas” series get views regardless of how many content creators are doing or saying the same thing. Anything to enjoy the brief break and offer a fleeting escape from life is appreciated at this time of year. Therefore, if you’re a content creator, you may want to start planning your posts for this time of year so you can publish new content weekly. 

Hauls & Shopping Advice

People want to know what they should buy for relatives and friends, that’s why every year hauls, and shopping advice videos get the most views. This year, you may want to share your shopping tips for Black Friday or do a haul of every gift you’re getting loved ones. Doing this will require some research to execute as you don’t want to be providing generic gift ideas or tips, but you want your audience to feel as though you’re adding value. You can also gain new followers or subscribers by doing this as these videos are favored by YouTube during the holiday season – for obvious reasons.

Giveaways

No one is going to say no to a gift, and what better gift to receive than a gift from their favorite content creator. You don’t even need to spend money on the gift. A facetime call or Zoom with all your fans will probably be the highlight of their day. Besides, hosting a giveaway shows that you appreciate them.

Film Producers

Low Budget Shorts

People want to binge-watch content, and in an age when a 10-minute is a long video, you can create several shorts or even a series in time for the holidays. During this period, you’re more likely to gain traction because people are searching for free entertainment, and your movie or series could go viral.

Writers

Ebooks

The combination of free time and colder weather means more people are looking for indoor entertainment that requires minimal movement to enjoy. An ebook is ideal. People can read it on their phone, Kindle, or tablet. A mini-series can help you gain traction with a younger audience and isn’t such a huge time commitment. You can release one in time for the holiday season to test the waters for a new style of writing. Because as you know, that at this time of year, there is bound to be an audience for it.

Audiobooks

This is more of a new year idea. However, if you consider that the year ends with many of us making new year’s resolutions, a common one being to read more books, publishing an audiobook before the end of the year is a good idea. Besides, Audible tends to increase its advertising at the start of the year, in line with market trends.

Limited Edition Hard Copies

Most people enjoy giving hard copy gifts; it’s just the way it is. Even an Uber gift card has a hard copy when everyone knows you’re going to use the voucher digitally. Regardless, if you want people to purchase your book or your fans to share your content with their friends and family, release a limited edition hard copy. You can print a few copies yourself using a service like Book Baby or Ingram Spark and then selling it via a personal website, or you can sell it through Amazon KDP.