Planning your Christmas display? Tips from a window artist
Looking to bring some seasonal sparkle to your storefront this Christmas? If you’re planning on transforming your high street business into a festive showstopper, bespoke window art is a wonderful way to outsource the effort and dial up the impact.
Hand-painted window art is for you, if:
You want your business to stand out and be unique. With so many businesses turning to AI for their business visuals, the hand-painted route offers a more personal and human option - making it much more likely to resonate with your audience.
You have specific ideas or messages you’d like to communicate, but you need help bringing it to life. Unlike an off-the shelf solution, window art allows you to tailor the story, colours, messaging to your business and make it something you know your customers will love.
You’re the type of business that goes the extra mile to offer something special - this is a great way to show it.
It gives you another story to tell on your socials over the shopping season: people love a process reel, why not broaden the reach of your investment.
If none of the above is reason enough, it’s really pretty and suuuuper festive!
Making your Christmas windows more memorable
So now I’ve persuaded you that tailor-made window art is a great investment, here are a few tips for maximum impact.
There’s strength in simplicity: stick with one message and commit to a theme.
Personalise it to your business, or location. Keep reading for case studies.
Tell a story: give people reason to hang around a little longer and take in the details.
Consider how the design will interact with the wider space. Do you want the art to frame your display, or fill your window?
Think beyond the window: make a splash across your other marketing channels. Share the process of the window being designed and painted, tell the story behind it.
Choosing a festive theme your customers will love
By their nature, Christmas windows have a very broad appeal, but it’s worth considering what will really resonate with your target audience and tailor it that little bit more. I’ve picked out a few examples of themes from my Christmas window art portfolio.
Family Favourites
Does your theme need to appeal to a family audience? How can you capture the imagination of your younger customers?
Telling a story: how the goodies get made
Chocolate shop Knoops is known for their delicious hot chocolate, but they also sell their tasty products to enjoy at home - perfect for gifting. They set up a gifting space at their flagship store in Rye, and invited me to create a festive scene along the bottom of the window, showing Christmas elves in the factory, making the chocolate. We used the opportunity to highlight some of the ingredients, the different flavours available, and to spotlight the beautiful packaging.
Top tip: let the story unfold at eye-level for the kids, a great way to increase dwell time for all the family.
Celebrating a beloved character
I’ve created a few window murals for Lawton & Dawe, a female-led estate agency in Hove. Their tall, narrow windows lend themselves nicely to spotlighting a single character. Last year, we went for Paddington Bear, and added some festive flourishes.
Top tip: Think how you can add sweet details to dial up the theme. I added a North Pole sticker to Paddington’s briefcase, for example.
For the festive foodies
Christmas is all about the delicious treats and if your business is connected with food or preparing food, your window presents a lovely opportunity to tantalise people’s tastebuds.
Eat, Drink and Be Merry
KB kitchens wanted to embrace the idea that the best parties are always in the kitchen - especially at Christmas - so we created this foodie window for their showroom in East Grinstead.
Top tip: make it extra personal by inviting the team or even your customers to suggest their favourite festive treats to be included in the mural.
Putting your product in the picture
I work with lots of cafes, bakeries and other food businesses to create foodie themed windows, including Sugardough Bakery, who create all kind of delicious baked goodies with a festive twist, including Christmas cupcakes, yule logs, tarts, pies and more. I made a feature of their gingerbread decorations in this window display.
Top tip: think of ways to draw the customer’s eyes to your products. This design frames the actual baked goods at eye level.
Elegant winter snow scenes
A gorgeous way to celebrate your local area, wintery scenes are a great option for businesses that don’t naturally have products to display in their shop windows: such as estate agents, cafes, restaurants, opticians.
Top tip: look at estate agent’s listings to capture the character of the local houses. Think about recognisable landmarks to include so people instantly clock that this is hand-painted and personalised.
Festive foliage with a twist
It might be traditional, but festive foliage definitely doesn’t have to be boring!
Share your values
I worked with my local refill store, Harriet’s of Hove to create a heart-shaped frame filled with hand-painted evergreens, oranges and pine cones. It included a hand-painted gift label bearing the message: support small, shop local.
Why it worked: the frame pulled the customer’s eye into the store. The gift label was a visual nod to their gifting offer, while also reminding people what a difference they can make by supporting independents.
Christmas party ready mirrors
The lead up to Christmas is a busy time for the team at Muse hair, and they wanted to help their customers get in the Christmas spirit while they’re being pampered. I decorated each mirror in the salon with a festive design. Picking out colours that matched the salon decor.
Top tip: add your instagram handle into the mirror and encourage people to share their new hair pic.
Where to find Christmas window design inspiration
It’s really important to me that I create original pieces for each client, so I try to avoid referencing other window artists. Here are a few places I look instead for Christmas inspiration:
Christmas movies: this is your excuse to watch a few Christmas movies before it’s even November. Personally, I’m obsessed with the 90s maximalism in the Home Alone house, but I also love the simplicity of the winter scenery in A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Christmas packaging: luxury brands such as Fortnum & Masons and Liberty, through to M&S, often have beautifully packaged Christmas products. Great for theme inspiration, as well as colour palettes.
Old Christmas cards: I always keep hold of the ones I love for this very reason - the simplest thing can spark an idea.
Ballet and theatre: the Nutcracker is often the go-to, but there are so many more festive productions that are full of wintery scenes and festive nods.
Interiors magazines: articles on tablescaping and decorating are full of inspiration for festive flourishes, colour schemes, and ways to put a fresh spin on the more traditional favourites.
Cosy Christmas memories: this one is all about tapping into your inner child and embracing what makes you feel festive. Is it decorating the tree, snuggling up with a hot drink by the fire, wrapping presents, pulling Christmas crackers, tucking into a delicious feast…?
Ready to book your Christmas window art?
One last top tip: don’t leave it till the last minute! If there’s an illustrator you’d like to work with, book them as soon as you can, so that you can secure your preferred date - it’s the busiest time of year for us too. You’re also making it easier for us to deliver our best work, with a longer lead-time to plan the design.
I work with business across the southeast of England, including London, to design and create bespoke window art for all seasons. You can see more of my work on my window art portfolio, or find out more about working with me.
