Now that we’ve eaten all the turkey and pumpkin pie we can handle, we’re cranking up the holiday tunes and decking the halls. Of course, we can’t resist adding a bit of holiday cheer to our blogs as well! Today, we’re sharing a few ways you can deck your blog for the holidays.
1. Add some holiday red.
Our favorite way to add holiday cheer is to add a touch of red to highlight holiday content in the site navigation. First, create a new blog category for holiday content, or you can even create a special holiday page (we’ll get to that next!). Update your navigation menu with your new holiday category or page, then follow our help desk tutorial to change the navigation color to red.
If you have a variety of holiday content, like outfits, gift guides, recipes, and sale alerts, consider creating a parent category for holiday, with subcategories for those specific sub-categories. You can link to these subcategories in a dropdown menu under the holiday tab in your menu, so readers can easily find the content they need at the moment. Bonus points: Use our Grid plugin to display your holiday category posts in a grid, with your subcategories listed automatically in a filtering menu! Readers can even shop rewardStyle or ShopStyle widgets directly from your Grid page, using our Shop the Post plugin.
2. Create a special holiday page.
Did you know that you can apply templates from our Boutiques plugin to multiple pages? It’s the perfect way to create a special holiday page, without needing to edit your usual shop page. Simply add a new page, make sure the page permalink is /holiday or /holidayshop for easy sharing, and select one our Boutiques templates from the Page Attributes box. Save a draft, and our editing boxes will appear. Then, you can add up to 5 boutique widgets from rewardStyle or ShopStyle.
Each of our Boutiques templates includes a section for links to your favorite retailers — and this section is totally customizable! For your holiday page, we recommend linking to your holiday posts and/or categories instead, to give readers one place to access all of your holiday content. Our Instashop template includes a section at the top of the page for adding a shop widget and button linking to your Instagram profile, but this can be customized too. Use the widget code section to add a shopping widget of your favorite gifts, or write an intro for your holiday page, and use the button to link to the holiday category on your blog.
3. Update your photography
The easiest way to make your blog look extra festive is with holiday imagery! Try uploading holiday imagery to our Topics or Highlight widgets, and link the thumbnails to your holiday categories and subcategories, a holiday page, or even your favorite holiday posts. Or, you can simply use holiday imagery within your post content, for a dash of wintry goodness within your blog feed.
Our favorite resource for free stock photography is Unsplash, and they have a gorgeous collection of holiday images. We made a huge collection for you to choose from here. The good news: everything on Unsplash is free to use! You can download these images and integrate them into your content, or use them as inspiration to take your own holiday decor photos! For gift guides, try using a photo as your featured image, rather than your shopping collage, for a cleaner, and more festive look across your site.
How are you decking your blog for the holidays? Share with us in the comments below!
