When people think about the holiday season and printing, they usually think of holiday cards. But if you walk through a fulfillment center in November, a retail store in December or a warehouse that’s trying to clear last-minute orders before December 25, you’ll see something very different. Christmas doesn’t just feature print. It depends on it.
We’re not talking about decorative or commercial print. We’re talking about operational print, the kind that offers predictable repeat business that resellers can depend on. It is not only profitable, but without it, the holiday economy stalls.
The Invisible Print Behind the Holiday Rush
Every Christmas season, millions of products move through an incredibly compressed supply chain. The closer we get to December 25, the less room there is for error. What keeps that system functioning is print – all of those various printed components that ensure products ship correctly, arrive safely, comply with regulations and can be returned if something goes wrong.
Let’s look at some examples:
Packaging Inserts: The Print You Never Read
Toys, electronics, games, small appliances, holiday décor. Nearly all of these products include printed inserts such as:
- Instructions and assembly guides
- Safety warnings
- Warranty information
- Compliance documentation
- Multilingual content for global distribution
These inserts are often produced on tight timelines, versioned by region or language and updated late in the production cycle.
For resellers, this is fast-turn, repeatable, high-value work.
Print Drives Holiday Shipping
From Black Friday through Christmas Eve, fulfillment volumes explode. That surge drives enormous demand for:
- Packing slips
- Pick lists
- Gift receipts
- Return forms
- Bills of lading
- Shipping and barcode labels
These pieces are disposable, but essential. Without them, warehouses slow down, orders go out wrong, and customer service costs skyrocket.
Retail Signage: Constant Change, Constant Reprints
Retailers don’t print holiday signage once. They print it again. And again. And again. During the holiday season, stores cycle through:
- Black Friday pricing
- Early-season promotions
- Mid-season gift messaging
- Last-minute urgency signage
Each phase requires new shelf talkers, end-cap signage, promotional overlays and more. This is deadline-driven print, often produced locally or regionally, and frequently reprinted weekly (or even daily).
Gift Cards: A Surge in Security Printing
Physical gift cards peak at Christmas, and they’re more than just plastic. Behind every card is a chain of security print:
- PIN carriers
- Serialized tracking documents
- Tamper-evident packaging
- Variable-data inserts
This is true security printing designed to prevent fraud, protect value, and maintain chain-of-custody.
Seasonal Products Mean Seasonal Compliance
Christmas also introduces a wave of seasonal products that come with regulatory requirements:
- UL labels for holiday lighting
- Safety labels for toys and décor
- Warning labels for candles, batteries, and electronics
- Multilingual compliance documentation
Durable labels, prime labels and instruction sheets spike as brands rush to meet both demand and compliance deadlines.
Christmas Is a Systems Season
The holidays are about family, about closeness, kindness, connection and, for many, faith. But holiday retail season is different. It relies, not only on people but on systems, too. If you aren’t selling print products as part of your portfolio, maybe it’s the gift you want to give yourself next season.
Bill Prettyman is CEO of Wise, Alpharetta, GA. Wise manufacturers industrial/prime labels and tags, traditional forms, and digitally printed products and services for resale only. For more information, visit www.wbf.com or email Bill at [email protected].
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