14 Ways You Can Decorate Your Online Community For The Holidays

[Amelia]

If you run an online community, you may be looking for ways you can decorate your online community for the holidays to give your community that festive feel.

Below we give you some creative ways in which you can decorate your online community for the holidays to create an engaging and festive atmosphere:

Customize the Logo:

Consider modifying your community logo to include some festive holiday elements. This can help to bring a festive holiday twist to your community to reflect the festive season. 

Festive Themed Banners and Graphics:

Your community will more than likely have banners and graphics for promotional and marketing purposes. Modifying these and adding festive elements such as festive colours, snowflakes or even ornaments can help to give that festive feel. 

Virtual Decorations:

To give your online community that real festive feeling you could consider adding virtual decorations to the interface of your community. These could include:

• Twinkling Lights
• Animated Snow Fall
• Digital Garlands
• Festive Graphics 

It may be wise to allow your community members to either turn these off or have another option if they do not wish to see the festive changes. 

Festive Avatars and Signature Lines:

Allow your community members to change their avatars to something a little more festive and add festive images, banners or signature lines to their signature. This will add a festive feel to the discussion within your community.

Dedicated Holiday Forums:

Create dedicated holiday forums so your community can have holiday-related discussions. This can include talking about their plans for the holidays and their traditions, festive recipes they wish to share and possible gift exchanges. 

Festive Colour Theme:

You could add or create a festive-coloured theme for your community that is only used around the holiday season. Add festive colours such as gold, red, and green to create a festive and warm look and feel. 

Festive-Themed Stickers, Reactions and Emoticons:

Most online communities have emoticons, stickers and reactions available to use around the community. Changing these to festive options or even just adding festive options can help to give a festive feel to the community.

Virtual Advent Calendar:

Bring the countdown to the big day to your community with a virtual advent calendar. 

Create a virtual advent calendar that all your community members can get involved with that offers a new surprise each day. This could be: 

• Holiday message
• Discounts 
• Gift cards
• Exclusive content

Festive Holiday Playlist:

Create a playlist on a platform such as Spotify to which community members can contribute. This can be embedded into the community for community members to listen to and enjoy throughout the festive period.

Festive Community Challenges:

Organize festive challenges that your community members can get involved in. You could offer the following to members when they complete a challenge:

• Special festive badges
• Recognition on the forum for the completion of holiday-themed tasks

Festive Themed Surveys and Polls:

Organize and create surveys and polls that are festive-themed that your community can get involved in. They could include:

• Holiday traditions
• Holiday preferences
• Favourite festive activity

Festive Virtual Gift Exchange:

The holidays are a time for giving and you can make this possible within your community by organizing a virtual gift exchange between your community members. 

Allow members to share festival digital art, virtual gifts or well-wishes. 

Holiday-themed Contests:

Encourage your community members to engage and participate in holiday-themed contests. You could include ideas such as:

• Creative holiday posts
• Festive avatars
• Best-decorated virtual spaces

Festive Announcements:

Share your community's and community member's milestones and achievements by creating holiday-themed announcements. You could even thank members for their contributions to your community throughout the year.

As much fun as it is bringing festive cheer to your community, you should always respect the diversity of your community members. Choose decorations that are respectful and inclusive of various religious and cultural backgrounds. 

Being sensitive to different traditions when providing a festive atmosphere can help create an enjoyable and welcoming holiday experience for everyone. 
 

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