With Christmas less than a week away we’ve done a round up of some of favourite festive designs from a range of British publishers, large and small. Let us know which ones you like best!
Starting off on the left is a beautiful vintage St Nicholas image from art card specialist Colcards and 
on the right is a sweet snowman from Claire Louise. Fashion Design Graduate Claire creates detailed designs for greetings cards, prints and gifts using a mixed media of water-colour, fabrics and machine embroidery. A lot of time is spent on creating something that is unique for everyone. She has come up with a small selection of festive designs, some of which have been inspired by Christmas Carols. Using water-colours she has created illustrative designs and are hand-finished with a glitzy Swarovski crystal to add a bit of sparkle this Christmas.
Next up are a gorgeous photographic image from award-winning Christmas card publisher Five Dollar Shake and a stylishly crafted handmade reindeer from Alljoy Designs.
Leading the way in humour is once again the irreverent and quintessentially British Cath Tate, who told G&G: “We’ve all seen the mass of Christmas adverts this year that refer to the tireless work of woman at Christmas. If peeling 5000 potatoes at Christmas sounds familiar then Cath Tate Cards Photocaptions Christmas card range will appeal! The range takes old photographs and applies funny captions about the real Christmas we face. Designs in the range like ‘Three Wise women’ have sold out in the majority of the chains at independents that stocked the design. This card lists everything that that would have done if it was Three wise women rather than men (an unsurprising very long list!). Finding the humour in Christmas really can be essential when faced with a mound of veg to cook and Turkey to stuff and n endless list of presents to buy! And Cath Tate Phototcations Christmas range with some light humour help lighten the load!
Then we have this jolly robin from Alice Palace, whose Christmas card packs have been selling like hot cakes. There are three sets, each including four cards each of two different designs. Alice Palace is proud to be an eco friendly 
family business, whose cards are printed on premium quality recycled uncoated FSC board, and packaged inside a clear biodegradable bag with cream 100% recycled envelopes. All are designed, printed and finished in the UK. On the right is a cute illustrated mouse from the Wrendale designs, which we just adore.
Keeping up the cute stakes is this lovely Me to You Tatty Teddy from Carte Blanche Greetings. Tatty is available on cards in a variety of formats, including the photographic range shown here, classic Me to You and Me to You softly drawn. They’re all super cute, as you might expect from the clear market leader in this genre. On the right is a lovely robin from Art Angels. This screenprint image is called Bringing back the Tree by Angela Harding, from the Winter Printmakers collection.
Helping to ensure Santa manages to deliver stacks of presents on time around the world is designer and illustrator Roisin Cafferty, whose new Christmas cards include this super sleigh that cleverly incorporates a seasonal message. There are designs covering wife, husband, brother, sister, parents and more. Generic single Christmas designs are also available and packs of 5 cards can be ordered if in large quantities. These designs form part of Roisin’s increasingly popular ‘Good Times’ range, which sees typography drawn to fit relevant shapes. Right is a stunning bauble from Portfolio Select’s fabulous Christmas range.
Last but definitely not least is a traditional nativity scene from Colcards, one of the nicest we have seen this year.
5 thoughts on “Our favourite Christmas Cards of 2012”
I can see that as designers/printers you would have your own special take on things, but I’m surprised anyone would select a card that did not reflect the occasion that gives it a market in the first place. Special occasions offer great opportunities to publishers and designers to make sales, after all! As for the same old themes, I was once informed by the head buyer for a large multiple chain of retailers that a good old red robin was their best-selling Christmas design year-in, year-out. Great card design also involves commercial appeal.
I agree, for many years I’ve hoped that something new would come out of the presses but there you go. I don’t have much hope for this Christmas as previous Christmases always seem to follow the same path. When I have sent out my cards, anyone getting them wouldn’t think that they were related to Christmas at all because they would be focused on the design and colour itself. THAT’S what makes my head turn when looking for cards…not the same old themes.
As an artist and designer, I have to say that I wasn’t very impressed with your round-up, I’m afraid. Most of these cards do not have a wow factor that I would be seeking as a retailer or as a buyer.
Exceptions include: the traditional nativity scene from Colcards is a classic and beautiful; Angela Harding’s screen print is top-notch, a clean design, and a bit retro; the tatty teddy is cute and fun; the reindeer from Alljoy interesting and I’d pick it up and probably put it down again once I discovered how expensive it was (just a guess).
Cath Cate’s old-fashioned women with a funny line is old hat. Seen it before and in far more attractive colors and techniques. Five Dollar Shake’s puppy photo is amateurish. I’m not sure about the coloring of the vintage St. Nick, and the snowman is…pale and not interesting.
Okay, I’m not British, and there could be some cultural standards or views I don’t ‘get’ but I find it very hard to believe that these are the best.
The two that stand out for me are the handmade reindeer from Alljoy Designs and the screenprint image Bringing back the Tree by Angela Harding.
Thank you for sharing these cards. They are all very clever or charming. I particularly like the Nativity scene which reminds me of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. I did my thesis on him at Central St Martins College of Art a long time ago. Who is the illustrator?