The Best Digital Christmas Experiences

Have Yourself A Digital Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse’ though these sites are definitely worth waking your mouse for, or trackpad for you laptop aficionados.

Now, who doesn’t love a good party at this time of year, a chance to get together with friends and family and get a little merry (heck its Christmas we can get away with it, even Nan’s cracking out the sherry). But does the thought of arranging everything make you want to pull back on the reigns. Well, www.paperlesspost.com is a great site where you can put together beautiful e-invitations and track who is able to attend and not.

No more endless scrolling through email chains and WhatsApp messages to see who said yes and who didn’t. You can even see who has opened and viewed your invites and give them a reminder if they haven’t, as well as sending out thank you follow up messages. Now you can confidently order the right amount of Iceland prawn rings for your guests without the worry of it sitting in your freezer until June.

Everything Advent Calendar

It seems like everyone and his reindeer are getting in on the advent calendar buzz this year, no longer is chocolate the done thing, fancy a gin a day we’ve got you sozzled, need some new stationery, or want to look fabulous for all those Christmas parties there’s now an advent calendar for you.

And it doesn’t stop in the digital world either, christmasexperiments.com is a digital showcase of amazing experiments that can be achieved in your internet browser, all with a Christmas theme and style. Each day a new experiment is added showing techniques that can be brought to the web, all these effects can then be built into your website. How many of these that would actually work or be beneficial to your website is another question, but it does showcase what is possible and it could be something unique like this that could really help your site stand out.

Beautiful Christmas Cards

I might be contracting myself here after mentioning a great e-card site, hey we’re all hypocrites sometimes but it’s great to receive real Christmas cards, as you have something tangible to decorate your home with. Especially if they’re beautifully designed and this is where www.moo.com comes in, a personal favourite of mine too, great for small print runs. It gives you a range of bespoke designed cards you can customise with your own words. Designs verge on the minimalistic side, guaranteed to look classy and stand out, all with your own personal touch.

With beautiful print effects and papers to choose from, (you can never have too much bling at Christmas) you can make something to be proud of. The online editor is genuinely fun to use, you’ll end up playing around with all the design options and I can vouch for the quality of the printing, so what are you waiting for…

Is Santa Coming?

This is one for the kids and big kids out there, Santa Tracker from Google, yes, of course, Google has got involved in Christmas. Santa Tracker has been going for a number of years now and has come a bit of a ritual for me to check during December, well I want to make sure Santa’s on his way on Christmas Eve.

Again its a great showcase for web techniques and what can be made with modern browsers. It works on the advent calendar approach and each day a new effect, game or message is revealed. Games have a great Christmas theme running throughout and provide a great way to start your working day throughout December, your boss can’t be angry its Christmas. All this counts down to Christmas eve when the Santa Tracker starts, allowing you to see Santa’s delivery progress prior to the big day, through a Christmassy version of Google Maps. It’s a great way to get the kids properly excited too, as they anticipate St Nick getting close to their house.

Christmas Tradition

Finally, it wouldn’t be Christmas in the UK without some mention of John Lewis, this time it’s not the TV ad that I’m going to make a carol and dance about, sorry Elton but you’re always in the limelight. I want to give a shout out to the stylishly art directed photography that adorns their site this year.

Making the traditional colours of Christmas the main focal point and set dressing with colour matched products. The one colour style makes the products the star and the beautiful lighting makes you feel like your at home in front of a roaring fire. Achieved without any actual Christmas decorations, very stylish but would we expect anything less.

Merry Christmas everyone.