Christmas is one of the best times of year to make the most of a home printer. Cards, decorations, gift wrap, labels, crafts, party supplies — almost everything you'd normally buy can be printed at home for a fraction of the cost, and often with far more personality. Here's where to find the best free Christmas printables and what's worth printing.
Canon Creative Park — Our Top Pick for Christmas Crafts
Canon Creative Park is the best single source for high-quality Christmas printables, and it's completely free. The range goes well beyond flat cut-outs — think 3D paper decorations, pop-up cards, gift boxes, advent calendar templates, and intricate ornaments that look genuinely impressive once assembled.
Some of our favourites for Christmas:
- 3D Christmas ornaments and baubles — fold-up paper models that look beautiful on a tree or windowsill
- Advent calendar templates — printable boxes and envelopes you can fill with sweets or small gifts
- Christmas gift boxes and bags — personal, creative, and much more satisfying than shop-bought wrapping
- Pop-up Christmas cards — snowmen, Christmas trees, and winter scenes that open with a wow factor
- Festive bunting and garlands — quick to print, cut and hang, and far cheaper than buying decorations
- Nativity and winter scene dioramas — more involved projects that make a great family activity
- Colouring pages — Santas, reindeer, elves and snowflakes to keep younger children entertained
For the best results on 3D models and anything structural, use 120gsm card stock rather than standard 80gsm paper — it holds its shape much better when folded. Visit our Canon Creative Park page for more information and direct links to the full library.
HP Printables — Good for Kids and Simple Seasonal Designs
If you have an HP printer, HP Printables has a solid selection of Christmas-themed activity sheets, colouring pages, and family-friendly templates. Particularly good for younger children — simple designs, bold festive colours, and activities that don't require much cutting or assembly.
Worth looking at for:
- Christmas colouring sheets for younger children
- Simple gift tags and labels
- Festive activity and puzzle sheets
- Christmas stationery for writing Santa letters
Visit our HP Printables page for more details.
Christmas Cards — How to Get Great Results at Home
Printing your own Christmas cards gives you creative control that shop-bought cards simply can't match — you can personalise the message, choose the design, and print exactly as many as you need without paying per card. Canon Creative Park has a particularly good range of free card templates, including pop-up designs and illustrated styles that look far better than most cards you'd find in a shop.
A few tips for great results:
Use card stock rather than standard paper
This is the single biggest difference between cards that look homemade and cards that look professional. Standard 80gsm paper is too flimsy for cards — use 160–200gsm card stock for a proper feel. Most home inkjet printers handle this weight without any issues.
Switch to best quality in your printer settings
For cards, it's worth switching from standard to best or photo quality in your printer settings before you print. The difference in sharpness and colour richness is noticeable, particularly on designs with fine detail or deep colours.
Make sure the paper type matches your settings
If your printer settings say plain paper but you're feeding in card stock, the ink application won't be optimised for the heavier material. Select the correct paper type in your printer settings or app to get the best result.
Print a test card first
Before printing a full batch, run a single test on standard paper to check alignment, colours, and sizing. A two-minute test print can save a lot of wasted card stock.
Add personal finishing touches
A handwritten message, a ribbon, or a wax seal turns a printed card into something genuinely special. The print does the heavy lifting; the finishing touch makes it personal.
Gift Wrap, Tags and Labels
Printable gift wrap is one of the most underused home printing projects. Canon Creative Park has a range of wrapping paper and gift tag designs that print on standard A4 — you'll need several sheets for larger gifts, but the result is far more personal than generic shop-bought wrap.
For labels and tags, a quick search on Creative Park or Canva will turn up dozens of free Christmas designs. Print on standard paper and attach with ribbon, or use full-sheet label paper for peel-off versions that go straight onto packages.
If you're organising Christmas prep — lists, meal planners, guest lists — World of Printables has a solid range of free festive planning templates worth bookmarking.
Photo Prints and Personalised Gifts
A home printer is genuinely capable of producing photo prints that look professional — provided you use the right settings and genuine ink. For Christmas, photo prints work brilliantly as:
- Framed prints as gifts — a favourite family photo printed and framed costs almost nothing but feels thoughtful
- Photo cards — print your own family Christmas card with a photo on the front
- Collages — print a grid of small photos for a memory wall or a handmade album
- Calendar inserts — a personalised photo calendar for the new year makes a great gift
For photo printing, use your printer's photo or best quality setting and genuine ink cartridges — compatible inks often produce washed-out colours on photo prints, which rather defeats the point. You can browse our full range of genuine HP ink cartridges and genuine Canon ink cartridges with free UK delivery.
Kids' Crafts and Activities
Canon Creative Park comes into its own during the school holidays. Beyond decorations, there's a huge range of Christmas-themed craft projects specifically designed for children — paper models, colouring pages, advent activities, and simple cut-and-fold designs that keep small hands busy without requiring much adult supervision.
Worth printing for the holidays:
- Paper animal models with a Christmas theme — polar bears, penguins, reindeer
- Christmas colouring pages at various difficulty levels
- Cut-out Christmas village scenes
- Simple gift box templates children can decorate themselves before assembly
- Christmas-themed activity and puzzle sheets for longer journeys or quiet afternoons
Tips for a Smooth Christmas Printing Session
A few things worth sorting before you sit down to print a big batch:
- Check your ink levels first. Christmas printing — particularly anything with large areas of red, green, or dark colours — uses ink faster than everyday documents. Check levels before you start and have replacements ready. Running out halfway through a batch of cards is frustrating.
- Stock up in November. Ordering ink in advance means free delivery and no last-minute panic. Genuine cartridges keep perfectly well in their sealed packaging until you need them.
- Use the right paper for the job. Card stock for cards and 3D models, standard paper for colouring sheets and flat decorations, photo paper for photo prints. Having a small stock of each means you're ready for any project.
- Print in batches. If you're printing multiple projects, group them by paper type so you're not constantly changing the paper tray settings.
After Christmas — Recycle Your Empty Cartridges
Christmas printing tends to go through ink quickly — and when your cartridges run out, please don't put them in the bin. Recycle them for free with our Freepost returns service. We include a prepaid recycling bag with every HP and Canon ink order automatically, so if you've ordered from us recently you'll already have one to hand.
More Printable Ideas
Looking for printable inspiration beyond Christmas? Our guide to things to print at home covers ideas for every occasion — and our free printables guide rounds up the best websites for templates, planners, and creative projects all year round.
