A guide to holiday greetings for businesses
Level up your happy holidays messages to clients with our handy guide to business season greetings.
When you’re sending holiday greetings to your clients, taking a more personal approach to your messaging can do more for your business than just spread a little holiday happiness.
Sending a Greeting Card around the festive season is thoughtful and guarantees feel-good vibes, but it can also strengthen your working relationships, re-engage customers, or simply make partners feel valued. Everyone loves to receive a personalized message, especially when face-to-face meetings and end-of-year parties are less likely to bring people together in real life.
Wondering what to write in a business holiday card? Level up your happy holidays messages to clients and partners with our handy guide to holiday greetings for businesses.
What to write in a business holiday card?
1. A friendly hello
- Great for: Suppliers and business service partners
- Messaging: A friendly greeting to a valued partner
- Looks like: A fun and informal design with minimal branding
A friendly business happy holidays message that builds relationships with stakeholders who you buy from or work with in partnership. There’s no promotional angle or sales opportunity with this type of card, so you can afford to go as jokey, playful and off-the-wall as you like.
Business benefit: Builds goodwill and positivity between you and the people your business depends on.
Create your business Greeting Card here.
2. Thanks for an awesome year
- Great for: Repeat customers
- Messaging: Thank you – let’s keep things going
- Looks like: A branded design with a gratitude theme
A Greeting Card that expresses thanks for their business over the previous months and makes them feel valued. This holiday card message for clients recognizes the relationship you’ve developed and expresses the hope that you’ll continue things in the same way.
Business benefit: Helps you cement a positive relationship and encourage repeat business.
3. Look what we’ve achieved
- Great for: Partners, investors and employees
- Messaging: We’re doing well, thanks to you
- Looks like: A relatively formal design that emphasizes professionalism and success
This card recaps how you made it through this year and acknowledges the support your business has received. If applicable, it can also indicate how your business has grown in value. The perfect holiday greetings for business partners and employees!
Business benefit: If you’re a company that has started up with investor help, or even if you’ve just received useful advice and mentorship, it’s always worth remembering and valuing your supporters – after all, they’re the ones who believed in you from the start.
4. Keeping in touch
- Great for: Dormant clients
- Messaging: Wishing you well this holiday season
- Looks like: A branded design that doesn’t assume familiarity with your company
This type of card is an unobtrusive way to maintain contact with dormant customers who have not considered your offering recently. This holiday card message for clients that haven’t bought from you in a while gently reminds them who you are and what you have to offer. While it’s not the place for a sales message, it may be helpful to include a URL or company boilerplate on the back of the card so the recipient can refresh their memory of you.
Business benefit: A very effective season greetings message for businesses to attract returning customers! It encourages re-engagement with your brand, and could prompt a customer to come back to you after a dormant period.
Short on time? Check out our design templates.
5. A twist on the familiar
- Great for: Vendors and others who know you primarily through what you sell
- Messaging: Happy holidays from the makers of [your product]
- Looks like: A holiday-themed representation of your product or service
Looking for a fun holiday message to send to your clients? A brand-led/product-led card that plays on the familiar in a fun way. You could reproduce your product logo using a festive color palette, photograph your range under a fir tree or depict a delivery truck being pulled by reindeer on a snowy road.
Business benefit: Builds your brand and adds a light-hearted, fun dimension to a working relationship. A nice way to elevate your happy holidays messages to clients.
Order your Holiday Greeting Cards now
We can’t help with the writer’s cramp, but our Printfinity feature means you can have a range of different designs within a single pack, so you can indulge your creativity without over-stretching your budget.
Now you know what to write in a business holiday card, it’s time to design your Postcards and Greeting Cards with MOO.
Artist Luis Brigman-Harris – or Freddy Throne – draws inspiration from 90s pop culture to create bright and fun designs reminiscent of the golden age of childhood entertainment. He sums it up himself: “Freddy Throne is what the cool kids watch every Saturday morning“.
We met Luis to talk about his love for pop art, graffiti and cartoons and how 90s culture inspired his work.
Tell us a bit more about yourself and your background. Where does your love for pop art come from?
My name is Luis Brigman-Harris and I am known as Freddy Throne. I was born and raised in Washington state which is the traditional territory of my ancestors, the Spokane people. I’m a Two-Spirit* Native & Hispanic American, Spokane tribal member, US veteran and digital artist.
We, the people of the “free world”, are consumed by pop culture’s iconic logos, music and fashion – this is where my love for pop art comes from. I remember being in an art class when I was 13 and having to draw out a single image and replicate it like a kaleidoscope. All the other kids were drawing dogs, flowers and circles but I took a character from a popular skateboard brand and mixed it with other patterns. Besides watching karaté kicking turtles eating pizza and reading gamer magazines with bright, colorful pages, I had become obsessed with these now iconic characters and saw them as a form of art rather than advertising.
*An umbrella term used by some Native American cultures for non-binary definitions of gender and sexuality.
How would you define your take on pop art? How did your style evolve over time?
Pop art immortalizes our emotions through the experience of consumerism and communication. To me, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup can piece is one of the most iconic examples of taking an everyday item that millions of people have consumed for years and changing its meaning over night. Warhol changed how we see, experience and consume pop culture.
To me, pop art should take people back to a younger time of their lives, it can be a bit nostalgic, and the fact it’s rooted in pop culture also makes it relatable. I started illustration using ink and paper, which I feel is the first step for most. I got a lot of good feedback from people I had never even met and was presented with opportunities such as art direction despite my lack of experience. I found my own style by exploring my emotional experience dealing with anxiety and depression and expressing myself through freehanding. Finding my voice as an artist helped me accept who I am and what I really want in life.
Your art’s sweet spot seems to be at the crossroads of graffiti, cartoons and pop art. Where do you get your inspiration from?
These questions make me reflect on my own life! First, I still love cartoons from my childhood and I know many people can relate to those Saturday mornings. From life lessons to storytelling and visual inspiration, they are much more than just kid’s entertainment. Some cartoons also helped people of different backgrounds and cultures feel included, which is very important.
Graffiti influences come from my teen years, with hip-hop and that culture of dance, music, fashion and art. Growing up in a small town, I felt disconnected from the community and hip-hop culture helped me feel inspired and showed me there is more to life. I also remember a lot of trains going through our town were covered in graffiti bombs and throw ups. I couldn’t take my eyes off what those unknown artists were trying to say! These different styles of graffiti from all over the country gave me a peek into places I had never been.
Pop art reflects my adult life, from going to college and learning about art to actually understanding what pop art is, how inspiring and relatable. In the end, I get inspired by revisiting these memories of different times of my life and adding my own creative touch. I’m also inspired by Salvador Dali’s captivating work as well as French comic book artists, heavy metal (both the music and magazine), manga, comic books and video games. I’m a nerd at heart!
You’ve cited Salish art as an inspiration. Can you tell us more about that style of artwork and its significance to you as a Native American artist?
The Spokane tribe identifies as interior Salish which is different from the coastal Salish tribes. Our people were nomadic and traveled up to the now Canadian border and down the Columbia river to harvest and gather for food and such. Coastal Salish art is more identifiable but it’s not the true representation of our people like the totem pole.
A couple years ago, I was hired on as an illustrator for my tribe’s language and culture department. Language is huge for the Native communities, so taking my digital art and working to connect to our oldest form of storytelling was an honor and challenge. The style had to be unique and refreshing, which to me was something very invigorating. There have been quite a few Native American artists coming out of the Pacific NorthWest, so it was a little intimidating to come up with a new concept for our stories. Modern art is really interpreted as what we want to create as Native and interior Salish people. I’ve been trying to break out more with Native art because it’s really meaningful that I have something that’s admired but not a carbon copy.
Do you face any challenges as a Native American artist? What outlook or tools have helped you persevere in your career?
As a Native American artist, I do feel that we are sometimes put in boxes, but I view this as a positive challenge for me. Native symbols like the buffalo or eagles and Native spirituality are sometimes exploited by non-Native artists appropriating the sacred things we identify with. This takes away opportunities from great Native American artists who don’t have access to the same platforms to sell their art or get discovered.
If you go to the Santa Fe art market, you’ll see the Native American art scene is huge. It’s so inspiring to see the different kinds of art other Natives create and sell, inspired by various Native cultures from across the North American continent. I chose to take the modern and pop art styles and “reinvent the wheel” to show we can adapt and use digital tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator to create unique pieces inspired by Native cultures. To me, being able to adapt and being ahead of the curve is what gives me the edge as a career artist. Marketing and branding have also been crucial to my success.
What stories are you telling through your artworks?
With my traditional illustrations on ink and paper, I want to tell my own story and express my thoughts, vulnerability and imagination. I enjoy details and line work and my larger illustrations can get very abstract and expressive. I let my emotions carry the pen and a lot of my work I choose to do freehand. With digital art, I create stories and characters based on my own experience, life, family and friends, it can also become very personal. I’m excited to really dig into writing as I have been working on a story for a few years now which I’d like to share in 2021.
How do you use MOO to promote your art?
I use MOO as a tool to catch people’s attention. Clients and customers just boast about my Business Cards and I love sharing my story with people I meet! My Business Card is bright and fun, with a quality that strongly represents me. I’m all about personal connection with people I encounter because a first impression is what gets me through the door.
I need the company I choose to reflect my love for what I do! It’s been a great process working with MOO, from ordering my cards to receiving them in hand. I am not lying when I say people can’t stop asking me, “Who makes your business cards?” to which I reply “moo.com”!
Any projects coming up you’re excited about?
Yes, I’ve been keeping busy this last quarter of 2020! I actually quit my day job to become a full-time artist and entrepreneur. It’s been wonderful collaborating with people and working with other creatives on so many different jobs. I just finished working on a short film called “Manic Macabre” with my husband, which I fully scored and for which I also did concept art and character creation. On top of that, I’ve been working on my own comic called “Totally Neon”, which I’m trying to get on Web Toon. I also have some animation projects because I love storytelling and creating art to bring these worlds to life. It’s fun being “imagiNative” and I’m very excited about 2021!
If you had one piece of advice for fellow creatives, what would it be?
Don’t be afraid, be yourself and inspire the world. If you’re trying to really get yourself out there, my advice would also be to make marketing and branding a big part of your plan. It’s really crucial to showcase your uniqueness with the digital world, as that’s the quickest way to get noticed. And there are so many great tools out there you can use for free!
If you browse social media, you’ll notice that there are many other artists out there already working and creating. For a new artist, it can be limiting, intimidating and require a lot of grinding. People that have been established on social media will get opportunities because they have a bunch of followers or people checking out their work, that’s why it’s important to give people a good story to invest in. It takes a lot of work and dedication, but it does pay off. The best fruit is at the top!
Showcase your portfolio in style with MOO’s Square Business Cards.
Your team is your most valuable resource. As we adjust to the new normal, connecting with employees is key to keeping your staff happy and your business afloat… especially during the holidays, when employees are used to enjoying all sorts of company benefits.
So, how to maintain a strong relationship with your employees this holiday season? From online social events to employee gifting, show your staff you care this holiday season with our tips to (re)connect with your employees.
Show your appreciation
A business is nothing without their employees. Fostering a solid recognition culture is essential to retain talents, especially during such uncertain times. Express your gratitude and recognize their accomplishments both individually and in front of the wider team.
For the festive season, it’s also important to show all your employees you are grateful for their hard work through the pandemic. It’s been a tough year, and everyone deserves praise. Why not send them a personalized Thank You Card with a festive touch? A small gesture goes a long way.
Engage your team with online social events
Not being able to have a party IRL doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and celebrate the end of the year together. Whether you’re team Hangouts, Zooms or BlueJeans, turn your usual video conferencing programs into your next party venue. Looking for online social event ideas? There are many options to make your online gatherings as festive and engaging as the real thing.
A virtual pub quiz is a great way to bring teams together and engage your employees with a fun activity. Nominate a quiz master and put a team together to come up with questions. You can include a section about your specific industry to get people excited about the business, but don’t forget to make it fun!
You can also organize an online fundraiser to give back while connecting with your employees. For example, a virtual talent show can be an awesome way for your staff to share their hobbies and passions while helping the community. Use a platform like YouTube Live to showcase the event. Employees can register through an event registration app and access the show with a virtual ticket. It’s a bit more work to organize, but a great way to (virtually) come together.
Reward your staff with employee gifting
Everyone loves a little present – especially in times like these. Don’t underestimate the power of employee gifting to make your staff feel valued and appreciated. An employee gift basket is a great way to treat your team and spread the cheer. But what’s the best holiday gift for your employees? Here are some employee gift ideas for the festive season:
- A beautiful Notebook. Help them get their work and life admin organized by including a premium Notebook in your employee gift basket. You can even customize it with your logo and your brand colors for a more personalized feeling.
- Snacks. Treat your employees to something tasty and festive. Why not include a box of chocolates?
- Festive goodies. Custom Stickers, recipe Flyers, 2021 planners, Gift Tags to help with gift wrapping… you name it! They’re all budget-friendly and guaranteed to put a smile on their face.
- A personalized Greeting Card. A simple yet effective employee gift idea. After all, it’s the holiday season. Try to add a handwritten note, for a more personal feeling.
Got your fill of holiday gift ideas for employees? Say a little thank you and (re)connect with your employees with personalized Greeting Cards.
Whether it’s a lovely note to slip into your customers’ orders or a way to show your appreciation to employees and partners, a little thank you goes a long way. Expressing your gratitude with a personalized card is a great way to connect and maintain strong relationships with your community.
Looking for Thank You Card ideas for your business? Get some Thank You Card inspiration with some of our community’s most stunning designs.
1) Allen at home: a subtle reminder
With her eco-friendly brand Allen At Home, Aliyah Allen creates cruelty-free, hand-poured scented candles with a beautiful minimalist design. Her motto? “Everyone deserves a great-smelling space without spending lots of money”. The Thank You Cards she slips into every order are a thoughtful and subtle reminder of her 100% soy wax candle range, with soft and elegant colors.
Aliyah used MOO’s Small Postcards in Original paper: “I had these made to add to all my orders. They give each customer a more personalized experience when opening their packages, as I handwrite a message for each order”.
2) One world project: sending love to essential workers
One World Project is a non-profit promoting cultural understanding and environmental sustainability through a variety of multilingual education programs. Created during the peak of the pandemic in the US, their Postcards are saying an extra special thank you. Raisa Ali, founder of the project, is sending a handwritten note along with masks and PPE to essential workers all across the United States.
With this Thank You Card, her idea was to show appreciation and express gratitude to front line workers: “I wanted to make a positive change during this time of chaos in the world… A nurse emailed me saying her and her entire team were beyond grateful for the kind words sent to them along with the masks.”
3) Studio 3 Design Co: a scent of childhood
Studio 3 Design Co is a Toronto-based graphic design studio specializing in visual brand identity for small businesses. This Thank You Card design was created as part of the branding strategy for kid’s clothing brand Mikki Rae Little Ones. Created by Hilary Geller and inspired by her first born, the brand offers comfortable and easy-to-wear outfits and is guided by calm colors and a minimalist approach. Studio 3 Design Co. founder Sheera Nightingale collaborated with the brand to design a visual identity that conveys calm, simplicity and serenity.
With its soft, gender-neutral tones, this beautiful Thank You Card connects with customers and reflects the brand’s core values in a simple yet effective way. A cute Thank You Card idea for a lovely brand.
4) Goods of Horror: 50 shades of thanks
It’s hard to pick a favorite: with a variety of energizing color combinations, these dazzling square Thank You Cards are as attention-grabbing as they come. Founded by graphic designer Daniel Fernandez, Orlando-based independent brand Goods of Horror is all about colors, humor and… horror. The brand offers a variety of premium stickers and button pins, each design having its own backstory and representing different phases of his life. For these colorful thank you notes, his idea was to create a collection of cards as exciting as his stickers range.
Daniel used MOO’s Square Postcards in Original paper: “I printed these “thank you” cards because I wanted to give every order a personal touch. Each card matches a Round Sticker for the envelope and is sent with a handwritten note to every customer.”
With Printfinity, you can create different Thank You Card designs within a single pack – a great way to customize your cards without over-stretching your budget.
5) House of Carls: monochromatic elegance
Ogilvy creative by day and freelancer by night, House of Carls’ creator Carla Prato is a branding and design expert with a keen eye for typography. For shopping brand Althea’s thank you note, her idea was to combine a script font with the modern logo she designed for them, including it in a subtle way thanks to an elegant tone-on-tone effect. The brand slips these notes into each order as an extra thank you to their customers.
6. Wannock Lane: a warm thank you
With her brand Wannock Lane, British designer Laura Scott creates beautiful illustrated cards, prints and stickers that convey warmth and delicacy. She designed her thoughtful Thank You Cards to express her gratitude to customers: “whilst running my small business, the thing that always keeps me going is the support I get from people on Instagram (who I often don’t know) who are putting orders through and helping turn my passion into a career. I decided to make some Thank You cards with MOO so I had something to send out with each order to show how grateful I am that people have chosen to shop small!“.
Got your fill of Thank You Card inspiration? Express your gratitude in style with eye-catching Thank You Cards.
For a business, having a community that supports you is essential – especially in the current context. But what’s the best way to express your gratitude? In these trying times, being a company that gives back to the community is more important than ever. There are plenty of ways you can do some good this season, most of which offer sound business benefits too. From employee volunteering to business donations to charity, find out how to give back this holiday season.
These six inspiring ways your company can make a difference over the holidays will spread tidings of comfort and joy to your customers, staff and community – as well as giving you a warm glow inside.
1. Encourage employee volunteering
Giving your staff free time off to do charitable work is a win-win situation. Aside from supporting a charitable organization, corporate volunteering can benefit both your business and your employees as individuals. As well as being good for society, it’s been shown to boost mental health and could even help develop your employees’ leadership skills.
Businesses that engage in corporate volunteering also get a big tick in the box marked ‘socially responsible’ – and giving your employees the opportunity to support the community could pay long-term “dividends”. Also, while giving might be more rewarding than receiving, building an altruistic company culture will give your business a positive PR boost.
2. Donate to a good cause
There are plenty of proven benefits for companies that donate to charities, including improving your company’s reputation and building the respect of your employees. Ask your team to help you nominate a charity, or choose a cause linked to your business. For example, if you design homeware, you could donate to a homelessness charity.
Although visibility isn’t the name of the game here, you could make a business donation to a charity on behalf of each of your regular or key clients. You can let them know in your company’s holiday Greeting Card how much has been donated, and to which charity, as a thank you for their loyalty.
3. Give to your community
For those in need, the holidays can be a particularly challenging time, so why not examine your business to see if there’s anything you can offer in support of your local or wider community? Many companies that donate to charities offer their own products and services, to help them benefit from their particular expertise. For example:
- If you’re in manufacturing, you could hand out your product to charities who would benefit or, if you produce something fancy, offer a gift as a raffle prize.
- If your business offers a service, offering time pro bono to a charity, or directly to those in need, is another way of spreading some good cheer without simply giving away cash.
4. Take part in a charity event
As a business, giving back to the community can take many forms. There are plenty of creative ways you can encourage your staff to harness the holiday spirit to help others. Suggesting a distanced or online group activity to raise money has the added bonus of minimising disruption and bringing your team together for a common cause (one unrelated to your business).
Offer to match each donation made by staff – and make sure management gets stuck in too – and you’ll make even more of an impact. Short of ideas? Try one of these:
- Charge a small fee for staff to wear a bobble hat or Christmas sweater in online meetings over the holidays. Offer a prize for the craziest design.
- Produce a company calendar to sell for charity. Get everyone involved in the whole process, from choosing a theme to helping with production.
- Hold a ‘best decorated home office’ competition, asking entrants to decorate their desks at home.
- If possible, ask staff to donate items or skills, and hold an online holiday auction.
5. Sponsor an intern in the new year
Show you really mean it by extending your goodwill into 2021. Companies that give back do it all year round! Offering a sponsored internship spot, work experience placement or apprenticeship to a young person who needs help getting a foot on the ladder is great for your community, and could be beneficial for your business, too.
Reach out to local enterprise schemes that help young people find work, and they’ll be more than willing to help find an enthusiastic match for whatever paid work experience you can offer. Although this represents a longer-term financial commitment than a bake sale, it’s an incredibly rewarding one, and could lead to you gaining a skilled and committed new worker.
6. Reward your employees
There are many ways for your business to give back. The benefits of making your employees feel valued are well-documented, and include happier workers and boosted trust within your business.
The holidays mark a time of change – and if your employees are among the 52% of workers who consider looking for a new job after the ball drops, it pays to make them feel valued as 2020 draws to a close.
Of course, a solid bonus in each pay cheque never goes amiss. But there are other, more creative ways to show your appreciation. Here are some ways for your business to give back to your employees:
- Join a perk scheme that offers employees discounts on pleasure purchases such as movie tickets and restaurants.
- Give your staff additional free time off between Christmas and New Year. Let’s face it: they’re not getting much done during ‘Betwixtmas’ anyway.
- Offer a range of perks they can choose from, so their gift is customized and won’t go to waste – for example, a gift card for a store or service of their choice.
If you can’t afford to recognize your employees with lump sums or costly perks, a small gift delivered in person with a handwritten Greeting Card goes further than you might think. It demonstrates that you genuinely value your workforce, and you’ve noticed their individual contribution to the team. Companies that give back are, above all, companies that care – no matter their budget. Thanks to Printfinity, you even have the option of printing a different, personalized design on every card, earning you even more brownie points.
Want to spread the joy? Browse our customizable Greeting Cards.