The trick to holiday marketing images with AI is division of labor: the AI makes a text-free holiday visual with room for a headline, and your design tool adds the copy, prices and logo. Pick a palette and two or three motifs per holiday, resize one concept for every placement, and use image-to-image for seasonal product scenes.
Holiday cheat sheet: colors and motifs
Every holiday has a visual code people read instantly. Pick two or three motifs from it — piling on all of them looks cheap.
| Occasion | When | Main colors | Motifs | Prompt keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Year | January 1 | Gold, champagne, navy | Fireworks, clocks, streamers | countdown, golden fireworks, night sky |
| Lunar New Year | First day of the lunar year | Red and gold | Lanterns, auspicious clouds, fireworks, paper cuts | festive, red and gold palette |
| Valentine’s Day | February 14 | Pink, rose | Roses, hearts, ribbon | romantic, soft pink petals |
| Mother’s Day | Varies; May in many countries | Blush, cream, sage | Carnations, breakfast tray, handwritten card | gentle morning light |
| 618 mid-year sale | Mid-June, China | Bold clashing colors | Carts, gift boxes, coupons | mid-year sale, playful flat illustration |
| Mid-Autumn Festival | 15th day of the 8th lunar month | Gold and deep blue | Full moon, jade rabbit, osmanthus, pavilion | a huge golden full moon, clouds |
| Halloween | October 31 | Orange, purple, black | Pumpkins, bats, candles | spooky but cute, warm candlelight |
| Singles’ Day, Black Friday | November | Orange, purple, black | Carts, bags, gift boxes | year-end sale banner |
| Christmas | December 25 | Red, green, white | Snow, pine, red berries, gifts | winter scene, warm string lights |
For national-day themes, be careful with flags and emblems: China’s National Flag Law, for example, bars the flag and its image from commercial advertising. Seasonal scenery and travel imagery carry the mood safely.
Writing the key visual prompt
A holiday key visual prompt needs three things:
- Two or three motifs. For Mid-Autumn, “full moon, jade rabbit, osmanthus” is plenty.
- A palette. “Red and gold” or “deep blue night with golden moonlight.”
- The title area. “Empty space in the middle for a title” or “space at the bottom for a title.”
Prompt idea: Chinese New Year poster background, red and gold auspicious clouds, lanterns and fireworks, festive and lively, empty space in the middle for a title.
The title area became a round frame — drop in your greeting and offer and the poster is done. Copy the prompt from Chinese New Year Poster Background.
The Mid-Autumn cover follows the same recipe: a golden full moon with a jade-rabbit silhouette pounding medicine, a classical pavilion, osmanthus and clouds, and an empty framed title box at the bottom. Always write “full moon” for Mid-Autumn; the occasional crescent is a reason to regenerate. More on reserving space in our AI poster workflow.
Big sales: 618, Singles’ Day, Black Friday
Sales visuals should feel busy, direct and loud. Flat illustration works best: bold colors and clear shapes that still read with a big price slapped on top.
Prompt idea: flat illustration, a girl sitting in a giant shopping cart surrounded by gift boxes, coupons and shopping bags, orange and purple palette, e-commerce sale banner, 16:9.
Three rules for sale visuals:
- No marketplace logos or mascots. Keep the visual generic and add official platform assets afterward.
- Check event names. Some sales-event names may be trademarks; “year-end sale” is always safe.
- Truthful prices. Original prices, discounts and gifts must match reality — and they belong in the layout stage anyway.
Copy this banner’s prompt from Shopping Festival Flat Banner.
Seasonal product scenes: one product, every holiday
The most common request from sellers: the same product, red and festive for Lunar New Year, moonlit for Mid-Autumn, snowy for Christmas. Upload one to four product photos in image-to-image, describe only the new scene, and the product keeps its look:
Prompt idea: with the marble perfume shot as reference — “place this perfume in winter snow surrounded by pine sprigs and red berries, soft blue-hour morning light.”
Scene lines you can reuse:
Lunar New Year: place this [product] on red silk brocade with small lanterns and gold cloud patterns, warm light, empty space at the top
Valentine’s: place this [product] on blush satin with scattered rose petals, soft window light
Mid-Autumn: place this [product] on a wooden tray beside an osmanthus sprig and a celadon cup, a golden full moon behind, night
Halloween: place this [product] on a dark wooden table among small carved pumpkins and candles, warm glow
Christmas: place this [product] in snow with pine sprigs, red berries and warm string lights
Then check the product itself. Image-to-image regenerates the whole scene around it, so fine print and small details can drift; if something changed, regenerate or use a clearer reference. Our guide to product scene swaps goes deeper.
One concept, four sizes
| Placement | Ratio | Composition notes |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram and Xiaohongshu feed | 4:5 | Subject centered or low, title on top |
| Stories, Reels, TikTok, splash screens | 9:16 | Keep top and bottom free for title and buttons |
| Product tiles, campaign icons | 1:1 | Product fills most of the frame |
| Store banners, email headers | 16:9 | Subject on one side, copy on the other |
Run the same prompt once per ratio and adjust only the composition words. Each run is a new image, so you get a series with a shared theme and palette, not crops of one picture. Lock the motif-and-palette half of the prompt to keep the series tight. Vertical framing tips are in our Xiaohongshu cover guide.
A simple timeline
- Three to four weeks out: theme, palette and motifs; write the key visual prompt.
- Two to three weeks out: generate two to four images per ratio and pick the best; make seasonal product scenes.
- One to two weeks out: typesetting, resizing, internal review.
- A few days out: submit for platform review with time to fix things.
Pre-launch checklist
- Headline, prices and dates were set in a design tool — no AI typos.
- No marketplace logos, other brands, famous characters or real people.
- No flags or national emblems in commercial creative.
- Seasonal product images match the real product.
- AI-generated content is labeled per platform rules — see our commercial use guide.
Each image costs 10 credits on the standard model or 4–8 on the others and takes about 30 seconds, with automatic refunds for failures. Start your next holiday visual in the AI poster generator, or borrow a prompt from the prompt library.
