The Twelve Cats of Christmas: One Idea, Twelve Christmas Cards
One Christmas cat knocking a bauble off the tree is funny.
Twelve Christmas cats, each responsible for an entirely different seasonal catastrophe?
Now you have a collection.
“The Twelve Cats of Christmas” is a simple Christmas card series idea: create twelve individual designs using the same visual framework, but give each cat its own festive scene, personality and disaster.
Think of it as The Twelve Days of Christmas, rewritten by creatures who absolutely cannot be trusted around decorations.
Build a Family of Cards
Before creating the individual designs, decide what will make them instantly recognizable as belonging together.
You might use the same decorative border, typography, illustration style and color palette throughout the collection. You could also add a small recurring title or number:
The Twelve Cats of Christmas • No. 3
or
Christmas Cat No. 8: The Gingerbread Incident
But there’s one important rule: every card should still work independently.
A customer doesn’t need to know that Cat No. 7 exists to appreciate Cat No. 8 sitting innocently beside the ruins of a gingerbread village.
The collection is the bonus, not the explanation.
So what might our twelve festive offenders actually get up to?
1. The Christmas Tree Climber
There was a perfectly respectable Christmas tree here five minutes ago.
Now there is a cat halfway up it.
Front:
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree…
Inside:
…you never stood a chance.
Or:
Front:
I helped decorate the tree.
Inside:
Apparently “helped” is open to interpretation.
2. The Bauble Assassin
One cat. One paw. One shiny ornament dangerously close to the edge.
Front:
I haven’t touched it.
Inside:
Yet.
Or simply:
All I want for Christmas is gravity.
3. The Wrapping-Paper Wrecker
The present was beautifully wrapped.
Was.
Now the cat is sitting in a mountain of shredded paper.
Front:
Your present arrived pre-opened.
Inside:
It’s a premium service.
4. The Tinsel Incident
A cat emerges triumphantly from an unreasonable quantity of Christmas decoration.
Front:
Deck the halls.
Inside:
Instructions unclear.
5. The Christmas Dinner Inspector
The roast turkey has been left unattended for approximately 0.7 seconds.
This was a mistake.
Front:
Christmas Dinner Quality Control Department
Inside:
Your meal has been thoroughly inspected.
Or:
Front:
I was only checking the turkey.
Inside:
You’re welcome.
6. The Stocking Occupier
Forget filling the stocking.
There is already a cat in it.
Front:
Santa brought you something special.
Inside:
It bites.
7. The Light-Tangler
A cat is completely wrapped in Christmas lights and looks enormously pleased with the result.
Front:
Be the light of Christmas.
Inside:
Or get hopelessly tangled in it. Either works.
Or:
I decorated myself.
8. The Gingerbread Destroyer
A beautifully constructed gingerbread house has become a gingerbread archaeological site.
The cat knows nothing.
Obviously.
Front:
There appears to have been a structural failure.
Inside:
No witnesses.
Or:
Front:
Gingerbread House: 0
Cat: 1
9. The Present Box Squatter
The expensive gift is somewhere nearby.
The box, however, is occupied.
Front:
Best present ever.
Inside:
Thanks for the box.
Or:
You shouldn’t have.
10. The Santa Impersonator
Santa hat.
Extremely unimpressed cat.
Front:
He sees you when you’re sleeping.
Inside:
Mostly because you’ve taken his side of the bed.
Or:
Front:
Santa Claws is coming to town.
Inside:
You have been warned.
11. The Christmas Card Saboteur
Someone is attempting to write Christmas cards.
Someone else is sprawled across the desk, sitting on the envelopes and attacking the pen.
Front:
Your Christmas card was delayed.
Inside:
Management regrets nothing.
Or:
Helping with the Christmas cards since 3:17 PM.
12. The Angel on Top
After eleven cards of festive destruction, our final cat has achieved its ultimate goal.
The summit.
It sits triumphantly at the top of the Christmas tree where the angel should be.
Front:
And on the twelfth day of Christmas…
Inside:
…the cat finally conquered the tree.
Or:
Front:
Move over, angel.
Inside:
Christmas has new management.
Make Them Your Cats
You don’t necessarily need twelve different cats.
One recurring character getting into twelve different predicaments could make the collection even more recognizable.
Or create a whole cast.
Perhaps there’s the climber, the thief, the glutton, the diva, the grump, the nervous one, the elderly cat who has seen all this before and the innocent-looking kitten who is clearly the mastermind behind everything.
Now you’re not simply creating twelve pictures of cats.
You’re creating personalities.
And customers may start recognizing their own pets in particular designs.
“That is absolutely Oliver.”
Suddenly one card in a twelve-card collection feels surprisingly personal.
And Why Stop at Cats?
You shouldn’t.
Because while The Twelve Cats of Christmas gives us a wonderfully chaotic starting point, the bigger idea hiding behind it is much more useful.
What happens when you take one strong card concept and deliberately turn it into a collection?
Dogs could do it.
Sheep could do it.
Mice could do it.
Christmas gnomes could do it.
Even twelve festive skeletons could attempt Christmas traditions despite some fairly obvious anatomical disadvantages.
And that’s where we’ll go tomorrow in Part Two.
Because sometimes the most interesting question to ask after finishing a card isn’t:
“What should I design next?”
It’s:
“What if this isn’t finished yet?”
Happy Designing!
Corrie
