Christmas 2026 is Friday, 25 December, New Year 2027 is Friday, 1 January, and Momento Studio has 18 animated templates for the five weeks between Thanksgiving and the first of the year. They are free to open and edit without signing up. The quickest way to choose is by who is getting the card: the family wants a photo, friends want something that moves, clients want the logo, the office wants the year in big type, and the status wants a story.
The templates are on the Christmas and New Year templates page, each with a button that opens it in the editor. This guide is the choosing: which card for whom, at what size, sent when, with what written on it.
The dates
| Day | Date | Templates |
|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | Thursday, 26 November 2026 | Thanksgiving Table (4:5), Gratitude Square (1:1), Thanksgiving Story (9:16) |
| Hanukkah | Friday 4 to Saturday 12 December 2026 | Hanukkah Menorah (4:5), Hanukkah Dreidel (1:1), Eight Nights Story (9:16) |
| Christmas Eve and Day | Thursday 24 and Friday 25 December 2026 | Cozy Christmas (4:5), Tartan Christmas Card (4:5), Modern Tree Square (1:1), Santa Sleigh Story (9:16), Christmas Story (4:5, 3 pages), Holiday Cheer (4:5) |
| New Year's Eve | Thursday, 31 December 2026 | New Year countdown (9:16), NYE Toast Square (1:1), New Year Elegant (1:1) |
| New Year's Day | Friday, 1 January 2027 | New Year 2027 Bold (4:5), Resolution List (9:16), New Year Reset (9:16, 3 pages) |
Christmas on a Friday means a long weekend; most cards go out on Thursday evening, the 24th. New Year's Day on a Friday means the 31st is a working day for many offices, so the company card should go out on the morning of the 31st, not at midnight.
The 18 templates at a glance
| Template | Size | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Cozy Christmas | 4:5 | Family, with a photo |
| Tartan Christmas Card | 4:5 | Relatives, clients who like tradition |
| Modern Tree Square | 1:1 | Clients, the company feed |
| Santa Sleigh Story | 9:16 | Children, status, stories |
| Christmas Story | 4:5, 3 pages | The family group, as a short film |
| Holiday Cheer | 4:5 | Anyone who does not celebrate Christmas as such |
| New Year Elegant | 1:1 | Clients, black tie |
| New Year 2027 Bold | 4:5 | The office, friends, the feed |
| NYE Toast Square | 1:1 | Clients, partners |
| Resolution List | 9:16 | Your own story on 1 January |
| New Year countdown | 9:16 | Status at midnight |
| New Year Reset | 9:16, 3 pages | A reel for the first of the year |
| Thanksgiving Table | 4:5 | Family and the people you are grateful for |
| Gratitude Square | 1:1 | The feed, a team thank-you |
| Thanksgiving Story | 9:16 | Status |
| Hanukkah Menorah | 4:5 | Family and friends |
| Hanukkah Dreidel | 1:1 | The feed, children |
| Eight Nights Story | 9:16 | One story a night |
Seven are 4:5 posts, five are squares, six are 9:16 stories. The Christmas and New Year cards share their type and their gold, so a season of posts from one account reads as one set.
The family card
Cozy Christmas. A wood cabin, snow falling, a warm wish line and a family name. Add the photo from the year, the one everyone is in, crop it to the frame and write the family name under the wish. This is the card grandparents save.
If you want more than one picture, use the three-page Christmas Story: snowfall on page one, the tree on page two, the family wish on page three. Each page takes a photo. Shared as a link it plays as a thirty-second film with a carol; exported as MP4 it goes in the family group.
Before you send
Write the wish in your own words, not the template's. "Merry Christmas from the four of us and the dog" beats "Season's greetings" every time, and it is the line people reply to.
The card for friends
New Year 2027 Bold for the people who get a New Year message rather than a Christmas one: confetti, the year in large type, one line. Tartan Christmas Card for friends who like a proper card, holly and all. Holiday Cheer for the friends who do not celebrate Christmas as such; it says "happy holidays" in snow and warm light with no tree.
These go out as links in WhatsApp, so the music plays, or as a GIF in the group, so it loops without a tap.
The client card
The client card is the one that gets looked at by the most people you do not know, so it should be the plainest and the best made. Modern Tree Square is a line-art tree on cream and sage: change the headline to the company name, upload the logo as an image layer, add one line of thanks. Tartan Christmas Card does the same job for a firm with a traditional client list.
For New Year, NYE Toast Square and New Year Elegant are champagne and platinum on black, the kind of card a partner forwards to the board. Export a PNG for the email and share the link on WhatsApp.
One project, every client list
Make the client card once with the logo and the brand colour and save the project. Duplicate it for each list and change only the line. A second page with the office's holiday hours saves a week of "are you open on the 26th" emails.
The office and the team
The office post wants the year, large, and the team's name. New Year 2027 Bold on the company feed on the morning of 1 January, and Gratitude Square in the last week of November as a thank-you to the team with the year's wins as the list. For the year-end party invitation, the social media post templates have the event flyer.
For a 3D card that opens as a surprise for the team, there is the corporate New Year card.
Status and stories
Six 9:16 templates for WhatsApp status and Instagram stories. Santa Sleigh Story has a cartoon sleigh crossing the moon, for children and for the Christmas Eve status. New Year countdown is the glittering midnight one; post it at 11:55 on the 31st. Resolution List is a handwritten 2027 list that ticks itself, for your own story on the 1st; replace the items with yours. New Year Reset is three pages, close the year, fresh start, intention, and works as a reel.
Export MP4, post as a status or a story. The safe zones and the music rules for stories are in the Instagram story templates guide.
Thanksgiving and Hanukkah
Thanksgiving, 26 November. Thanksgiving Table is the family card with a turkey and a gratitude list; rewrite the list. Gratitude Square is the editorial version for the feed and for a team. Thanksgiving Story is the kitchen, the pie and the steam, for status.
Hanukkah, 4 to 12 December. Hanukkah Menorah is a sapphire-and-silver card with the menorah glowing, Hanukkah Dreidel is a playful square, and Eight Nights Story adds a candle each time you post it, one story a night.
When to send
| Card | Send on | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | Morning of Thursday, 26 November | Before the table |
| Hanukkah | Evening of Friday, 4 December, and nightly for the story | The first candle |
| Client Christmas card | Monday to Wednesday, 21 to 23 December | Inboxes are read; by the 24th they are not |
| Family and friends Christmas card | Evening of Thursday, 24 December | Christmas Eve is when the groups light up |
| Company New Year card | Morning of Thursday, 31 December | It is a working day; midnight gets lost |
| Friends New Year card | 11:55 pm on the 31st (status) or morning of the 1st (card) | Status at midnight, card with the morning tea |
What to write
Three structures that work on every card:
- Wish, name. "Merry Christmas. The Fernandes family." The default.
- Wish, line, name. "Happy New Year 2027. Here is to the year we finally take that trip. Ananya and Rohan."
- Wish, thanks, name. "Season's greetings from Meridian Studio. Thank you for a year of good work together; see you in January."
More lines by person are on the Merry Christmas wishes and Happy New Year wishes pages, and the Christmas wish generator and New Year wish generator write one from a name.
Sizes and how to send
| Going to | Use | Export |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp chat, one person | 4:5 card | Share the link: the snow falls and the carol plays in the browser |
| WhatsApp family group | 4:5 card | GIF, so it loops inside the chat and forwards cleanly |
| WhatsApp or Instagram status | 9:16 story | MP4 |
| Instagram or LinkedIn feed | Square or 4:5 | MP4 or PNG |
| Email to clients | Square or 4:5 | PNG, with the link in the body |
| Print, for the card on the desk | 4:5 | PNG; 1080 by 1350 prints at 4 by 5 inches |
Before you send
Make the Christmas card in the week of the 14th, the New Year card the same day with the same project duplicated, and schedule nothing: send by hand on the evenings above. A card that arrives at the right hour gets read; a scheduled one at 9 am on the 25th sits under forty others.
Studio template or 3D card?
The Studio templates above are editable designs: every word, photo, colour and page is yours to change, and the result exports as video, GIF, image or link. MomentoCard's 3D cards are finished interactive scenes you fill in and share in a minute: a Christmas tree that lights, a sleigh that flies, a snow globe, a New Year countdown that fires at midnight.
A sensible split: the Studio card to the clients, the office and the big groups; a 3D card to the ten people who should get something that opens like a present.
