We picked the very best free fonts for Christmas and the Holiday season. Use these free Christmas fonts in cards, newsletters, and more.
As the holiday season comes closer, you may feel rushed to find the perfect free Christmas fonts for a special event or a holiday card. It’s not easy to browse through the endless choices and find the best free font for you. Do you use a snowy display font, or do you stick to a luxurious script font? To help narrow down your choices, we’ve compiled this list of twenty-five of the best free festive fonts that are perfect for any seasonal need. Not enough for you? We also curated 20 more free Christmas fonts that work for virtually any holiday design.
If you don’t have access to expensive design software, we’ve included four classic holiday-inspired fonts here that can be found in Shutterstock Editor. Simply open the Text (A) tool and select from the Font dropdown list to apply one of them to your designs.
Why You Should Use Christmas Fonts
There are a lot of fonts out there that you could use on your Christmas cards, gift tags, or branded marketing materials. But why pick any old font when you can have one tailored to the holiday season? Christmas fonts are a great creative tool because they match the festive mood of the holiday season. From beautiful cursive scripts with an old-fashioned feel to down-to-earth handwriting fonts, this set of free Christmas fonts is everything you need to spread warmth and cheer.
How to Use Christmas Fonts
Christmas fonts come in four major categories: elegant scripts, serifs, sans serifs, and cute fonts with a more stylistic flair. It’s important to choose a font that matches both the subject and tone of your message. A Christmas wedding invite will lose elegance if you pick a casual handwriting font. On the flipside, a more personalized message written in an elegant flowing script might feel inauthentic and lose some of its charm.
Use the elegant, professional fonts can anywhere since they’re quite poised. Script fonts are great for greeting cards, gift signatures, and holiday-themed event invitations. The big serifs, like Cinzel, are good for seasonal branding work like headlines on banners and homepage takeovers. The sans-serifs are great for more down-to-earth seasonal projects, like a series of posts for social media.
The cute fonts are a bit wackier, so we recommend saving them for DIY projects and personalized notes. These casual styles work well on a homemade Christmas card from the heart, or a holiday newsletter for your friends and family. There’s just one rule when you’re using fonts with stylized characters and playful shapes — don’t use them in big, chunky paragraphs of text. Save these for headlines and short phrases and your viewers will thank you!
Cursive Fonts
1. CAC Champagne
Give your holiday cards some pizzazz with this classic font. CAC Champagne, an effortless script designed by American Greetings Corporation, creates an air of elegance with its exquisite swashes and slightly angled structure. This font’s calligraphic style and well-spaced letterforms ensure legibility at the smallest of sizes.
Download the CAC Champagne font from Font Squirrel here.
Background image via Jukov studio.
2. Nickainley
Nickainley, a monoline script font designed by Seniors Studio, adds the perfect whimsical touch to holiday cards and is versatile for use in other design applications. Try it with a candy cane themed color scheme in bright red and stark white.
Download the Nickainley font from Font Squirrel here. Free for commercial and personal use.
Background image via Elenadesign.
3. Rochester
Rochester, designed by Sideshow, effectively marries loopy calligraphic letterforms with Victorian styles to make the perfect classy font. Its smooth weight variations and whimsical look creates a style that is both formal and nonchalant.
This font is available in Shutterstock Editor, where you can quickly add it to your own image uploads or any design you’re creating with Shutterstock images. Simply navigate to the Text (A) tool and select Rochester from the Font dropdown to use in your future projects.
Download the Rochester font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via Nella.
4. Pinyon Script
Pinyon Script, designed by Nicole Fally, features curved swashes and angled letterforms with a truly elegant demeanor. Use this classic script font for exquisite party invites and formal holiday cards.
Don’t have access to design software? You can easily find Pinyon Script within Shutterstock Editor in the Font tab when the Text (A) tool is activated.
Download the Pinyon Script font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via Oleg V. Ivanov.
5. The Majority
Give your Christmas card a sense of luxury with this gorgeous script font from Letterhend Studio. Its flowy nature pairs beautifully with a detailed fir tree background.
Download The Majority Demo font from Dafont here. Free for personal use.
Background image via Alex Polo.
6. Waving at Christmas
Waving at Christmas, designed by Cat.B, effortlessly combines calligraphy and festive swirls with a hint of texture. Pair this dashing font with a stunning Christmas-themed flat lay in your holiday designs, or take advantage of its retro feel with a vintage illustrated pattern.
Download the Waving at Christmas font from Dafont here. Free for personal use.
Background image via Maria Rom.
Handwritten Fonts
7. Beyond Infinity
Beyond Infinity, designed by BLKBK Fonts, gives off a whimsical and handwritten feel with its irregular and organic letterforms. Use this effortless script style in your Christmas cards as an eye-catching heading or title that’s sure to wow your viewers.
Download the Beyond Infinity Demo font on Dafont here. Free for personal use.
Background image via Wynian.
8. Mountains of Christmas
Add a hint of personality to your holiday cards with this textured and playful font designed by Crystal Kluge. Combine this winter wonderland themed font with a restrained sans serif, such as Lato, to achieve that font contrast.
Download the Mountains of Christmas font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via Yaroslav Antonov.
9. The Historia
The Historia, designed by Typia Nesia, truly packs a punch with its angled orientation and rough textures. This bold brush script has a handmade quality, making it the perfect companion for imagery featuring handmade Christmas decor, like a candy-studded gingerbread house.
Download The Historia font from Dafont here. Free for personal use.
Background image via Elenadesign.
10. The Perfect Christmas
Just like the name says, you simply can’t go wrong with The Perfect Christmas. This script display font features calligraphic letterforms and snowflake details: truly the perfect font for your holiday card.
Download The Perfect Christmas font from Dafont here. Free for personal use.
Background image via Dora Milanovich.
11. Santa’s Sleigh
Evoke the jolly feeling of Christmastime with this mono-weight display font designed by HypoTypo. Santa’s Sleigh’s whimsical letterforms give your holiday designs a lighthearted appearance.
Download the Santa’s Sleigh font from Dafont here.
Background image via vovan.
Decorative Fonts
12. Bigelow Rules
Make a statement in your holiday cards with this bouncy typeface designed by Astigmatic. Bigelow Rules’s quirky and accentuated serifs bring forth a unique retro appeal unlike any other font. Incorporate this one of a kind font into your seasonal designs to give your headlines an eclectic and spunky appearance.
Download the Bigelow Rules font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via tomertu.
13. Cherry Swash
For a go-to monoweight serif font with added swashes, check out the Cherry Swash font by Natalia Kasatkina. Give your headlines a casual yet whimsical lift by using this font in your next holiday card.
Download the Cherry Swash font from Font Squirrel here.
Background image via Rawpixel.com.
14. Germania One
Inspired by German typography, Germania One marries the blackletter stylization with geometric Bauhaus letterforms to create the perfect Christmas-inspired hybrid. Step up your holiday card game and experiment with a more gothic take on Christmas typography.
Download the Germania One font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via SvetMedvedeva.
15. Xmas Sweater Stitch
Evoke the fuzzy feelings of a Christmas sweater with this holiday-inspired font designed by Chequered Ink. Pair this textured font with a subtle and festive sweater background to make your next design feel ultra cozy.
Download the Xmas Sweater Stitch font from Dafont here. Free for personal use.
Background image via Yulia Grigoryeva.
16. Sacred Bridge
Give your holiday card an old-fashioned and traditional appearance with this all caps display font designed by Bombastype. Sacred Bridge’s sharp swashes create a look that’s sure to set your holiday card from others, making it the perfect font to pair with a photo of you decorated Christmas tree.
Download the Sacred Bridge Demo font from Dafont here. Free for personal use.
Background image via Nancy Bauer.
17. Spirax
Characterized by pronounced thin curves and thick stems, Spirax has a hint of exuberance with its swashed letterforms. Use this calligraphic display font as a simple greeting, or provide important details to your next holiday event.
Download the Spirax font from Font Squirrel here.
Background image via Kateryna Sednieva.
Serif and San Serif Fonts
18. Arima
Arima, a display font designed by NDISCOVER, features an easy-to-read style with a calligraphic twist. Its subtle curved swashes and weight variations make this stunning font ideal for holiday-themed titles and headings. This free versatile font comes in a multitude weights and glyphs for increased usability.
Download the Arima font on Fontsquirrel here.
Background image via Konstantins Pobilojs.
19. Cinzel
Cinzel, designed by Natanael Gama, is a traditional take on the classic Roman serif. This all caps font is ideal for bringing in a more contemporary feel to headlines and titles in your holiday card. Its sharp corners look just like a sprig of holly.
You can find Cinzel within Shutterstock Editor in the Font tab when the Text (A) tool is selected.
Download the Cinzel font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via Elenadesign.
20. Euphorigenic
Add a hint of playfulness and quirkiness to your designs with this serif font designed by Typodermic Fonts. Euphorigenic’s heavy ball terminals and subtle drop caps make for a pleasant and bouncy feeling in holiday card headlines.
Download the Euphorigenic font from Dafont here. Free for personal and commercial use.
Background image via Denis Dryashkin.
21. Glass Antiqua
Taken from slight Art Noveau influences and calligraphic styles, Glass Antiqua presents bubbly and informal letterforms that are ideal for any occasion. Use alone as a playful headline for your holiday card, or pair with a geometric sans serif, like Roboto, for a successful contrast.
Download the Glass Antiqua font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via Dina Belenko.
22. Jacques Francois
Not every Christmas card demands a display or script typeface. Take the classic route by incorporating this simple and reliable serif font into any holiday application. The beauty of serif fonts is that they can be used alone as a headline or as smaller copy text.
Download the Jacques Francois font from Font Squirrel here.
Background image via Yulia YasPe.
23. Medula One
Medula One, designed by LatinoType, juxtaposes old and new styles into a versatile sans serif display font. Due to its condensed nature, use Medula One as a headline or title in your holiday design rather than copy text.
Download the Medula One font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via vatolstikoff.
24. Playfair Display
Playfair Display, designed by Claus Eggers Sørensen, features thick letterforms with contrasting thin serifs. This classic display font was inspired by the works of John Baskerville and the stylization of Scotch Roman designs. Use this stunning font in your next holiday card to really wow your viewers.
You can also quickly find Playfair Display within Shutterstock Editor in the Font tab when the Text (A) tool is activated.
Download the Playfair Display font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via vectorfusionart.
25. Yeseva One
Yeseva One, a serif display font designed by Jovanny Lemonad, evokes movement with its drastic weight variations and subtle curves. Use this striking font as a spectacular greeting for your next holiday card.
Download the Yeseva One font from Google Fonts here.
Background image via Kirill Bibrich.
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- 120 FREE Light Overlays for Photographers and Graphic Designers
Cover image via Beskova Ekaterina.