Christmas greeting as a creative challenge
Are you looking forward to Christmas because of all the original, funny and surprising cards you’ll receivefrom your clients and business partners? We thought not. Especially at Christmas time, creativity seems to fly out the window. Instead, your valued contacts wish you a happy holidays’ season with cards printed with curved gold lettering, perhaps even adorned with colorful baubles, and a few pine branches. The annual deluge of such cards is a waste of time and a missed opportunity.
At Creaholic, we’ve always seen Christmas greetings as a creative challenge: Our business partners and friends should look forward to receiving them, be amazed, laugh a little, and maybe have something to puzzle over. But they should always think: these Creaholicers manage to surprise us with something special every year.
Since our founding 35 years ago, we have been passionate about tinkering, inventing and developing, always looking for that new idea and different approach. That’s how we keep it for our Christmas greetings. Shall we share a few examples?
Soap, Creajam & hourglass
Right after moving our offices to a converted soap factory, we sent all our customers a specially made bar of soap with precise washing instructions. As soon as you looked closer it was clear: this was less about clean hands and more about cleaning out stale ideas.
The Creajam project surprised our customers with a fine orange marmalade. The story behind it was part of the gift: the Crea team processed about 50kg of oranges and filled more than a thousand small glass jars. This gift for our customers also grew into a fun Christmastime team event.
Our hourglass was especially popular: physics be praised, the sand ran upwards! All it took was a special oil to shatter expectations of what an hourglass would do. This also made a wonderful parable about Creaholic’s work: we often swim against the current and approach problems from unexpected directions.
Cookbook, Christmas tree & absinthe
Our cookbook, featuring a favourite recipe from each Creaholicer and colleague turned out great and was received with high enthusiasm. The wild mix of recipes-from French toast to anchovy paste-reflects the creative range of our team. Uniformity terrifies us, so there’s a recipe for everyone
At first glance, the foam Christmas tree seemed pretty unimaginative…until you discovered the Easter Bunny ornament, specially made by a leading Easter Bunny chocolatier, in December. Because thinking ahead can give you a timely advantage, even at Christmas time.
Our bottle of absinthe was also a timely benefit, as during Christmas time, the sale of this timeless spirit was still banned. We worked with our contacts in Val de Travers and got a head start on organising and distilling a legal absinthe. Legend has it that, this green spirit lets you see the things you want to see. So it’s a perfect fit for the Creaholic think tank!
Christmas card, pen & card set
Once, we even sent an actual Christmas card, but it was obviously in Creaholic’s style: multi-layered, confusing and yet clear. “When nothing is certain, anything is possible.”
A simple-looking pencil was similarly confusing. But again, there were detours and new approaches that led us to the desired result: sharpen the pencil (not too surprising), stick it in the ground (questions emerge), water it (good ideas need nurturing), and wait a while (good ideas often require patience). At the end of the process, you could enjoy basil that sprouted from the pencil itself, thanks to the basil seeds hidden in it.
We also created a set of cards to counter digital communication. These featured designs personally shot and complemented by Creaholicers, and were supplemented by a handwritten greeting: «When digital communication is the norm, a handwritten card says so much more.»
More creative, and sometimes a little crazy
The annual Christmas greetings have become challenges we set for ourselves. We want to be more creative than the others, sometimes even a little crazy. We want to rethink old ideas or follow completely new directions.
Is that easy? No. In fact, we’ve failed many times. One year, for example, we wanted to make handmade Christmas ornaments - that would have been way too expensive. Or sometimes the idea just isn’t good enough, like when we thought about sending water wings with the motto: “We help our customers stay afloat”. This idea became a running gag so every year it comes up again and makes us laugh. And every year we discard it just as reliably-our customers aren’t toddlers. But established businesses need to dare to do new things. And that’s what we do, even every year with our Christmas greetings.
Need creative support?
Feeling inspired by our approach to Christmas gifts? If you'd like to design a creative Christmas gift of your own, we’d be happy to help.
