15 Instagram Holiday Content Ideas to Boost Engagement

The holidays are noisy on Instagram. Every brand is trying to grab attention with twinkly graphics, clever captions, and festive giveaways. If you’re not sure what to post, it’s easy to feel like your content will just get lost in the shuffle.

But here’s the good news: You don’t need a big budget or a design team to make your posts shine. A little planning and the right ideas can help you cut through the noise, connect with your audience, and spread some holiday cheer.

To get you started, we’ve pulled together 15 festive Instagram holiday content ideas you can use to get your feed feeling merry and bright — and to boost engagement with your followers.

15 Instagram holiday content ideas

You don’t need to change your entire Instagram marketing strategy for the holidays, but make sure to include some holiday-themed posts. Here are some holiday Instagram post ideas:

1. Share holiday trivia

If you’re not sure how to create engaging content for holidays, try fun facts — fun is in the name! You can post themed trivia and fun facts for each winter holiday to get your followers in the spirit.

To make your posts even more engaging, don’t just share the information. Make the posts interactive questions and invite your followers to test their knowledge. If you use Instagram carousel posts, you can pose the holiday trivia question on one slide and provide the answer on the next. Or, if you’re looking for holiday Instagram Story ideas, post the trivia question as a multiple-choice poll on your Instagram Story and share the answer in another Story post. 

You may have to do a little research to find lesser-known holiday trivia, but sharing something your audience doesn’t already know will be worth it. For example, did you know that Jingle Bells was originally a Thanksgiving song? Your audience will eat up holiday fun facts like that.

2. Run giveaways and contests

The holidays are a time for giving, so why not give back to your audience with giveaways and contests?

For giveaways, you can have Instagram users enter to win free products, gift cards, or exclusive swag. Entries typically involve liking posts and following your account, so running giveaways is a great way to boost your Instagram engagement over the holidays. If you ask users to enter by completing a form on your website, you’ll also be generating leads to convert. 

Social media contests may be even more fun for your audience. For example, ask your followers to compete in a holiday-themed caption or photo contest. Offer prizes to the winners and share the winning entries with the rest of your followers. 

Running a giveaway or contest will require more investment than your average holiday season Instagram posts, but many companies see that investment pay off big time. Consider collaborating with another brand for these campaigns to make them more enticing for customers and more manageable on your budget.

3. Let customers know about holiday discounts

Many companies run sales and discounts during the holidays, and they’re more effective when more people know about them. If you’re running any holiday sales, share the details on your Instagram page.

For sales that only run for a short period, add a countdown to the end of the promotion. Seeing the remaining time tick away may prompt your audience to take action and buy something while the items are still on sale.

You can also run flash sales with exclusive discount codes on social media. In these promotions, you share an Instagram post with a discount code that expires soon, within 24 to 48 hours. The people who follow your account may see the post and get to take advantage of that discount before it expires. It’s like a reward for customers engaging with your Instagram page.

4. Share details about a holiday event

If you’re running a local holiday event, share the details on your Instagram page. Let your audience know when and where it is, what you’ll be doing, and how they can attend. 

To get customers more interested, share behind-the-scenes content as your staff gets ready for the event. Then, take photos and videos during the event to post on Instagram later. 

5. Share holiday well wishes

Holiday Instagram posts don’t have to be complicated. Sometimes, simple well-wishes for the holidays are all you need to share. Create a post wishing all your customers happy holidays. 

You can either share one general holiday post or make specific posts for each winter holiday. Your customers may appreciate specific posts for holidays like Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas more than just generic well-wishes.

Either way, though, these posts let your customers know you’re thinking about them during the holidays. If you’re just getting started on Instagram, “Happy Holidays” posts also help build up some content in your feed to show you’re active and engaging on the platform.

6. Show off your holiday decorations

If you decorate the office or your stores for the holidays, show off your decor in an Instagram post. Customers love to see behind-the-scenes, so you can even share some footage of setting up your decorations. For better engagement, ask customers to share photos of their own decorations or tell you about their favorite holiday decorations in the comments.

7. Promote holiday-themed products

Some businesses may launch themed products for the holidays. If you’re in that basket, promote your holiday products in Instagram posts. 

Tell your customers about any new holiday products you have and whether they are limited edition. A limited run of products may drum up more enthusiasm, so be sure to emphasize the exclusivity in your post.

8. Suggest gift ideas

Picking out the perfect gifts for everyone on your list is one of the biggest challenges every holiday season. Help your audience out by suggesting gift ideas based on different customer profiles. For example, you can create gift idea lists like:

• Gifts for him
• Gifts for her
• Gifts for teens
• Gifts for kids
• Gifts under $50
• Secret Santa gifts

Curate some of your products into different gift suggestion lists, then share your lists as Instagram carousels. Directing your followers to your website and product pages will help drive conversions. 

9. Talk about your company’s charitable initiatives

If your company contributes to charities, let your customers know. Many people are thinking about charitable giving during the holidays and may take inspiration from your post. Tell them about the charities you support and encourage them to do the same. Non-profit organizations can also use holiday Instagram posts to inspire donations, but Instagram for non-profits requires a slightly different approach. 

10. Play holiday-themed games

Whenever you can be more interactive with your followers, you’ll probably get more out of your marketing on Instagram. Play some themed games in your Instagram posts this holiday season. 

Examples include:

• Digital scavenger hunts: Hide holiday-themed details like snowflakes in your posts, then have your audience search for them. 
• Holiday emoji codebreaking: Use a series of emojis to summarize a holiday movie or topic and let your audience break the code. 
• Name that holiday tune: Post a clip of a holiday song and let your followers guess the title. 
• Who Am I?: Post clues about holiday characters and have your audience guess who you’re referencing. 

11. Post caroling videos

Carolers spread Christmas joy by singing festive songs. If your company has carolers, record the songs and post them on Instagram. That way, even people who aren’t there to enjoy the music in person can still experience it online. 

12. Create a holiday series

One-off holiday posts are great, but a series of inter-connected holiday posts is even better. For example, do a digital advent calendar with a new post each day from December 1st to 25th. Similarly, you could post for each day of Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. Doing a series gives your audience a reason to come back every day to see your next holiday-themed post. 

13. Share what you’re thankful for

Consider sharing what you’re thankful for on Thanksgiving. You can thank your loyal customers, dedicated employees, business partners, or anyone else contributing to your success. Beyond that, you may want to express gratitude for your community.

If you received great feedback lately, you could thank that person or organization for their support. Posts sharing your gratitude help humanize your brand and connect you with your audience. 

14. Share holiday reminders

Everyone has a lot to do around the holidays. In all the fuss, it’s easy to forget things like ordering gifts or buying ingredients. Share a holiday reminder to help keep your audience on the right track. For example, if you need orders in by a certain date for delivery before different holidays, remind your audience of those deadlines. You could also remind everyone about upcoming or expiring sales you’re running over the holidays. 

If there are other deadlines in your industry that customers might need to know, post them, too. You never know who will see your post and be grateful for the reminder about something important they forgot. 

15. Promote gift cards as last-minute gifts

Even after your holiday shipping deadlines pass, you can still promote your brand’s products as gifts. How? Encourage your audience to buy their friends and family gift cards instead. 

Gift cards are the perfect last-minute gifts since you can electronically deliver them to the buyers immediately — no shipping required. Plus, the recipients get the freedom to select their own gifts from your catalog, so everyone wins. Share a post promoting your gift cards and direct viewers to the page on your website where they can buy them.

Holiday captions for Instagram

Sometimes, after you come up with an idea and create your post, the hardest part is coming up with a fitting caption. Try these holiday Instagram captions on your posts this holiday season.

• It’s the most wonderful time of the year
• Home for the holidays
• Stay cozy
• All I want for Christmas is [insert your products or services here]
• Hot chocolate weather
• There’s room for everyone on the nice list
• Love, light, and latkes
• Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanzaa!
• Enjoy some festive holiday cheer
• Wishing everyone a happy holiday season

More general captions like these examples will still keep everything on the theme, but try to tailor your Instagram caption directly to your holiday post content. For example, if your post shows your Christmas decorations, you could use a caption like, “Our favorite color is Christmas lights.” 

Tips for creating your Instagram Holiday posts

Once you have your post ideas, it’s time to actually create your Instagram holiday content. Luckily, you don’t need complicated tools or technology to create great Instagram posts. 

You can also find great stock photos to use in your posts on Unsplash. It’s free and will fill in some of the gaps in your content when you don’t want to use your brand’s photos. When you do want to take your own pictures, you can take them with your smartphone and use photo editing apps like Snapseed (free) or Adobe Photoshop (paid) to get them ready to be posted. 

You can also use a free tool like Canva to help you design your posts with extra elements like text, stickers, graphics, and more. If you’re looking to upgrade your posts beyond photos edited in Instagram’s native editor, Canva is exactly what you need. 

With Constant Contact, you can easily take your holiday posts and share them across your accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Constant Contact even has a Canva integration to make designing your posts easier. Save time by scheduling these posts in advance and responding to your audience conversations all in one platform. Start creating social media posts with Constant Contact today.

Expand your reach with holiday Instagram content

The holidays are the ideal time to reach new audiences and deepen your customer connections on social media. Use these ideas and share holiday Instagram content to make the most of these opportunities. And take advantage of tools like Constant Contact and Canva to simplify the process.

Looking for more holiday content tips? Download our Holiday Marketing Quickstarter today.