The holiday season is here again! In the spirit of giving, here are 31 free holiday fonts to use for corporate messages, social posts, flyers, packaging and greeting cards. These Christmas fonts range from fully festive options with swooping script and snow-covered letterforms to simple and contemporary fonts.
When sending greetings or announcing offers, choosing a font that shouts “Christmas” may help your business stand out. But the usual rules around how to choose fonts still apply: important information should be clear and legible, and fonts should complement each other on the page. Trust your instincts, follow brand guidelines and take time to review different options. These holiday fonts are free for commercial use, making them ideal for small businesses.
- Holiday-season messaging and marketing can help raise visibility, and the Christmas font you use is almost as important as what you say.
- Free holiday fonts are available from download libraries. This article contains links to download the best script, serif, sans-serif, whimsical, retro and vintage fonts.
- Each font suits different holiday messaging, from excitement to tradition. Consider how your font choice relates to your brand and wider marketing tactics.
- Check the format will work with your design software, then download the font!
Script fonts
These flowing fonts mimic handwriting, perfect for elegant greeting cards, holiday menus and promotional postcard fonts. Use script fonts for headline text and to create a festive atmosphere, but not for body copy, as it won’t be readable at smaller sizes.
1. ChopinScript
With everyday elegance and a formal but friendly feel, ChopinScript is a great font for holiday event invitations and greeting cards. It’s easy to read compared to some of its fellow script fonts, too.
Download this font at Fontspace.com. It’s freeware, with no restrictions.
2. Ochre Script
This swooping, romantic calligraphic font is great for handwritten-style holiday invitations, Christmas social media posts and holiday greeting cards for businesses.
Download this font at Pixelsurplus.com. It’s free for personal and desktop commercial use, with a fee for app and online use.
3. Fresh Orange
Fresh Orange is a brisk and lively font choice for brands that want a handwritten script that isn’t too traditional. Its energetic feel is great for a festive look without going full-on Christmas.
Download this font at FontBundles.net. It’s free for all commercial use.
4. Good Vibes
A fun and funky font with hints of the 60s and 70s, Good Vibes will make a social media message pop or could be a playful addition to seasonal product branding.
Download this font at DaFont. It’s 100% free.
5. Noelan
Its playful twists give this font a sense of fun that can make any Christmas marketing, from signage to social media posts, feel festive.
Download this font at Pixelsurplus.com. It’s free for commercial use.
6. League Script
The carefully flowing lines of League Script feel considered but intimate. This is a great font option for a brand that wants to evoke sincerity and a personal touch in printed or digital communication.
Download this font at Fontsquirrel.com. It has a free-to-use SIL Open Font License.
7. Abys
With its irregular, rough feel, this handwritten brush font is great for adding a little edge to branded seasonal messaging, bringing a modern and exciting twist to headlines or social media posts.
Download this font at Dafont.com. It’s free for all commercial use.
Serif fonts
Serif fonts, which feature small strokes at the end of letters, often have a traditional feel. Serifs make great holiday fonts for printed text, as well as holiday packaging, signage and upscale branding.
8. EB Garamond
Looking to present your business as reliable, classy and professional when the others are covered in tinsel? This publishing industry favorite is a great font option, especially for long body copy and text-heavy promotional materials such as brochures. Download the font in regular, italics and bold styles for different uses.
Download this font at Fonts.google.com. Its SIL Open Font License means it’s open for commercial use.
9. Butler
With old-school weight and clarity plus contemporary curves, the Butler typeface is recommended for posters, headlines and professional design projects.
Download this font at Fabiandesmet.gumroad.com. It’s free for commercial use, with an optional donation.
10. Playfair Display
This sharp font, inspired by 18th-century printing trends, has sophisticated lines that still feel contemporary, making Playfair Display the perfect choice for high-end brands looking to communicate timelessness.
Download this font at Fonts.google.com. With a SIL Open Font License, it’s open for commercial use.
11. Sunny Winter Font
Because for many, Christmas isn’t covered in a blanket of snow, this fun, slimline font, inspired by a sunny holiday season in Texas, is great for greeting cards and flyers, especially in the Southern hemisphere.
Download this font at Fontspace.com. It’s free, but donations are suggested for commercial use.
12. Dosmilcatorce
This serif font has real weight, but its rounded edges feel worn and comfortable, giving it a traditional feel. It’s better as a display font than for body text, so use it for logos, signage or window displays.
Download this font at Dafont.com. It’s free for commercial use.
Sans-serif fonts
Compared to serifs, sans serif fonts are generally more modern fonts, with an accessible, minimalist look that suits lifestyle or tech brands. These simple fonts also tend to be clearer on smaller digital screens.
13. Poppins
Sleek and monolinear, the even geometry of Poppins brings calm reassurance—great if your brand wants to speak clearly while everyone else is shouting their Christmas messages.
Download this font at Fonts.google.com. Its SIL Open Font License means it’s open for commercial use.
14. Cabin
Seasonal designs can be full of visual elements, but sometimes you just want a simple font that looks clean and clear over a snowy backdrop. This is what makes the slightly-rounded Cabin a versatile Christmas font.
Download this font at Dafont.com. It’s a public domain font.
15. Changa One
Changa One’s chunky but unfussy letters have a minimalist feel but are bulky enough to stand up next to warm, ornate designs, making it a great font to pair with header or strapline text.
Download this font at Fonts.google.com. It has an SIL Open Font License and is open for commercial use
16. Lato
Sans serif fonts often feel businesslike. Lato’s balanced letterforms give a clean, straightforward feel, but its gentle curves make it more friendly and inviting than some other serifs.
Download this font at Fonts.google.com. It has a SIL Open Font License and is open for commercial use
17. Lane
This sans-serif font’s slenderness can pack words into a slim space, helping the text stand out in busy layouts. But it’s also a varied font—you can mix legibility with flair by combining Narrow Style, candy-cane Regular Style, 3D Posh Style and the quirky Upper Style in the same email, marketing material or promotional text.
Download this font at Fontspace.com. It’s freeware.
18. Metropolis
A popular free modern font, Metropolis has an approachable feel thanks to its sharp, clear look, perfect for delivering fresh and direct holiday messages.
Download this font at 1001fonts.com. It’s free for commercial use.
19. Artistico
Artistico font’s uneven, faded look gives it a light-hearted, handmade feel. It’s still a relatively unfussy font choice that pairs well with more whimsical fonts or designs.
Download this font at Dafont.com. It’s 100% free.
Whimsical fonts
While serif and sans serif fonts may be great for sharing information, these quirky fonts are best for a cheerful or seasonal vibe. They’re ideal for party invites, casual social media posts and fun product labels.
20. Mountains of Christmas
Go full Christmas with storybook-style visions: think Scrooge, Lemony Snicket and the Grinch! Use a mix of the regular and bold styles for information hierarchy, i.e. put the most important information in bold and use the regular font for less important headings.
Download this font at Fonts.google.com. It’s free for all commercial use.
21. Snowpersons Font
Snowpersons is another great font if you want to wave goodbye to subtlety and go full holiday season with carrot-nosed snowmen poking out of snowy letters.
Download this font at Fontspace.com. It’s freeware.
22. Gloria Hallelujah
Inspired by the handwriting of a Korean schoolchild, Gloria Hallelujah’s letters are clear but add a heartfelt feel to the message, bringing Christmas sentiment to messages, flyers and posters.
Download this font at Fonts.google.com. The SIL Open Font License means it’s free for commercial use.
Retro and vintage holiday fonts
The holiday season is often a time to look back, and these old-timey fonts are an ideal choice for heritage brands and individuals looking to bring a warm, festive glow to their marketing or messaging.
23. White Christmas
These hand-drawn-style letters have a varying baseline and ornate serifs, with snow flecking their edges. To evoke a bygone age and classic Christmas—perhaps for retro marketing materials or a tongue-in-cheek newsletter—this is the font to use.
Download this font at Dafont.com. It’s free for commercial use.
24. Kingthings Christmas
This gothic font, with its letters set on snow and surrounded by falling snowflakes, has a medieval vibe that would work well for traditional, vintage or highly festive Christmas marketing and messaging.
Download this font at Dafont.com. It’s free for commercial use.
25. Nickelodeon
Outlandish serifs inspired by silent-movie title cards make this font artful, great for brands wanting to evoke a quirky vibe for their Christmas communications.
Download this font at Fontspace.com. It’s freeware.
26. Christmas Card
The Christmas Card holiday font does not hold back. It’s a ye olde dream of the festive season, recalling snowdrifts, roaring fires and quills. Use this Christmas font if your brand has a sense of fun and is promoting something seriously festive.
Download this font at Dafont.com. It’s free for all commercial use.
27. Metro Retro
Another early 20th-century-inspired font, Metro Retro’s column-like characters evoke both arty patterning and Art Deco style. Use this Christmas font in a large size for product names or headlines.
Download this font at 1001fonts.com. Uppercase is free for commercial use, but you’ll have to pay for lowercase.
28. Zfraktur Eye
Traditional gothic characters are given an angular modern twist in a font that suits the darker side of the holidays—think Tim Burton or eerie fairy tales. Use this font to grab attention in headlines and straplines.
Download this font at Fontrepo.com. It’s free for commercial use.
29. Luckiest Guy
This playful, comic-book style font is inspired by 1950s advertisements. It’s an upper-case font, so use it for headers, posters and call-outs to bring back old-school fun.
Download this font at Fonts.google.com. With its Apache License 2.0, this font is free to use commercially.
30. Coventry Garden
The exaggerated serifs and swooshes of Coventry Garden recall the early days of newspaper and magazine adverts, while its quirks are festive and attention-grabbing. It’s an upper-case font, and is best used for headline text by a business that prides itself on its heritage.
Download this font at Fontspace.com. It’s freeware.
31. Christmas Jumper
The Christmas Jumper holiday font isn’t quite free, but you can use it in exchange for a donation to Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day. And its retro Christmas feel is as festive as it gets…
Download this font from Dafont. It’s donationware, with donations to Save the Children requested.
How to choose the right holiday font
Now you’ve seen our list of good Christmas fonts, it’s worth considering how your holiday messages will work as part of your wider communications.
Step 1: Look at it alongside your brand fonts
Will your font choice work cohesively alongside your existing brand fonts? Consider using a holiday font that still fits your brand identity. For example, it’s fine for a gift company to choose a retro font that feels fun, but it might work less well for a legal firm.
Step 2: Consider visual hierarchy
Look at your message as a whole, and consider how fonts contribute to visual hierarchy. Bolder, larger fonts and contrasting colors will draw the eye to headlines or logos, while lighter, simpler fonts are better for body copy.
Step 3: Think about font size and legibility
Think about the size of the smallest letters, and whether older readers, especially, will be able to read the small print. Ask yourself: Is your Christmas font easy to read and accessible to different ages and audiences?
Step 4: Test it across different applications
How does your chosen font work across different media? Does it work for both printed materials and digital marketing? Fonts that look clear and striking on a billboard can look cramped or fussy on a card or phone screen. Consider fonts that work across the board, or holiday fonts that complement each other well, maybe different styles of the same font family.
Step 5: Research trends
The holiday season may seem timeless, but Christmas card trends change, so consider your message in the context of changing habits and evolving preferences.
Using Christmas fonts in designs
These top 31 holiday fonts suit various projects and uses. But your choice isn’t just aesthetic; it also needs to be practical.
There are several main font types. True type fonts (TTF) stay sharp at different sizes and are marginally better for MS applications and web use, while open type fonts (OTF) can support a wider range of characters and tend to work better for print projects. Web Open Font Format (WOFF) fonts are optimized for online use.
Most desktop applications, including Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, can work with all three formats, although you may need a paid account to import fonts on VistaCreate and Canva.
Before you start, double-check the use license (usually a document within the download file) to confirm there are no limitations related to your project, as permissions can change. Look for statements such as “free for commercial use” or Open Font License (OFL). Once you’re sure a font is right for you, it’s time to get those Christmas messages out. Happy holidays!
