This holiday season, abandon traditional red and green for one of these alternative holiday color palettes for your next seasonal project.
These 10 FREE holiday palettes explore the possibilities of seasonal color, moving away from conventional holiday schemes to something a little more interesting. This holiday season, source your color inspiration from vintage cocktails, sugar-dusted macaroons, and even Emperor penguins!
See your seasonal designs come to life with acid pastels, moody mulled wine hues, and ethereal tinsel tones.
You can use your free color palettes to bring an alternative edge to seasonal designs, such as greeting cards, holiday event flyers, or December marketing campaigns.
License these images via Gecko Studio, iconogenic, and franz12.
Kitsch Brights and Sugar-Sweet Pastels: 10 Alternative Holiday Color Palettes
The holidays don’t have to be tinted in traditional red and green. Open up a whole world of color with these unusual and alternative color palettes for the holiday season.
You’ll find unexpected, but no less festive, color combinations that take inspiration from disco-infused Christmas parties, ethereal glitter, iceberg-dotted oceans, and much more.
Discovered a color palette you love? Simply right-click and save the image to your computer, or pin to a mood board to come back to later.
With each color palette, you’ll find the HEX codes that allow you to use your swatches in online designs. If you’re working on a print project, simply convert these to CMYK swatches.
1. Acid Kitsch
The holidays are a once-a-year opportunity to bend the usual style rules. Tasteful can be so dull, no? Instead, opt for a kitsch and colorful festive palette with this acid pastel scheme.
Inspired by the gleeful tack of tinsel and baubles, you’ll find that rhodamine red, neon sea green, pastel lime, and cyan blue make for a much more fun holiday palette than red and green.
2. Dark Velvet
If kitsch brights are a little too . . . well, kitsch, why not take a trip to the dark side this December?
Deep and moody hues of burgundy, midnight blue, forest green, and celadon green take their cues from the jewel hues of peacock feathers, sugar plums, and sumptuous velvet.
3. Barn Owl
A nature-inspired color palette that would make a soft and calming design for seasonal interiors, this Scandinavian scheme combines light taupe, hazelnut, zinc gray, and snow white.
This winter color palette is a versatile alternative to traditional rich holiday colors, acting as a breath of fresh and frosty air for your design projects.
4. Cocktail Party
Oh, the obligatory office holiday party. Whether you love or loathe it, you can bring some glamor to the festivities with this ’70s-infused color palette.
The darkest of bottle greens brings drama and depth when teamed with violet, bright orange, and tiffany blue, for a disco-worthy result.
License these images via Gecko Studio, iconogenic, and franz12.
5. Sugar Plum
Raspberry pink and deep maroon are made chic and sophisticated with the addition of slate gray and light pastel blue in this effortlessly elegant holiday scheme.
A poised palette choice for gift wrap or lifestyle products over the holidays.
6. Glitter Bug
This pastel-based holiday color palette will bring an ethereal effect to a range of designs, including social media posts and branding projects.
Deep coral red makes this scheme feel suitably festive, evoking the excitement of New Year fireworks or the glitter and glow of Christmas morning.
7. Mull It Over
Is there anything more festive than the scent of mulled wine, cinnamon, and poached fruit wafting through the house?
This berry-hued holiday palette combines rich, warm tones of cabernet red, grape purple, crimson, and deep pink for a deliciously delectable scheme.
8. Blood Orange
This alternative holiday color scheme offers a different angle on conventional red and green. Shift the color wheel dial slightly, paring dark spruce green with hot red orange for an edgier take on festive style.
The addition of dark bottle green and pale white-gray gives this holiday palette an urban edge, making it a captivating choice for marketing campaigns, websites, or branding projects.
9. Pink Glacier
Dial up the neon factor this holiday season with a dynamic electric purple, magenta, and teal scheme.
Inspired by the otherworldly glow of the northern lights, this unusual and contrasting scheme is perfect for embracing a fabulously alternative festive season.
10. Happy Feet
Hunker on down over the holidays with this comfortingly classic color scheme. Cozy cabin fires, snow-dusted landscapes, and emperor penguins are the inspiration behind this combination of jet black, charcoal gray, foggy dew gray, and amber yellow.
So, grab a cup of hot cocoa and put your feet up to watch a festive movie as the dark December evenings draw in.
License this cover image via tilialucida.
