12 Christmas Painting Ideas: Festive, Creative, Fun, and More for All Levels

As the holiday season approaches, it’s easy for you as an artist to get inspired by the festive spirit around you and dedicate your canvases to expressing the joy of this wonderful time. If you also feel that tranquil winter scenes, Christmas decorations, and warm emotions are too grand to keep inside, maybe it’s time to channel this holiday energy into art and create Christmas-themed paintings.

Whether your Christmas artwork will end up as a part of your home’s holiday decor, among gifts for loved ones, or perhaps even in a gallery collection, you need to make it as special as possible. That’s why we decided to help you let your creativity flow freely. 

We’ve gathered 12 festive, creative, and fun painting ideas to inspire artists of all levels.

Easy Christmas Painting Ideas for Beginners

If you’re a beginner who’s just learning how to paint and want to work on the Christmas project, the following simple ideas will help you express your creative potential using basic techniques.

1. Christmas Tree Silhouette

Nothing can be simpler and more authentic to the holiday season than a plain Christmas tree silhouette.  Use simple shapes, like triangles and rectangles, and colors, such as green and white, to create a Christmas tree silhouette.

If you want to make the tree stand out from the background, you can add a gradient and create contrast with ornaments.

2. Holiday Snowman

A snowman is a fun and simple symbol of winter spirit. And since Christmas is associated with winter, painting this cheerful character is an ideal way for beginners to express their artistic skills on canvas. You can create the simple shape of a snowman and add colorful accessories to your snowman painting, such as a red scarf, a blue hat, and green mittens. For the background, we suggest using the cool blues, such as navy and sky blue, and whites like pure and off-white tones to capture the warmth of glowing windows.

3. Gingerbread House

If you want to experiment with different colors and add more details to your festive painting, paint a gingerbread house by using various tones of brown

 In order to keep the spirit of the painting cheerful, add colorful candies, icing, and other Christmas-related symbols, such as candy canes in green and red.

4. Candy Cane Stripes

Speaking of candy canes, one of the easiest Christmas painting ideas for beginners is indeed candy cane stripes. You don’t even need to have painting skills for this one. Nor does this project require any specific artistic techniques.

Instead, use a canvas that is at least 8x10 inches and create bold red and white stripes, each 1 inch wide. To create an even more festive look, don’t be lazy and add leaves, small snowflakes, or other holiday details.

Creative Christmas Painting Ideas for Intermediate Artists

If you have already mastered some artistic techniques, like layering, blending, and adding fine details, then you can try these Christmas-themed canvas painting ideas for intermediate painters. Maybe you’ll even experiment with a new technique that you haven’t tried during this holiday season.

5. Snowy Cottage Scene

One festive painting idea for which intermediate artistic skills are perfectly enough is an oil painting of a snowy cottage scene.

Ideally, you should create it using either oil or acrylic, depending on your technique and preferences. Either way, we advise using the cool blues and whites of the snow to capture the warmth of glowing windows.

6. Frosted Pine Branches

A lot of people commission handmade paintings where nature takes center stage. If you’re an intermediate artist who admires nature, consider painting frosted pine branches to create a Christmas atmosphere at home. This Christmas painting idea will help you capture the serene beauty of winter landscapes. As for the technique, try to play with the soft light to reflect the frost and balance cool, muted tones with subtle highlights.

7. Abstract Christmas Tree with Geometric Shapes

You don’t need advanced artistic techniques to add a creative twist to a traditional Christmas tree. In fact, just knowing how to break down the tree into 7–10 basic geometric shapes, such as triangles and circles, is enough to create an abstract Christmas tree. The most suitable art medium for this painting idea is acrylic, as it provides the opportunity to create vibrant colors and clean lines.

8. Angels Flying Over Bethlehem

Portraying divine figures has always been an integral part of traditional art. In fact, famous classic painters such as Sandro Botticelli and Giuseppe Cesari often used to feature spiritual beings in their works to symbolize purity. If that’s your intention too, you can consider painting angels that fly over Bethlehem. This theme will symbolize the hope that Christmas is just about to bring to your family and loved ones.

Advanced Christmas Painting Ideas for Experienced Artists

Even experienced artists might lack ideas sometimes, especially when they aim to capture the holiday season in a fresh way. These advanced Christmas painting ideas will challenge your creativity and push your skills to new levels.

9. Christmas Market Scene

A few things can capture the spirit of holidays, as precisely as marketplaces where festive lights, cozy stalls, and the aroma of cinnamon and hot chocolate fill the air. It is especially true if impressionism is one of your favorite types of painting styles. To get inspiration, you can just walk around a city center where street markets are full of glowing lights, festive music, and cheerful crowds. 

Just pay attention to the light accents on the streets and try to remember how people move in and out of the stalls and how holiday decorations sparkle in the evening. All of this can help you create a scene with the same energy as Camille Pissarro’s famous impressionist painting “The Boulevard Montmartre at Night.”

10. Hyperrealistic Christmas Portraits

If you’ve never tried hyperrealism, this holiday season might be the time to try hyperrealism with a festive family portrait. As our professional artists claim, who are experienced in turning photos into custom paintings, capturing the finest details of human faces requires a subtle use of light, texture, and careful attention to shadow placement.

11. Winter Landscape

Create landscape paintings during the holiday season to capture winter’s beauty. This is another great idea for experienced artists who know the technique of using light and shadow on snow. You can add small details like footprints in the snow, reflections in icy ponds, or a distant cabin window. Advanced artists can experiment with layers of texture and include elements like falling snowflakes or even figures engaging in winter activities.

12. Snow Globe Scene

The final Christmas painting idea for the advanced artists is perhaps the coziest one of all. A snow globe creates two scenes: an inner one and an outer glass surface. That’s exactly why this project idea requires advanced artistic skills — it’s not easy to balance the numerous details of the inner scene with the glass surface of the globe. For instance, you could draw a miniature wonderland inside the snow globe, such as a festive village or a snowy forest.

Bring Your Holiday Painting Ideas to Life

Hopefully, you manage to gather some creative inspiration for your next Christmas masterpiece. Now, it’s time to finalize your idea and bring the holiday spirit to your canvas. After all, what matters most isn’t the details, such as the flawless symmetry of the Christmas tree or the perfect brushstrokes of your snowman — it’s the emotion and holiday joy you capture in your artwork.

And if you want to turn your favorite holiday photo into a stunning custom painting, check out our custom painting services and let our expert artists bring the festive magic to life! 

What to Know More About Festive Paintings?

Christmas-themed art is common now, but many famous Middle Ages paintings also focused on this theme. As a result, they represented Christmas in art in the Renaissance and Baroque eras. However, the earlier Christmas art focused more on religious themes, such as angels and shepherds (for example, Giotto di Bondone’s “Nativity” and Domenico Ghirlandaio’s “Nativity and Adoration of Shepherds”). 

Since the 1850s, artists started focusing on more festive elements of Christmas since this holiday became associated with symbols like the Christmas tree and caroling. Modern painters who aim to represent Christmas usually use a mix of both sacred and secular themes. 

What supplies do I need for Christmas decor paintings?

Basic supplies, like canvas or painting paper, brushes of various sizes, and paint of your preferred medium, are usually enough for basic festive paintings.  Oil and watercolor paints are the most common options for festive-themed artwork.

What are the best Christmas painting techniques?

The best techniques for Christmas paintings include layering, splattering, and wet-on-wet. 

• Our expert artists recommend using layering if you’ve decided to work on winter scenes, such as snowy landscapes or glowing Christmas lights. Layering will help you create depth and richness. 
• Use splattering to add joy to symbols like stars and snowflakes.
• The wet-on-wet technique is useful for watercolor and oil mediums, as it can help you create atmospheric skies or foggy winter mornings.

Can I use my Christmas paintings as gifts?

Yes, Christmas paintings are among the most requested personalized gifts during the holiday season! Today, many people order custom paintings as gifts for their loved ones, whether it’s for their birthdays or special anniversaries. That’s because gifting someone a Christmas painting is indeed a heartfelt way to show how much you care. 

Why do people buy holiday art?

Simply because art is personal and meaningful. During Christmas time, nothing can describe the warmth and spirit of the season like a hand-painted piece of artwork. What’s more, art always becomes a lasting gift that will be associated with the sentiments in any home.