8 ways to make your website Christmassy

Well its that time of year where your entire world around you gets turned into one gigantic bundle of joy. Family dinners, relatives conveniently stopping by, shoveling the driveway and we cant forget about EGGNOG! And just to be clear.. when we say joy we really mean sheer pain.

In all reality changing your website to reflect the upcoming holiday is easy, fun, inexpensive and an engaging way to keep your website up to date and give it a little bit of personality.

Here is BOLT Media’s top 8 ways to turn your website in to the tacky xmas tree for the web.

1. Cheer up your logo

We all know every website begins with the logo so lets pull a page from google’s catalogue and toss some garland, light bulbs, stars, snowflakes, Santa hat or even a play on words – “Peir1Imports” = “Cheer1Imports”.

Here is a sample of Twitter sporting a lovely hand knitted scarf and a St. Nick inspired toque.

 2. Get with the colours of Christmas

What colours come to mind when you think of Christmas? The obvious Green and Red? Silver and Gold? As do we. Tweek your site’s colours to match the palette of Christmas.

3. Header or Background Check

And we’re not talking about the process when applying for jobs here. We feel this the most tasteful and less intrusive way to toss on a little xmas spirit on your site by creating snowy background or a warm cheery header graphic.

Ask and bing has done a nice job in the past:

4. Holiday Promotions

Every one loves a good deal, so why not use this cash cow of a holiday to create some extra bucks via a social network promotion, email marketing campaign, coupon codes, sell festive products or even a simple onsite discount.

5. Count Down To Xmas

Just like the advent calendar, add a “sweet” counter to your site. Create the same anticipation for the big red burly man named Santa, even create a special 1 day savings promo.

Here is a great url to add a quick and dirty pre-made counter to your site simply by copying the snip of code to your site.

http://www.satisfaction.com/christmas-countdown-generator/

6. Holiday E-Cards or Email “Snow” Blast

Who doesn’t like receiving a personal thank you or getting a little holiday cheer in the mail.  Email clients a cute funny card to brighten their day or offer some sort of client discount.

7. The gift that keeps on giving

Create something to give away for free to visitors, even if its a piece of coal, people love free stuff.

Our favorite computer company Apple offers 12 days of free downloads:

8. Make it “snow”

Add some quick javascript to your site and let it snow! Light up your site by adding breakable Christmas lights. Think about adding some hidden “Xmas Eggs” to add some extra fun to your pages.

http://www.schillmania.com/projects/snowstorm/ Offers simple Javascript that you can achieve both of these.

In conclusion, if this isn’t enough Christmas for you, we suggest you go see a specialist and get your head checked. But in all honestly BOLT Media, loves this holiday. Maybe its the fact that we have time off or is it that everyone is walking around half cut? What ever the reason, everyone at BOLT Media wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!