Christmas PR: What Journalists Really Want to See This Festive Season
For me, the best thing about the festive season is all the food (obviously) and those guilt-free cosy evenings on the sofa watching TV with my toddler. There’s just something about Christmas that makes everything feel a little more magical and, as PRs, it’s also one of the busiest and most exciting times of year to get our brands into the conversation.
But Christmas PR can be a crowded space. Every brand has a gift guide, every inbox is full of festive products and, by December, journalists have probably seen more Christmas surveys than they care to remember. So, what will actually cut through this year?
With less than 100 days to go until the big day, I’ve been speaking to journalists about what they’re looking for this Christmas, and there are some clear themes emerging. The good news? There’s plenty of opportunity beyond the usual festive fare.
Here’s what we’re hearing and, more importantly, what it means for how we should be pitching.
1. Give us joy, without the price tag
Let’s start with the big one: value.
Cost-consciousness continues to shape consumer behaviour, and journalists are expecting affordability to be a major part of the Christmas conversation. That doesn’t necessarily mean Christmas is becoming less indulgent – people still want to treat themselves and others – but there’s an increasing appetite for products and experiences that feel special without requiring a big spend.
For PRs, this means being really clear about the price point and the value proposition.
Think affordable gifts, little luxuries, practical stocking fillers, low-cost ways to spend time together or products that offer a lot of bang for your buck.
The pitch takeaway: Don’t make journalists work out why something is affordable. Put the price, occasion and reason to buy front and centre.
2. Real connection is having a moment
Against a backdrop of AI anxiety, screen fatigue and increasingly digital lives, there’s a growing desire for real-life connection. Christmas is naturally a brilliant territory for this, but there’s an opportunity to go beyond the usual “bring the family together” messaging.
Journalists are interested in experiences, new traditions, getting offline and spending genuinely meaningful time with the people around us. So rather than simply saying “the perfect gift for the whole family”, think about what the product actually enables people to do together.
Could it spark a new Christmas tradition? Encourage people to put their phones away? Get different generations around the same table? Help friends who live far apart reconnect?
The product is the starting point. The human story is the hook.
3. Less stuff, more purpose
Journalists are signalling an appetite for useful, considered products that people will genuinely keep and use. Quality and longevity are important, while sustainability naturally fits into this conversation too.
There’s a broader cultural shift towards buying less, but buying better – and that gives PRs a much more interesting story to tell.
So, when pitching a product, don’t just tell us what it is. Tell us why someone will actually want it in their life. Is it solving a problem? Will it last for years? Is it replacing something disposable? Is it particularly well made?
Those details can turn a product pitch into something much more compelling.
4. Let’s ditch the perfect Christmas
The picture-perfect Christmas is getting a little tired. There’s huge white space around the imperfect, complicated and much more realistic Christmas – and journalists are interested in stories that reflect how people actually spend the festive season.
That could mean people spending Christmas alone, non-traditional families, blended families, family tensions or simply people choosing to celebrate differently.
There’s also an opportunity to talk about loneliness, community and giving back. Brands that are helping people create connection or support others over Christmas have a meaningful story to tell – provided there’s genuine substance behind it.
Which brings us to an important point: purpose needs proof.
A vague commitment to “spreading Christmas cheer” probably isn’t going to cut through. A specific initiative, real people, tangible outcomes and a clear reason for the brand to be involved is much more interesting.
5. Human stories > corporate messaging
One of the strongest themes coming through is the appetite for authentic, human stories. And actually, this is good news for PRs. Look beyond the product and ask: who is the person behind this?
Could it be an employee with an unusual Christmas tradition? A customer whose story perfectly demonstrates the impact of a product? A founder with a genuinely interesting reason for creating something? A community benefiting from a campaign?
These are the details that can give journalists something to work with.
6. Freshness matters – a lot
We all know the Christmas PR playbook:
Festive survey. Check.
Christmas slogan. Check.
NPD. Check.
Celebrity in a Santa hat. Check.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these things, but journalists are seeing a lot of them. So if your pitch is going to stand out, the idea needs to bring something genuinely new to the table.
That doesn’t necessarily mean doing something completely outrageous. It could simply mean finding a fresh cultural angle, an unexpected insight or a more interesting way into a familiar product.
Talent can absolutely help, but the strongest opportunities are likely to come when there’s a natural reason for that person to be involved – rather than adding a celebrity for the sake of a headline.
There’s also interest in older female talent, multi-generational “national treasures” and more unexpected or vulnerable portrayals of men. For brands considering talent-led activity, these cultural nuances could offer some interesting territory.
So, what does this mean for our Christmas pitches?
If we had to boil all of this down, the sweet spot looks something like:
Affordable + useful + meaningful + human + culturally relevant.
And perhaps the biggest takeaway is this: The strongest Christmas stories probably aren’t about Christmas products. They’re about people.
A product can absolutely land a gift guide – but the stories that have the potential to travel further are those that tap into how Christmas is changing.
How are people spending differently? What are they prioritising? What traditions are disappearing or emerging? Those are the questions that can take a product from “here’s something festive you might like” to “here’s an interesting story about Christmas in 2026.”
And finally… make life easy for the journalist!
It sounds obvious, but when Christmas inboxes are overflowing, specificity is your friend.
When pitching a gift guide or festive product, make sure you have:
- A clear price point
- A simple explanation of who the product is for
- The relevant gift guide/category it could fit into
- Strong, high-resolution imagery
- Clear information on where to buy
- Genuine case studies or spokespeople where relevant
- Any interesting stats or data – provided they reveal something genuinely new
- Plenty of lead time, particularly for print
And please don’t save your Christmas pitching until December. By then, many journalists will have been thinking about Christmas for months.
The festive season might feel a long way away when you’re writing your first Christmas pitch, but for journalists, Christmas starts early.
So get those products, pictures, prices and people lined up now – and, most importantly, think beyond the product.
