How to Make Money with Calligraphy & Lettering During Christmas (5 Holiday Ideas for Calligraphers!)

Who's ready for Christmas? I sure am! The holidays are one of my favourite times of the year – and it’s not just because it’s so festive and I have the opportunity to give and receive gifts.  The holidays are also a great time to bring in sales or more traffic if you are a calligrapher who is just starting to run or build a business.

In this blog, I am going to share five ways you can make money over the Christmas season with calligraphy or lettering.

Cards, Letters, and Envelopes

If you haven’t looked into my other blog post about greeting cards, I would definitely recommend that you check it out! I go into a lot more detail regarding how you should design your cards, how to price them, and how you can start selling them in this video here:

When I first started my calligraphy business, I sold Christmas cards and made about $500 in revenue – so I can definitely attest that selling cards work. I promoted my cards throughout my network including my family and friends, and even reached out to a few strangers. 

Two other really great services that are popular around this time of year are Santa cards and hand drawn envelopes. These are just a couple of really cool services you can provide to people you know who are looking for some extra ways to spread the holiday cheer.

Ornaments

The second thing you can sell as a calligrapher during Christmas time are ornaments. The two main types of ornaments are your typical “ball” shaped ornaments or the flat acrylic surface ornaments. If you search “Christmas ornaments” or “calligraphy ornaments” on Pinterest or Instagram, you’ll be sure to find lots of inspiration and interesting ideas. 

You can sell ornaments individually or in packages. For example, you can sell a single ornament or sell five and provide a bit of a discount to the customer who is buying a bigger package. 

Gifts Related to Home Decor 

Another calligraphy based gift idea is home decor. You can create framed quotes, signage, or anything that you can hang around in a house. You can choose from a variety of surfaces such as wood, plastic, or chalkboard.

Some examples include a wooden sign that says "Home Sweet Home," or a black chalkboard that states "Welcome to Our Home."

Sign by Dina's previous client @nishacalligraphy on Instagram

Gifts: Write on Any Smooth Surface

The sky's the limit on gifts! Some ideas are adding your calligraphy as a personal touch onto notebooks, journals, phone cases, wine bottles, cups, plates – you name it! You can pretty much do calligraphy on anything and sell it as a gift. Feel free to get creative as you can with this.

If you are looking for “one of a kind” items to do calligraphy on, you can check out your local thrift store for items such as glassware, plates, mirrors, or old signs you can paint over. Plus, this is a really great way of being sustainable and helping the environment as you are upcycling used goods and turning them into something new.

Gift Packages For Learning Pointed Pen or Brush Pen Calligraphy  

The fifth thing that you can sell as a calligrapher over the holidays are gift packages that can help people learn pointed pen or brush lettering. When I first started out with calligraphy, I was so confused with what kind of pen or paper I should use. 

If you know people that may be interested in learning calligraphy but don’t want to go through the hassle of figuring out what supplies to use, you can create these kinds of packages for them. You can buy supplies, put them together in a package and sell them to family and friends over the holidays.

Keep In Mind

Now, these five ideas that I just gave you are not an exhaustive list. There is definitely a lot more that you can create or come up with.  You can search up “#christmascalligraphy” on Instagram or search up “Christmas calligraphy” on Pinterest, and you’ll be sure to find lots more ideas.

If you’re looking for more guidance on how to start a calligraphy business, check out my 6,000+ word article How To Build a Calligraphy Business from Scratch, or my other blog post that outlines 6 Easy Ways to Start Making Money with Calligraphy.

If you found this helpful, you’re going to find a lot more resources in my free Facebook group for calligraphers, where I’ve done more than 15 trainings on topics related to growing a calligraphy business. Join today and get these 15 free in-depth trainings!

I’d love to hear what you thought about this blog post in the comments! Was it helpful? Do you have any questions?