Festive & occasion packaging · MOQ 500 pcs per design
One structure, dressed for six occasions: the magnetic gift box you already run and the cotton canvas tote you already print, with the artwork changed for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine's Day or Mother's Day. Tooling is paid once and shared across every season; the festive print, foil, emboss, spot UV and window are each quoted as their own line.
Range
Three decorated totes and three rigid gift boxes, all built on tooling we run year-round. Choose the structure on the experience and the budget, then choose the occasion artwork — the second season costs you artwork, not tooling.
The December version of our standard tote: same 10oz canvas body and reinforced handles, festive artwork. Print a snowflake, pine or tartan repeat, a chest mark in foil, or an embroidered motif. Decoration is set up per colour, so the run starts at 500 pcs per design and a repeat order reuses the screens free.
A spring palette on natural 10oz canvas: pastel and botanical artwork prints cleanly with fewer colours than a December range, and the same body can be reordered all year. Built for egg hunts, gift-with-purchase offers and spring retail floors.
Autumn artwork on the same canvas body: rust, ochre and deep olive printed as a repeat, a border or one chest mark. Two or three screens are usually enough for a warm palette, which keeps the set-up below a six-colour Christmas range.
The magnetic shell dressed for December: green, cranberry or navy wrap, a repeated festive pattern or a single foiled mark, optional debossed texture and a die-cut window. The shell sits on the magnetic band; every decoration is its own line.
A spring rigid box: pastel or botanical wrap, a foiled or debossed motif, and an optional window so eggs, chocolates or a small bake sell unopened. Planned from your retail month, because the holiday moves on the calendar every year.
An autumn rigid box for food gifting and client thank-yous: kraft, rust or olive wraps, copper or gold foil, a debossed grain or leaf motif, and a reinforced base where the contents are heavy. Decoration and any window are separate lines.
Order calendar
A festive order is a date problem before it is a price problem. Below is how we count backwards from the month the goods have to be on shelf, and the order-by month for each of the six occasions we build for most often.
| Stage | Planning window | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Artwork and sample approval | 2–3 weeks | Sample produced in 3–5 working days, courier delivery 1–3 days, plus one revision round on the artwork. |
| Production | 12–18 days for boxes; 15–20 days for printed bags | After the physical sample is approved, before transit. Printed totes run on a different line from rigid boxes, which is why they take longer. |
| Sea freight to the US or Europe | 30–40 days sailing | Plus roughly a week for booking and port handling and about a week for inland delivery to your warehouse — call it six to eight weeks door to door. |
| Air freight | 5–8 days in transit | Plus one to two weeks of buffer in a peak month, because air capacity tightens through October and November. |
| Shelf buffer | 3–4 weeks before the retail peak | Time for your own pack-out, distribution to stores or a 3PL, and for the range to be on shelf before the buying starts, not on the day it peaks. |
Adding those windows together: a sea shipment needs roughly four to five " months from artwork approval to shelf, and an air shipment roughly two to three. The table below " is that arithmetic applied to each occasion, using months rather than dates — the retail " month moves for Easter and for Mother's Day depending on market, so plan from the month you sell " in.
| Holiday | Sea freight — order by | Air freight — order by | What drives the date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christmas — December retail | Early August | Early October | The single busiest month in the factory calendar. Production slots fill from August, so an August approval is comfortable and an October one only flies. |
| Valentine's Day — February retail | Early October | Early December | A short, fixed retail window with little shelf life after it. Red and pink floods print quickly; the pressure is freight, not production. |
| Easter — spring retail (the month moves) | November for a March shelf; December for April | Early February | The holiday moves every year, so plan from the month your market sells in rather than from a date. Spring artwork is usually simpler to print than December artwork. |
| Mother's Day — spring gifting month | December | Early March | The retail month differs by market, and the season overlaps Easter, so packaging is often produced on the same body as the Easter run. |
| Halloween — October retail | Early June | Mid-August | A single-colour or two-colour brief in most programmes, which keeps set-up low — the reason it is a good first festive project. |
| Thanksgiving — November retail (US) | Early July | Mid-September | Sits directly in front of Q4 Christmas bookings, so the window closes earlier than buyers expect. Warm palettes usually need two or three screens. |
Tell us the date the goods must be in your warehouse and we will answer yes or no against it in writing, with the cut-off for each route. October and November are the two months when air capacity tightens, so a late December order is always more expensive than a late summer one.
How the range works
The box is the same object in every season. What changes is the wrap: a December shell in spruce or cranberry with a foiled mark, a spring shell in pastel with a debossed botanical motif, an autumn shell in kraft with copper foil on a rust flood. The greyboard, the magnets, the dieline and the wrapping set-up are identical, so a brand that sells four seasons a year pays for tooling once and buys artwork four times.
That is also why the pattern is worth designing properly rather than treating as decoration. A festive repeat has to be set to the dieline so it breaks across the lid edge by design; a bag pattern has to be set from the finished body width before the screens are made; and a window has to line up with the contents, which means the insert is set from the aperture rather than the other way round. Send artwork on the die line and this is all one conversation instead of three.
The same logic applies to the fabric side of the range. A printed tote is the cheapest festive object you can put a brand on, and the cloth lasts far longer than the season: deep green canvas in December, natural canvas with pastels in spring, kraft-toned canvas in the autumn. One body, one handle specification, three or four artworks a year.
Festive decoration
Every technique below is quoted as its own line on top of the structure price, so you can decide where the festive budget goes rather than buying a bundle.
Gold, silver, rose gold, copper or holographic foil pressed into the wrap or the cloth under heat. Priced by stamped area and quoted as its own line, so a small festive mark costs a fraction of a full edge band.
A festive repeat or a single motif raised or recessed into the board with a custom die. The quietest way to look expensive, and usually cheaper than a five- or six-colour print.
A velvet-matte wrap under the pattern, with spot UV laid over the parts of the design that should catch the light. Both are surface treatments, both quoted as their own lines.
An aperture with PET or PLA film so the contents sell unopened, or an open aperture for a box that is presented rather than shelved. Adds a cutting die, a film step and an insert that is set from the window.
One screen per colour, one pass per screen. Multi-colour festive artwork is the reason the festive minimum is 500 pcs rather than the 300 pcs entry level used for lighter structures elsewhere on this site.
MOQ and set-up
Festive packaging is not a plain box with a pattern on it: it is a plain box that then goes through extra set-up passes. This is exactly what is paid once and what comes free the second time.
The rule across this site is that decoration is priced line by line. A structure has one " set-up — the dieline, the board specification, the wrapping or sewing — and a festive " artwork has several: the printed wrap or cloth, one screen per colour, and then a foil, emboss, " spot UV or window step for each extra effect the design uses.
Those extra set-ups are one-off tooling, not per-piece cost. That is why the festive minimum " is 500 pcs per design: on a 300-piece run the set-up dominates the unit price and the buyer " overpays for the pieces, while at 500 pcs and above it is amortised across the order and the " piece price falls. It is also why we keep every screen and die on file: the second festive run in " the same artwork pays no set-up at all, which is how the unit price of a repeat order drops.
Two honest caveats. First, the structure is what you are buying: a festive printed tote still " sits on the $0.40–1.20 canvas band at 500 pcs, and a festive magnetic box on the " $1.50–2.30 band. The decoration lines sit on top of that, and a full festive finish " programme can add more than the structure costs — print the pattern and keep the metal to " one small mark if the budget is fixed. Second, larger quantities are always cheaper per piece, " because the same set-up covers 500 or 5,000 pieces; buy the quantity you expect to sell rather " than the smallest run we will accept.
| What is set up | Paid | Reused on a reorder |
|---|---|---|
| Structural dieline and cutting die | Once per structure | Free on every artwork built on the same box or bag size, in any season. |
| Handle pattern and sewing jig (bags) | Once per bag body | Free across Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving designs on the same body. |
| Screen set-up, one per colour | Once per artwork | Free when you reprint the same artwork, which is what makes a festive reorder cheap. |
| Foil die, emboss die, spot UV screen | Once per artwork | Kept on file and reused for the same artwork only. |
| Window cutting die | Once per artwork | Reused with the same aperture position. Moving the window means a new die. |
| Insert tooling (foam, board) | Once per product outline | Reused as long as the product does not change size. |
Where festive packaging earns its keep
Festive lines are bought for different reasons, and the specification follows the reason. These are the four briefs we see most often.
A bag or box handed over at the till that turns one item into a present and carries the brand in public for weeks. Usually one artwork, a small chest mark, and a print budget that favours quantity over decoration.
One festive design produced once and shipped against a distribution list, often across several countries. Foil on a matte wrap, structured boxes and inserts that hold a fixed assortment.
The season is the content, so the box or bag is the moment the customer photographs. Reordered annually on the same artwork, which makes it the cheapest festive line to repeat.
Bought seasonally by retailers, market traders, hotels and events, often in hundreds rather than thousands, and usually reordered mid-season — which is why we keep the screens.
Pricing
The ranges below show what each specification lands in at each quantity tier. Your quote will be itemised against your own size, board or fabric, finishes and insert.
| Line | Quantity | Indicative ex-works | Assumed specification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Festive canvas tote | 500 pcs | $0.40 – 1.20 @500 pcs | 10oz cotton canvas, festive multi-colour print; the standard cotton band |
| Festive magnetic gift box | 500 pcs | $1.50 – 2.30 @500 pcs | 25×20×8cm, soft-touch wrap and a foiled festive mark |
| Extra festive print colours | 500 pcs | Quoted as its own line | One screen and one pass per colour; dark-dyed cloth needs a white underprint |
| Hot foil stamping | 500 pcs | Quoted as its own line | Priced by stamped area, not by number of marks; gold, silver, rose gold or copper |
| Embossing / debossing | 500 pcs | Quoted as its own line | Custom die, one per artwork; pressure and depth specified on the sample |
| Spot UV | 500 pcs | Quoted as its own line | Gloss raised over a matte wrap, applied where the design should catch light |
| Die-cut window with film | 500 pcs | Quoted as its own line | Adds a cutting die, a film step and an insert set from the aperture |
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What you get
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Festive packaging FAQ
Set-up, timing and the two questions that decide most festive orders.
Keep reading
Magnetic, lid & base, drawer or mailer — cost, unboxing effect and freight volume side by side.
Line-by-line pricing across every structure we make, and what moves the number.
How to size a first run, and why festive decoration changes the maths.
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