Christmas messages to customers: ready-made wishes, a gift and the right dates for 2026

Christmas messages to customers: what they are really for

Christmas messages to customers are there to thank the people who came back during the year and to give them something that saves a phone call: holiday opening hours, the last day to order, the day you reopen. Plenty of businesses write in December, and the message people remember sounds like the person behind the counter.

Unlike birthday messages, which reach one person at a time, Christmas messages go to everyone at once. The wording has to work without the customer’s name, and suit both the regular who drops in every morning and someone who has been twice.

An offer is optional, and it often pays to move it: if you are already flat out in the days before Christmas, a discount only adds to the queue. A gift valid in January says thank you just as well, and brings the customer back when you have more time for them.

Christmas wishes for customers: 14 examples to adapt

A good Christmas wish for customers has a thank you, the greeting and, where needed, one practical detail, and it stays under 140 characters so it can be read in full on a phone. We wrote the wishes in the table: the hours, dates and gifts are examples, so replace them with your own before sending.

Write the way you speak at the counter. If your café is on first-name terms, «Dear valued customers» sounds false; if you run a practice, «Merry Christmas to you and yours, mate» sounds too familiar.

Formal Christmas wishes for clients: wording and handwritten cards

Formal Christmas wishes for clients suit practices, upmarket shops and businesses where the relationship is more private. In a message that goes to everyone, write «our customers» or «you all», because you do not know who is reading; keep the person’s name for an email or a card written to them.

A handwritten card takes time, so save it for your most important clients: even ten or twenty signed by you stay in the mind longer than a message to everyone. A line that recalls something you did together is worth more than a formula.

Three longer versions, for an email or a card:

• «Dear customer, we would like to thank you for the trust you have placed in us this year and to send you our warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.»
• «Dear Ms Bianchi, it has been a pleasure working for you again this year. We hope the holidays bring you peace and a chance to rest. See you soon.»
• «The practice wishes all its clients a happy holiday season. We will be closed from Thursday 24 December to Wednesday 6 January inclusive and will reopen on Thursday 7 January.»

When to send Christmas messages to customers: the 2026 calendar

The best moment for Christmas messages to customers is the week from Monday 14 to Sunday 20 December 2026: they arrive before the final rush, with time left to order or book. Christmas Day falls on a Friday, Boxing Day on a Saturday, New Year’s Day on a Friday and Epiphany on a Wednesday.

Businesses working to order or by appointment need to move earlier, with a practical message that does not have to look like a greeting. The table is a guide, not a rule: shift it to fit your hours and your customers.

Christmas closing notice: what to write

A Christmas closing notice should give your last day open, the day and time you reopen and how to reach you in an emergency, with the weekday next to each date. Write «we reopen on Thursday 7 January at 8am», not «we reopen after the holidays»: nobody should have to work it out.

An example to adapt: «We will be closed for the holidays from Thursday 24 December to Wednesday 6 January inclusive. We reopen on Thursday 7 January at 8am. Happy holidays!»

Put the same wording in several places, because not everyone reads messages: a sign on the door at least a week ahead, the hours on your website and your Google business profile, your voicemail. Someone who only comes by on 27 December and finds you closed will be disappointed even if you wrote to everyone.

Christmas gifts for customers: what to choose, by business

A Christmas gift for customers can go two ways: a small token at the counter over the holidays for whoever drops in, or a gift valid in January that brings in an extra visit. The first is a thank you; the second also helps takings in a month that is slower for many businesses. If January is not slow for you, choose the first.

Everyone need not get the same thing. You can keep the more expensive token for regulars and give everyone else something small, as long as both choices are simple to explain to staff.

A hypothetical sum: if you give 60 regulars a product that costs you 4 euros, you spend 240 euros. If instead you offer 400 cardholders a product costing 1.50 euros, valid in January, and one in four comes in for it, you spend 150 euros and get 100 visits. With your own numbers, use the reward cost calculator; more ideas are in the guide to loyalty card reward ideas.

Are Christmas gifts for customers tax deductible? Italy and the UK

In Italy, for business income tax, the consolidated act approved by Legislative Decree 117/2026 says in Article 117(2) that the costs of goods given away free with a unit value of no more than 50 euros are deductible in any case (our translation). The same paragraph adds that these costs are deductible if paid by bank or postal transfer or through the other traceable systems it refers to.

That text replaces Article 108 of the old income tax code, which Normattiva shows as repealed. Ask your accountant which version applies to your tax year, how VAT works on gifts and what changes if you are a professional or on a flat-rate scheme: this is not tax advice.

In the UK the starting point is the opposite. HMRC’s Business Income Manual says «Business gifts are not allowed as a deduction against profits», then lists exceptions, including gifts of an item it is your trade to provide, given away in the ordinary course of trade to advertise to the public, and gifts carrying a conspicuous advertisement for the business, within limits. A gift offered for buying a certain amount can count as a discount on the sale rather than a business gift. Ask your accountant before relying on any of these.

Two more cautions. In Italy, if the gift depends on a purchase, such as «spend 30 euros and get a free gift», ask whether it becomes a prize promotion: the rules are in the guide to loyalty card rules in Italy. If the gift is a bottle, keep it for adults: in Italy, Article 14-ter of Law 125/2001 penalises selling or serving alcohol to under-18s, and other countries have their own age rules.

Christmas messages and privacy: who you can send them to

A Christmas message with an offer, a gift or an invitation to drop in promotes your business, so the cautious choice is to send it only to customers who consented to your commercial messages. For loyalty cards, Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, requires consent to marketing that is «specific, informed and separate» (decision of 24 February 2005). We found no specific decision on wishes with no offer at all, so the cautious choice stays the same.

The Garante’s guidelines of 4 July 2013 add three points that matter in December. First, it is not lawful to ask for consent «with that first promotional message» (our translation), so Christmas wishes are no way to obtain it from people who never gave it. Second, the same rules apply to promotional messages sent through tools such as WhatsApp. Third, a group email with visible addresses discloses the other recipients’ data, so use a sending service or the Bcc field.

For email only, Article 130 of the Italian Privacy Code provides a limited exception for an address received from a customer during a sale, if you offer similar services and the informed customer does not object. Regulation 22 of the UK’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, as made, has a similar «similar products and services» exception, with a simple means of refusing at collection and in every message; check the current version. No such consent is needed to hand a card over at the counter. This guide is not legal advice: for notices and consents, see the guide loyalty cards and the GDPR.

WhatsApp, SMS, email, card or Wallet: which channel for Christmas messages

The right channel for Christmas messages depends on the consented contacts you already have, not on what is fashionable: between November and December there is little time to collect new ones. The answer is often to use two, a message for everyone and a card for a few.

Christmas messages on the loyalty card with Iterum: how to schedule them

In Iterum (by FIDUS), Christmas wishes are a manual message from «Messaggi»: it reaches the card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet of customers who turned your offers on. There is no Christmas automation, so you write it once: up to 140 characters, with an optional title of up to 40 and no more than 3 emoji.

You can schedule it from 10 minutes ahead up to the end of the following month, so in November you can already prepare your December wishes. Nothing goes out between 9pm and 9am. While it is scheduled you can correct or cancel it, and the month’s message is returned to you; once sent, it cannot be recalled.

You get 2 messages a month per location on the Base plan, 4 on Pro and 8 on Premium, counted in the month they go out. On Base, then, you could send a notice about orders and the wishes in December, and keep the reopening for January. Details are on the pricing page.

You can narrow the audience with filters, for example to customers with at least a certain number of visits or who came recently, and add a button with a link, for example to book Christmas lunch. The link has its own field and does not go in the text. The message must relate to your business or your card: the panel asks you to confirm that.

There are limits too. The message is the same for everyone and does not carry the customer’s name. It does not contain a gift: you hand a free item over at the counter and give extra stamps at the visit, up to 50 at a time (above 5 you need a reason). Iterum does not send SMS, email or WhatsApp, and nobody will tell you who read it: the panel shows how many updates Apple or Google accepted. If you have just opened the card you will reach few customers, so this Christmas the sign and the counter matter more, and the first step is to promote the card.

In January you can pick up customers who have not returned with the «Ci manchi» automation; automations do not go out in the 24 hours after a message of yours. Ideas are in the guide how to win back lost customers. To try it all before the holidays there is the 7-day free trial: you pay 0 € today, a payment card is required and the chosen plan continues after the trial unless you cancel.

Mistakes to avoid in Christmas messages to customers

The most common mistakes in Christmas messages to customers come from the December rush, when the text gets written between one customer and the next. It pays to prepare it in November and reread it with a calendar in hand.

• Sending a flyer dressed up as a greeting: «Merry Christmas! Up to 30% off» thanks nobody.
• Forgetting opening hours and the reopening date, the one thing customers are actually looking for.
• Getting the weekday wrong: 24 December 2026 is a Thursday, and so is 7 January 2027.
• Writing on the evening of the 24th or on the 25th, when nobody can still order or book.
• Writing to every address you have, including people who never agreed to your offers.
• Promising a gift without telling staff, or without saying how long it is valid.
• Reusing another year’s wishes with the old dates.

Sources and method

Sources read on 2 November 2026: Legislative Decree no. 117 of 19 June 2026, consolidated income tax act, Article 117, on Normattiva (in Italian); Presidential Decree 917/1986, Article 108, shown as repealed, on Normattiva (in Italian); Garante, «Fidelity card» e garanzie per i consumatori, 24 February 2005, paragraph 7 (in Italian); Garante, guidelines on promotional activity and spam, 4 July 2013, paragraphs 2.7, 5 and 6 (in Italian); Legislative Decree 196/2003, Article 130, on Normattiva (in Italian); Law 125/2001, Article 14-ter, on Normattiva (in Italian); HMRC Business Income Manual, BIM45065; Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, regulation 22, as made.

Wishes, hours, gifts and sums are our own hypothetical examples and do not come from real businesses; the calendar periods are our guidance, not measured data. The summaries of the rules and their English renderings are ours and do not replace the official texts. The information about Iterum describes the product as of 2 November 2026 and does not promise more customers.