Running Christmas contests on social media offers numerous benefits: you can generate high engagement and reach, boost sales, strengthen customer loyalty, and increase awareness for a new product. All you need to do is decide on your marketing objective and design a Christmas contest that fits it. Easypromos provides all the tools you need to create and manage your Christmas contest just the way you want.
1. Christmas Contest Ideas to Boost Brand Engagement
A Christmas photo contest is the perfect combination: it sparks creativity and emotion among users, increases engagement, and generates user-generated content (UGC) that amplifies your brand’s visibility during the holiday season.
In this example, Veterinaria La Gavia used emotional marketing with a Christmas pet photo contest. Participants had to upload a festive photo of their furry friend and collect votes to win a set of customized products for their pet.
The campaign was promoted strategically on social media, where users could easily access the contest by scanning a QR code. After the contest, the brand leveraged the user-generated content to strengthen its digital presence, dedicating a special post to the winning pet and deepening emotional connections with its community.
Encourage user participation with prizes, motivating them to share their contact information in exchange for a chance to win. For instance, Hotel Regina Madrid organized a mention + hashtag contest where participants had to appear in photos featuring the hotel’s stunning Christmas decorations. The prize was a stay at the hotel itself.
Easypromos issues a Certificate of Validity for all random prize draws. This certificate ensures that the winner selection process is transparent and fair, a key factor in building trust among participants.
2. Christmas Recipe Contest
IBSA organized a photo contest where users shared their best Christmas recipes, along with a description and a picture. The key rule was that they had to use and display the brand’s product in their recipe. This is an original and effective way to showcase products and encourage consumers to recommend them to their friends and family.
Another similar contest came from Ducros, the herbs and spices brand. In their case, both contestants and voters were rewarded, as the winning recipes were chosen through an online voting contest.
Learn more about Ducros’ campaign and how it recognized foodies and inspired clients.
3. Christmas Contest Ideas: Window Display
These Christmas contest ideas aren’t just for B2C companies, they work for B2B as well. A great example is window display contests, where businesses compete for rewards from a supplier. Retif, a leading European brand in retail equipment, organized a Christmas window contest among its clients. The requirements were simple: a Christmas-themed window with at least one Retif product visible. The most-voted displays won cash prizes.
Another example comes from the local shopping district of Tui, in Galicia (Spain). Stores entered the contest by uploading photos of their window decorations to a microsite, and local residents voted for their favorites.
Continuing with the window display theme, here’s another successful initiative organized in collaboration with local businesses. To promote local shopping and increase foot traffic, the City Council and Chamber of Commerce of Soria organized “The Nativity Route.” Forty stores displayed nativity scenes, and residents voted for their favorites. A total of €4,000 in prizes was distributed among the top three stores and participating voters.
4. Christmas Contest Ideas: Photo Booth or Festive Setup
Want to strengthen your brand identity? Use the Christmas season to attract visitors to your store with a themed photo booth. This not only helps increase in-store sales but also allows you to collect customer data for future marketing campaigns. Just what Gran Sur shopping center did in the following example:
Similarly, Centro Comercial 7 Palmas organized a contest where participants took photos at their Christmas photo booth and competed for prizes, from weekend getaways and beauty kits to watches, gift cards, and transport passes. The goals were to boost in-store engagement and build customer loyalty, a dynamic that worked perfectly.
You can also create a video contest where participants record a short selfie video at the booth or send in a holiday message.
5. Christmas Decoration Contest
One of the most exciting parts of the holidays is the decoration, and for brands in this sector, Christmas is the key sales period. The Galician ceramics brand Sargadelos, internationally known for its fine porcelain, organized a photo contest in which customers shared pictures of their holiday table settings featuring the brand’s pieces. This turned customers into brand ambassadors and provided valuable UGC to inspire future buyers.
Another example is Balsam Hill Australia, a brand specializing in Christmas trees and decorations. Each year, it hosts a Christmas tree photo contest for its customers. In the edition shown here, users voted for their three favorite trees, and the ten most-voted entries advanced to a final round judged by a panel.
6. Christmas Drawing Contest
Christmas is a season of generosity, and many brands take this opportunity to highlight their human side and connect emotionally with their audiences. A creative and heartfelt way to express corporate social responsibility is through a charity-themed drawing contest.
For example, a real estate agency organized a family-friendly Christmas card drawing contest, where users voted for their favorite designs. Similarly, the supermarket chain Vegalsa-Eroski ran a Christmas drawing contest for employees and their families. With categories for different age groups and prizes like school supply vouchers, the contest fostered creativity, team spirit, and a festive atmosphere among staff.
7. Christmas Contest Ideas: Short Xmas Stories
Finally, here’s an idea for a lead-generation campaign: a Christmas short story contest where users register to participate.
Every year, the El Boulevard Shopping Center organizes activities, games, and workshops for families to enjoy the holiday season together. In recent years, the center has also launched online campaigns such as “The Christmas Tale” contest, where participants were invited to write a short story starting from a given opening line. Parents and children could write together and share a creative moment. All stories were published in an online gallery, encouraging votes, participation, and a sense of community.
Need more information or advice on how to organize your Christmas contest? Contact our Support Team, we’ll be happy to help!
