Etsy holiday trends – What you need to know for your design ideas

It’s holiday time! Halloween is less than two weeks away. Then, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas will all be here before you know it.

That means it’s time to start stocking your inventory with designs and products your customers will love this holiday season.

Every so often, Etsy shares its marketplace insights about current trends and themes to watch out for. And I recently came across its 2020 Holiday Trends report, which you can see for yourself here.

It can be tough to figure out which items are going to be big sellers. But paying attention to what’s trending helps increase your chances of creating designs and products that customers actually want.

According to Etsy’s report, some of the biggest holiday trends happening right now are…

• retro/vintage holiday spirit
• cheerful citrus
• indigo and tie-dye
• 2020 commemorative ornaments
• seasonal t-shirts
• holiday-themed face masks
• matching t-shirts and face masks
• printable holiday cards

You can incorporate these trends into your product and design ideas and optimize your chances of creating holiday-themed products that customers love.

Below, I talk about each of these trends in more depth. Then, I share design ideas for each trend as well as a social media post example that you can use to promote your products.

Let’s take a look…

Retro/vintage holiday spirit 

According to Etsy, “Throwback styles continue to pique shoppers’ interest with nostalgic motifs, patterns, and palettes.” What’s old is new again. The holiday season often conjures up a lot of nostalgia.

People reminisce about celebrations from the past, especially from when they were kids. And they want to keep that spirit and those traditions alive.

Design ideas 

To tap into this penchant for nostalgia, you can search Etsy for things like “nostalgic motifs,” “retro holiday,” or “vintage Christmas.” This will help you get a feel for the types of patterns and palettes people might like with your designs.

Here are some examples I found when I ran these types of searches:

Social media post example 

#Holiday memories are the best. If you’re feeling especially #nostalgic this year, we’ve got some fantastic gift ideas for you. Shop our store’s selection here: [insert link]. Use coupon code XMAS to save 10% #Christmas2020

Cheerful citrus and other seasonal fruits 

Etsy says seasonal fruits, especially citrus, have been making their way into holiday decor, adding fresh pops of color and deliciousness. This trend isn’t necessarily specific to the holiday season, though.

This trend could easily extend beyond the holidays as well. So not all of the designs you create have to pertain to the holidays. You could also create neutral, fruity designs that have year-round, evergreen appeal.

Design ideas 

Etsy specifically mentions incorporating “zesty lemons, cute kumquats, and bold blood oranges” into your designs. But other fruits that are in season this time of year include…

• figs
• pomegranates
• dates
• quinces
• pears
• persimmons
• grapefruits
• apples

You can show realistic images of these fruits or cute cartoony renditions. You can also come up with a variety of fruit-based puns that either pertain to the holiday season or are more neutral. For example…

• Pucker up, you’re under the mistletoe! (with an image of a lemon) 
• Orange you glad it’s Christmas time? (with an image of a blood orange) 
• Ex-squeeze me, I just wanted to wish you a very happy Hanukkah! (with an image of a lemon)
• We make a perfect pear this holiday season (with an image of a pair of pears)

Here are some examples of other cute designs ideas that you could draw inspiration from:

Social media post example

Customers agree: These fresh n’ fruity #holiday designs are positively delicious. Check out our new #citrus collection here: [insert link]. We’ve got mugs, shot glasses, face masks, and more. Use code FRUITFUN to save $5 #holidays2020

Indigo and tie-dye

Indigo is the trending color this season. But even more specifically, Etsy says indigo tie-dye is popular right now.

Design ideas 

This is a pretty easy trend to incorporate into your designs. For text-based designs, you can choose indigo as the font color. Or you can create tie-dye backgrounds for your designs or let the tie-dye stand by itself. For example…

Social media post example 

#Indigo is the color of the season! Check out our new #holiday products featuring this bold, beautiful hue: [insert link]. Use promo code BLUE to get $10 off your next order #HolidayBlues #Christmas2020

2020 commemorative ornaments

If you type “ornaments” into Etsy’s search bar, you can see “ornaments 2020” as the second search query suggestion.

People generally enjoy ornaments that commemorate each year or specific milestones (e.g. baby’s first Christmas). But 2020 has been such a unique year. So a 2020 commemorative ornament is kind of like a badge of honor to put on the tree that says, “We survived this crazy year!”

Design ideas

There are several different angles you could take with 2020 commemorative Christmas ornaments. You could keep it simple and create a design that says “Christmas 2020.” Or you could come up with designs based on the following themes:

• quarantining
• Zooming with friends and family
• the toilet paper shortage
• social distancing
• hand sanitizer
• face masks
• politics – pro/anti-Biden and Harris, pro/anti-Trump and Pence

Here are some examples from Etsy (the first ornament is a great summation of all that’s happened this year so far):

(To find these examples, I ran a search for “2020 Christmas ornaments.”)

Social media post example 

#Christmas2020 is unique, to say the least. To pay homage to this year, we created a series of #2020 commemorative #ChristmasOrnaments, which you can check out here: [insert link]. Promo code JOLLY saves you 10%

Seasonal t-shirts

During the pandemic, more people have been working from home and spending more time at home just in general. Accordingly, they are dressing for comfort.

Etsy says holiday pajamas and other forms of loungewear are really popular right now. The trend is “festive yet relaxed.”

I don’t currently sell pajamas in my store, but I do sell t-shirts. So I’m able to create comfortable, seasonal tees for customers.

Design ideas 

The possibilities here really are endless. You can create traditional holiday designs for your t-shirts or you can go the pandemic route and put a funny, Coronavirus spin on your designs.

I just talked about creating Coronavirus-inspired Christmas ornaments. You could take those same designs and put them on t-shirts (and other holiday products).

Here are some examples of seasonal t-shirts I found on Etsy:

Halloween (searched for “Halloween t-shirts”)

Thanksgiving (searched for “Thanksgiving t-shirts”)

Hanukkah (searched for “Hanukkah t-shirts”)

Christmas (searched for “Christmas t-shirts”)

Social media post example 

Since we’re spending more time at home, why not be festive AND comfy this #HolidaySeason? Check out our line of t-shirts: [insert link]. They make great gifts and they’re the perfect way to celebrate the holidays pandemic-style. Coupon code 2020 gets you $5 off

Holiday-themed face masks

Face masks are still a staple accessory that we need to wear to protect the people around us as well as ourselves. Face masks don’t have to be boring, though. They can be super cute and festive and come in really fun holiday designs.

Design ideas 

Similar to the design ideas mentioned for seasonal t-shirts, you have a ton of options when it comes to holiday-themed face masks. You can go with more traditional ideas or make them more 2020-specific by drawing inspiration from the pandemic.

Here are some examples:

Halloween (searched for “Halloween face mask”)

Thanksgiving (searched for “Thanksgiving face mask”)

Hanukkah (searched for “Hanukkah face mask”)

Christmas (searched for “Christmas face mask”)

Social media post example

The #HolidaySeason is here! Stay safe AND festive with our brand new collection of holiday face masks. Shop now: [insert link]. They make great stocking stuffers! Use promo code CELEBRATE to save $5 #Holidays2020

Matching t-shirts and face masks

Etsy suggests listing matching pajamas and face masks. But since I don’t sell pajamas, I thought matching t-shirts and face masks could work just as well. This goes back to the “festive yet relaxed” trend.

People love posing for cute pictures during the holidays. And they love getting their whole families in on the action. Group photos in matching attire are very popular. So you could tap into that by selling holiday-themed sets of matching t-shirts and face masks.

Design ideas 

All you have to do here is take the design ideas I already talked about for holiday t-shirts and face masks and pair them together to create matching sets.

Sell these items together and offer a slight discount to customers. For example, if you sell t-shirts for $24.95 and face masks for $19.95, instead of selling the set for $44.90, sell it for $39.95.

You can also offer personalization with these sets. Check out the example below:

This image obviously doesn’t include face masks. But you could easily create matching face masks and tell customers they can personalize all of the items by filling in the blank: “I’m the _____elf” for each of the items in their set.

NOTE: In addition to selling coordinating family t-shirts and face masks together, you can also separate the items and create listings for coordinating family t-shirts and coordinating family face masks.

Social media post example

Coordinating #holiday sets are super cute! We’ve got a great collection of t-shirts and face masks for the whole family. Personalization options are available. Shop now: [insert link]. Save 20% when you use promo code MERRY #Holidays2020

Printable holiday cards

Given the pandemic, holiday cards are likely to be even more of a holiday staple this year than they usually are. Since many families won’t be able to get together in person, even more holiday cards may get sent out in 2020 than in years past. People may also be interested in sending more e-cards as opposed to going the USPS route.

In a recent blog post, I talked about creating printable cards and listing them on Etsy. You can check that out here. The post also includes mockups that you can feel free to use with your own holiday cards.

Customers can either print these cards out and mail them the traditional way (no envelopes are included, though). Or they can download the cards and send them via email.

Design ideas 

Designs should obviously be holiday-related and include phrases like…

Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Hanukkah
Merry Christmas
Happy New Year
Happy Holidays
Seasons Greetings
etc. 

You can also add a funny coronavirus-inspired spin to some of the cards. For example…

(I found these by searching for “funny printable Christmas cards” on Etsy.)

To increase the popularity and sellability of your cards, it’s a good idea to offer customization options. Give people the option to add their names to the cards or a family photo. This creates a bit of extra work for you, but it’s also a good way to make your cards stand out and get more people to purchase.

Social media post example 

If you can’t see your loved ones in person this year, send them some #holidaycheer with these super cute downloadable #greetingcards: [insert link]. You can either print them out or send them via email. Save 10% with coupon code MERRY

What do you think of this list of Etsy holiday trends? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts. Also, if you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends and followers!