All Your Holiday Needs in a Box!
I am that person who is stoked for Christmas and the holidays the day after Halloween. I spend lots of time seeking Christmas decor inspiration on Instagram, I collect a bunch of cookie recipes to send boxes to friends and family, and have a long list of holiday movies and shows I watch each year. I even finished all of my Christmas shopping before Cyber Monday this year. However, I acknowledge that most people do not share the degree of Christmas cheer I exude during this special time of year, and that’s where my Holiday Decor Box comes in handy!
My husband Jake and I came up with this idea randomly during a long car ride in traffic. I love all things decor and Christmas, and I know how difficult it can be for other people to create a cohesive look that inspires them year after year. My love for Madewell and the cohesion that their collections have had over the years inspired me to compile a collection of ornaments, garlands, figurines, candles, and even tree toppers that are all cohesive with one another. This would enable to customer to choose whatever they like on the site and won’t have to worry about whether or not it will coordinate.
So then I began to plan. And this project now gave more purpose to my scouring the internet for my own holiday decor. I wanted to create an atmosphere for the customer so that they can pick this box up on their doorstep, open it, and not have to worry about a thing. I compiled various designs for ornaments and garlands and figurines that have a timeless yet modern style, easy to flow with any kind of decorating. I love the smell of a festive candle so I put that in the box too. A mistletoe, some candy canes, and a surprise inside completed the idea of a one-stop-shop for a perfect day of cozying up at home to trim the tree…with ease.
After planning out pieces to incorporate in the box, I began to design (for what felt like even longers than I scoured the internet) ornaments, test essential oil mixes for the cheeriest holiday scent, string wood beads on jute for a natural touch, and also try and fail at all of these. I tend to want to get things right the first time so that I can continue making headway on my to-do list. But each item I planned for the box came with at least one hiccup (except for the beautiful wood box my Dad made, which turned out better than I could have asked for). The candle sunk over an inch in the middle while setting. The snowflakes had to be recut due to my mistake in preparing the file. The wood trees I wanted to make with my Dad (who is handy at woodworking) would look too clunky and be too heavy for a regular tree bough. Even covid got in the way of my tree topper being finished in time for this final presentation. But such is 2020!
I kept on with the process, trial and error, and finding what works. The garland turned out cute, the candle will suffice, the laser cut pieces looked PHENOMENAL (thanks Byron at the CU Idea Forge!) and I am sure the tree topper will look better than I could have imagined (once it’s finished of course). I brought all the pieces together, trudged over to my parents house, and borrowed a naturally well lit corner to photograph each of my pieces and the beautiful wood box all wrapped up pretty for Christmas. What was initially a major stressor for me, turned into a fun creative outlet (I have a background in photography, but not product photography). I took all the tips I have gleaned from the various designers I follow and styled each piece to look festive and bright.
And the last step was to create the desktop and mobile website mockups for how a customer would actually go about customizing a Holiday Box of their own. Again, I pulled inspiration from the sites of my favorite interior designers, but combined their e-commerce style with an on-boarding style attribute to make a step by step process of customization. The customer chooses their box size, then ornaments, garland, candle and tree topper. See below for the video prototypes of the mobile and desktop sites.
I created the Design Systems for both mobile and web in order to make sure the branding was cohesive across the board, and although the work is tedious, I really do enjoy creating.
Some milestones that I think I reached with this project are learning the value of mistakes, creating a full brand and one key critical path so far for the website, and learning the value of creating each piece myself versus seeking out sourcing items from other retailers. I think this could be a fun project to continue to work on and I hope that it will take off in the next few years.
I certainly have hopes for this product in the future; I can see this being a successful side gig and thoughtful gift for others. I would love to add other items to increase the cozy atmosphere that the Holidays bring, including socks, slippers, pajamas, mittens, holiday recipes, cookie or hot cocoa mixes, cocktail recipes, tree skirts, wreaths, figurines, stockings, stocking holders, Christmas cards, and even books or movies. I love to share my love for Christmas with others and I think this box business would be an incredible way to do that for others. Hopefully next year or the year after this project will be a reality!
Here are the links to the materials I used in the box:
Wood Beads
Birch Plywood
Velvet Ribbon
Beeswax
Balsam Essential Oil
Faux Cedar Stem
Candle Jar from PF Candle Co.
Mistletoe from Trader Joe’s
Hammond’s Candies
Here are my Visual Designs for the desktop and mobile site.
