Helen Davies

Helen Davies
November 12, 2025 • 6 min read
Helen Davies is a content creator for Square Signs. She enjoys blogging about DIY projects, business branding, and interior as well as exterior design. If you want brilliant ideas on styling your home or office, you’ll love the trendy tips she has in store!

Branded Christmas giveaways boost small businesses. If you are well acquainted with your shoppers’ interests, you can always add fresh holiday giveaway ideas to put your brand’s foot forward. This no-cost stuff not only shares valuable information but also increases leads and followers. Promoting businesses with holiday giveaways encourages buyers to purchase and use your products for all their holiday needs. But what could the most suitable holiday promotion for your business be? Find the best Christmas giveaway ideas to increase your sales and connect with new leads.


Key Takeaways

  • Christmas giveaways strengthen customer relationships and drive repeat sales.
  • Strategic promotions like BOGO and “Bring a Friend” events expand your reach.
  • Social media contests and user-generated content boost brand visibility.
  • Start planning early with clear goals to stay competitive during the holiday rush.
  • Branded merchandise and last-minute deals create lasting impressions and urgency.

Why Christmas Giveaways are Good for Your Business

First things first, Christmas giveaways foster customer relationships and sales. Clients appreciate small businesses that run Christmas giveaways. This can lead to stronger bonds between businesses and customers, increasing the likelihood of repeat sales in the future. Branded Christmas giveaways also create an ongoing buzz around your brand, and this works especially well for products that are subject to repeated use. Christmas giveaway ideas for small businesses encourage referrals. This results in a resonating effect from the part of your prospects. Christmas giveaways help clear out the inventory, in other words, the excess stock, before the year's end. Last but not least, small businesses Christmas giveaway ideas allow your brand to tap into the festive spirit and form positive associations with your brand.

Two Christmas stationery items with festive candy canes and pine branches.
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Small Business Christmas Giveaway Ideas to Wow Your Customers

Now that we know the importance of the Xmas giveaway for small businesses, let’s dive into the main ideas:

 

Host a 12-Day Christmas Giveaway

A 12-day Christmas giveaway is a pre-holiday strategy that combines fun and business sales over the twelve days leading up to Christmas. This is a win-win for you and your customers, as your revenue grows while your customers get 12 giveaways instead of one big holiday prize. You can raffle off custom notebooks on day one, playing cards on day two, and a water bottle on day three. Keep each day’s promotional giveaway hush-hush to build anticipation.

12 Days of Giveaways promotion with wrapped gifts and Enter To Win button

Offer Buy-One-Get-One Promotions

This marketing step is especially effective during the Christmas holidays, as shoppers are always hunting for good deals. Those who apply for BOGO promotions will more likely come back again in the future. If you want to have a eureka moment for Christmas, you need to combine your offline and online presence. Promote your offers on your website, social media platforms, and through email newsletters. Use Christmas signage to inform customers about your offers.

BOGO Sale Buy One, Get One 50% Off with smiling Santa Claus in glasses. 

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Offer Branded Merchandise

This is a smart Christmas giveaway idea with branded elements. This thoughtful strategy increases brand awareness, builds customer loyalty, and advertises your business. Consider personalized planners and bookmarks with your logo to consistently remind shoppers of your brand.

Spark bookmark reading 'Read. Dream. Give.' on open book with holiday decorations.
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Think of “Bring a Friend” Events

As the name suggests, the “Bring a Friend” concept revolved around encouraging people to bring their friends to an event. The types of events may vary from special parties to regular meetings. The key purpose of this marketing strategy is to nurture new connections and create a base for further follow-ups, rendering it one of the more personal Christmas giveaway ideas for businesses.

Bring a friend and get rewarded Christmas giveaway program offering exclusive discount.

Promote a “Refer-A-Friend” Program

Similar to the idea above, but not identical, this type of promotion rewards those who bring in new customers. The classical approach is to provide Christmas giveaways to both of them, as double-sided rewards often work best.

Toy Store refer-a-friend Christmas giveaway program with rocking horse and Santa's sleigh. 

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Provide Tickets for Holiday Events

https://cdn.squaresigns.com/images/media/holiday-event-ticket-christmas-giveaways.jpeg 

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Partner With Other Companies

Combining your products with other small businesses’ products is another great form of Christmas giveaways. It not only helps you organize holiday events, but also makes running Christmas promotional campaigns easier. Find a business that offers similar services and provide joint giveaways to your buyers. For example, if you’re a clothing store, collaborate with a brand that sells jewellery.

TinyWonder Toys and Little Star Boutique holiday collaboration with festive decorations. 

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Give Away Free Products

The holiday season is for giving joy, love, and… gifts. This is especially working for small businesses yearning to spread their brand voice. So, why not please your customers while they’re busy spending wads of cash this holiday season with thoughtful xmas giveaway ideas for small businesses?

Christmas free gifts giveaway program with snowman and coffee cup. 

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Run a Giveaway on Social Media

In the modern day and age, everybody is engaged with social media channels. Hosting a holiday sweepstakes on platforms alike will increase your audience before the ball drops on the 31st of December. You can select a high-value product and build a promotion around it. Ask your followers (if it’s Instagram, for example) to tag a person in comments to be eligible for that big prize.

Big holiday Christmas giveaway program for sharing content on social media.

Offer a Christmas Challenge

Most giveaway campaigns randomly select the winners. If you run a contest for Christmas giveaways, you’ll motivate your shoppers to get actively engaged with your brand to win a prize. This creates buzz around your brand and adds an extra element of fun to your campaign.

Join the Christmas challenge giveaway program poster with a ribbon and ringing bells. 

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Run a Comment Contest

Running any form of contest, including a comment contest, will make your brand go viral. How does it work? Create a festive post and encourage your followers to participate in the “comment-to-win” contest. The greater the engagement, the more likely social media algorithms will favor your post and increase your brand visibility.

Run a comment competition Christmas giveaway program reading Comment. Win. Celebrate! 

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Go for a User-Generated Content Giveaway

Though a little different, the user-generated contest also results in increased brand awareness and community engagement. What customers need to do is create and share their own content that should be related to your brand.

User-generated Christmas holiday giveaway program with family-themed images and Christmas decorations. 

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Offer A Last-Minute Holiday Deal

Flash holiday sales always do the trick. And especially when it comes to Christmas, when everyone is in a frantic search for presents for their families and friends, offering an appealing giveaway is always a good idea. Whether it’s a voucher for a future trip or a “clue” present, it will make a huge difference in your marketing efforts.

Last-minute holiday deal giveaway program announcement with a ribbon on a green background 

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Tips to Hold Christmas Giveaways for Small Businesses

Small businesses should start preparing early for this special holiday season. To succeed, they need a focused strategy, festive branding, and gift-ready offers. A thoughtful approach can lead to a head-turning breakthrough. To help you, we'll present some valuable tips for holding Christmas giveaways.

 Wrapped and decorated Christmas gifts under the Christmas tree.

Set Clear Objectives for Your Campaigns

The most important thing to define for any campaign is knowing exactly what purpose it will serve. This is true for the Christmas giveaway campaign as well (start preparing for it mid-November to avoid falling behind in the race). So, plan a strategy and set clear goals, choose an appealing gift, and promote it across social media and your physical store.

Consider Your Target Audiences

If you want to make your Christmas giveaway count, understand your audience or who you're trying to reach. You can do that by taking their age, location, and holiday interests into account. Then, research to find out what prizes will excite them most. Study successful holiday campaigns, use the right channels, and track engagement to ensure your giveaway delivers maximum festive cheer and business results.

Provide Memorable Customer Experiences

Implement mindful Christmas giveaway ideas for small businesses to create excitement. Make your brand unmissable by serving your clientele with empathy, targeting their problems, and solving them with gifts they are in need of.


FAQs

How to run a 12-day Christmas giveaway?

That is simple. Plan your twelve daily gifts, start your campaign, and promote it across all social channels.

How to create buzz around a Christmas giveaway?

There are multiple ways to fuel excitement around your brand. Use both your online and offline presence to promote your campaign, share user-generated content to create trust, offer bonus entries for referrals, and apply many more excellent ideas that will definitely spark interest in your services.

How to announce a Christmas giveaway?

A multi-channel approach is a smart way to announce a Christmas giveaway master plan. Add celebratory social media posts, create a dedicated landing page on your website, and run an email campaign to announce your Christmas giveaways.

How long should a Christmas giveaway last?

The ideal time period may include anywhere from a few days to 2 weeks to allow for entries. The short time period will enable you only for a fast-paced promotion, while a relatively long-haul campaign will be more significant to build excitement and maximize your holiday giveaway results.


Need some promotional items to help out with your giveaways? Square Signs has you covered.