These 31 Fun (and FREE) Holiday Font Downloads are here to make all of your Christmas prints, crafts, and correspondence merry and bright. These aren't your average holiday font designs...these all have a bit of fun and flair to them (and adorable ligatures and glyphs). Download your favorites below.
I usually try to keep my font round ups to 25 fonts, but I just couldn't help myself with all of these cute holiday font designs...I ended up compiling 31 of these festive pretties. Last month, I shared the more serious, classic Christmas Fonts, but today is all about the fun and playful ones. These are all great for a variety of uses, which I shared below.
Fun Holiday Font Downloads
I'll be honest, sometimes "fun fonts" can feel like the cartoon Tabasco sauce ties of the 90s. They have their place, but can often be very overdone. So, I tend to shy away from them. But, used with care, I think a good, fun, holiday font can go a long way to spreading a bit of cheer. They're also nice to mix with those classic Christmas fonts I mentioned earlier.
What Makes a Fun Holiday Font?
- When I set about putting together a group of themed fonts, I tend to think through the process of how these fonts will be used and what a good version of that type of font would look like. With seasonal fonts like these I'm sharing, I think about the nostalgia aspect, as well. What kinds of fun holiday feelings do certain ligatures and strokes in a font evoke? Or in this case, extra doodles and snow, too?
- To me, fun typefaces for the holidays have an element of surprise to them. Some of these almost feel animated, in a way, with snow falling all around them
- While not all fonts included, a lot of these are definitely seasonal fonts, ones that you probably won't be using everyday for documents and such. But rather fonts that feel joyful and add an extra bit of festive flair to an invitation, card, poster, or whatever else you create with them.
- Some of these fonts are not named or created with the holidays in mind. But, I ran them all through my tried and true testing of sorts to see how I felt seeing the words "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" used with each typeface. To show what I mean, I included those phrases below every font, so you can see that, too.
Ways to Use Holiday Fonts
While I normally share font pairing tips in font posts, today, I'm sharing some holiday card or poster ideas, as well as an SVG idea (below) that you can use with these fonts. But, honestly, these are *kind of* font pairing ideas in their own way. I used my no-fail approach of pairing bold, print fonts with a more delicate and playful cursive font. Both the above and below designs can be changed up and added to for extra personalization. Try to recreate any of them in a word processing program and add your own fun. Here are the fonts I used above (I played around with different colors on this particular look):
- we wish you a: Reindeer Christmas (available below)
- MERRY: Red Christmas (available below)
- CHRISTMAS: Red Christmas (available below)
- and a happy: Reindeer Christmas (available below)
- NEW YEAR: Red Christmas (available below)
My biggest rule of thumb with a fun, decorative font like the ones I'm sharing is that "a little dab will do ya". It's super easy to overuse these, but try just one or two at a time, and never (like, ever!) in large blocks of text. It'll make your eyes hurt.
Above, I shared an idea that would make a darling SVG or cut file, for those of you who are into that. And if you aren't, this would be cute on paper, too. I used the following fonts on this ornament:
- santa's: I Love Christmas (available below)
- LITTLE: Happy Christmas (available below)
- helper: I Love Christmas (available below)
Installing Your Christmas Fonts
- I mention this in most font posts: I'm definitely a Mac user (since 1997!) I honestly don't know a lot about how a PC works. But, after doing a little research, I did stumble onto a great tutorial for you PC users on How to Install Fonts from Microsoft. It gives detailed, step-by-step directions.
- Since I do lean towards the Apple way of life, I'm more than happy to share my own tutorial on how to install these holiday font downloads on a Mac. Follow my tutorial below:
Installing Fonts on a Mac:
- After downloading the fun holiday font of your choice, open your download folder (or wherever your downloads land on your computer).
- Open the folder of the font (just FYI: in some cases, there may not be an actual folder at all, it may just be the font file on its own, in which case, you won't have to open a folder).
- Double click the .ttf or .otf file. I do prefer the .otf or Open Type Format files *if* they're available, they can be resized and manipulated without compromising their quality. But, they're not always readily available. The .ttf file will still work just fine.
- Once you've double clicked that .ttf or .otf file, your dialog box should automatically pop up (as shown above).
- Click 'Install Font' and your installation will automatically begin (it takes about two seconds, total).
- Now, be sure to check your Mac's Font Book to make sure your new font is there.
- You can start using your new font right away.
Download Your Christmas Fonts Below
All of the fun font downloads for the holiday season are listed out individually below. A few things to make note of:
- Click on the name of the font to be taken to its download page. There is also a link provided directly under the font, as well.
- On each font's download page, you will also see the Terms of Use provided by each font designer. Make sure to always adhere to their policies, especially where commercial usage is concerned.
- As I mentioned earlier, I have added a "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" under every font name so you can see how the font looks in those particular phrases.
More Free Font Collections:
- My 15 Free Fonts with Glyphs are lovely to use on invitations and other party-related prints (think NYE Party!). They're easy to use and come with complete directions on how to implement the glyphs (swirls).
- This list of 21 Free Feminine and Girly Fonts has lots of options that would work well for weddings, showers, quinceaneras, and similar feminine events.
- And these 21 Free Masculine Fonts are the counterpart to the feminine ones I shared above. There are lots of sophisticated options for invitations and such in this grouping, as well.
- If you're looking for more of these novelty-style holiday fonts, be sure to check out this list of Free Christmas Fonts from The Computer Lady.
- And Pam at Over the Big Moon, has another fabulous list of great free Holiday Fonts.
- This list of Calligraphy Fonts for Wedding Invitations from Pipkin Paper Company has some really lovely choices. They're perfect for your Christmas cards, too.
- These 21 Free Valentine Fonts are fabulous for looking ahead to the next season.
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