Getting in the (festive) spirit

Up and down the aisles, you’ll find and see brands giving their labels and packaging a festive makeover, whether it be updated logos and graphics, or completely new structural designs. Graphic Packaging, for example, has recently been praised by Premier Foods for its work on Halloween and Christmas themed cartons for Cadbury Mini Rolls. Others you'll see, in the UK at least, include cheese brand Babybel, which is dressed up for winter, while Coca-Cola’s labels are decorated with a simple snowflake motif alongside an image of the company’s famous red Christmas truck – which is seen by many as a true indicator that the ‘holidays are coming’. Even a growing volume of pet food packaging is being swept up in the excitement being generated by brands around Christmas.

In North America, Mondelez has introduced a personalized packaging concept through the Oreo brand for the holidays, where by consumers can customize the packaging of original Oreo cookies online. ‘Oreo Colorfilled turns the iconic cookie's wrapper into a canvas for imagination and personalization during the holiday season,’ Mondelez says.

Oreo Colorfilled packs feature exclusive, illustrated black and white designs from graphic artists Jeremyville and Timothy Goodman, and are said to offer ‘fans a peek at the holidays through the eyes of Oreo’. The designs include a mix of seasonal images and icons, such as waving snowmen, singing partridges, hugging penguins and moustached presents donning bowler hats. After selecting one of the artist designs, consumers can zoom in or out to select which area of the design to color in. After picking a color to paint with the site will either populate the design for you using the colors chosen, or users can manually fill in each image with a digital paint brush. Consumers can also select accessories to add to their Colorfilled pack, like scarves and antlers, or even use the circular cookie to spell a holiday greeting, such as ‘Joy’ and ‘Ho Ho Ho’. A color-your-own pack can also be ordered, which will arrive in a black and white design of choice with custom markers. ‘Both online and manual options also allow fans to add something sweet with a personalized, heartfelt note in the top corner.’

As you can see from the image gallery below, there are quite a few examples out there already to see. This will only intensify as Christmas gets nearer, so make sure to take the time to enjoy all that the holidays have to offer in terms of labels and packaging.

*the recreational activity of seeing and photographing interesting packaging and labels, either in situ or at home