ArticleIt’s November and Christmas is a comin’. There is a growing trend for ‘Ugly Christmas Sweaters’ with online stores fighting for business and Save the Children running an annual ‘Christmas Jumper Day’. Reindeers, candy canes and snowflakes abound in eighties-inspired designs. But the carol services are a comin’ faster and Christmas is the time that most churches see a spike in visitors. How to you tread the line between festive cheer and publicity that screams ‘we were relevant once’?
Firstly, consider using professionally designed Christmas literature – there is some brilliant scripture-inspired design online – both templates and custom designs.* As that’s not always possible, here are some tips for those of you going it alone: 1) Think about your audience – families or adults – and design using a font and colours from a Christmas window of a shop they might like. Treat Christmas-only fonts with caution. Two colours, plus black and white, and two fonts (the other one should match other church publicity) is a good rule of thumb. It will be hugely appreciated if you agree these with the minister, or ask him for a suggestion of someone to run it past, before proceeding further. 2) Think about the most important information – probably the title and date – and make sure this is big. However, don’t feel you need to fill the whole page. Think of the page like a gallery wall; the blank walls draw the eye to the most important information. 3) Avoid clipart – make it Christmassy with colours rather than a lonely sprig of holly in the corner. But if it’s looking lacklustre, perhaps try faint textures to give depth to a plain background, or make the top half of the background white – perhaps with the title on top and the bottom half in a dark colour with the details on top in white. 4) If you’re not getting it printed professionally**, bear in mind how much ink will be used by big blocks of colour and the stress that might cause! (Ed. And make sure you have an even white border all round as in the example.) It might not be perfect, but it won’t be ugly, and it might make all the difference in someone’s perception of Christ and his people. Published December 2013 edition of Evangelicals Now. Further design tips available on the Design Pointers pdf on the home page. Notes
* This article was written to help those going it alone, but if you want a design from my collection then have a look at this file of ideas (bottom) designed for churches local to me, but as yet unused, so you may as well know about them. Get in touch if you would like to use one. RE templates - for instance, www.18two.co.uk/store - who I have no connection with! ** Professional printing is not as expensive as you might think. (Eg 2000 A6 copies for £41) InstantPrint are the cheapest around at the moment, but you do have to be very careful to upload the design correctly as everything is automated. PrintMeIt are also excellent and better for first-timers with good customer service.
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Suggested shops for inspiration:www.fatface.com
Use snowflakes and text layered over a dark, wintry photo. www.wilko.com Take your own photograph of wrapped parcels for a talk centring on the 'gift of Christmas' or search for a free knitted background for a family event. www.cathkidston.com Take inspiration from Cath Kidston designs for a ladies evangelistic event. The idea is to take inspiration, but NOT to completely copy the original advertisement(!) as in the example below. (And I know there are 4 colours in this!) 
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