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60 Beautiful Christmas Photoshop Tutorials
By Dirk Metzmacher, December 16th, 2008 in Tutorials | 84 Comments | Forum
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By Dirk Metzmacher
Christmas is a holiday of love and family. It is the time of year when people come together to celebrate, when they realize that some things are more important than others. So why don’t you impress the people who are important to you with some unique Christmas cards or beautiful personal desktop wallpaper?
In this post, we present 60 beautiful Christmas Photoshop tutorials. You’ll learn how to design Christmas trees, snow globes, snowflakes, Christmas candles, Christmas balls and much more. Some designers go even further, taking the time to draw Christmas illustrations or replace old icons with festive ones. Often, designers will draw Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and friends or create a Christmas theme for their website layout.
You may be interested in the following related posts:
- Christmas Wallpapers
- Christmas Icons and Christmas Wordpress Themes
- 50 Beautiful Winter Wonderland Photos
Christmas Wallpapers
- The Santa Claus Wallpaper
Learn how to create a funny, festive Christmas wallpaper with Santa Claus.
- Night Before Christmas
This illustration is well suited for children. Allover rounded corners.
- Beautiful Christmas Vision Tutorial
This tutorial teaches you how to use pen tool, paths, smudge tool to to create a Christmas 3D effect in Photoshop.
- Abstract Christmas Wallpaper
Abstract wallpaper in red with some gifts and stars.
- Christmas Night - Making of
A sophisticated collage. The sky over Christmas.
- Creative Cards
A snowman in a suitable landscape.
- Christmas ornaments wallpaper
Warm colors are always perfect for Christmas. Golden balls, some loops and stars.
- Christmas Backgrounds
Christmas balls with reflection.
- Christmas Balls Wallpaper
Red Christmas balls with a frame made of stars.
- Snow Landscape
A snowy landscape with large snow buildings. Santa Claus lives there maybe.
- A Very Snowy Tutorial
Dozens of snowflakes in detail.
Christmas Tree
- Merry Christmas Greeting
Learn how to create a flashy Christmas illustrations with snowflakes and a Christmas tree.
- Tree in snow
Create a Christmas tree in a snow landscape.
- Draw a Christmas tree
The perfect Christmas tree. Large, straight and discreetly decorated.
- Christmas Trees
Comic Christmas trees in a rounded style.
- Many trees
Many Christmas trees in a beautiful snowy landscape.
- Abstract Christmas tree
A Christmas tree, whose shape is formed from stars. Some curves support to keep the tree form recognizable.
- Merry Christmas tree design
Again: Stars guarantee for the shape of the tree.
- Fresh Christmas Tree
Some ornaments and stars give a Christmas tree.
- Christmas Wallpaper
An abstract Christmas tree. As in a dream or underwater.
- Christmas tree design
In an illustration styles shaped Christmas tree.
Christmas Balls
- Christmas Ornament
Learn how to make a shiny glass ornament with a snowflake motif for the holidays.
- Christmas Tree Ornament
Christmas ball with a motive. A snowman over the self-designed ball.
- Christmas Balls Design
Two Christmas balls with bands and stars.
- Christmas Glass Ornaments
Shiny balls, which were decorated.
- Christmas lights balls
Golden Christmas baubles with glowing lines in the interior.
- Glowing christmas ball
This tutorial describes how a ball gets a shine.
- Ornament balls
An illustration with several balls and stars.
- Christmas Balls
Three Christmas balls with a reflection.
- Christmas ornament balls
Three balls, three samples. A good alternative to the shiny versions.
Decoration
- Decorate with Colored Lights
Create a garland only in Photoshop.
- Christmas Candle Bridge
Some candles on a nice stand.
- 3D Snow Globe
Not only the snowman or the landscape is designed in this tutorial. Even a snow globe.
- Cute X’mas Candle
A candle with a bit of decoration and a stand. All thanks to Photoshop.
- Christmas Holly tutorial
The traditional decoration in comic style.
Holy Text
- Wrapped Text Effect
A few letters wrapped as gifts.
- Frost
An ice-cold lettering. Frozen letters in Photoshop.
- Snow on Text
Create artificial snow on the letter.
- Merry Christmas
A very simple effect for beginners.
- Merry Christmas Card
A Merry Christmas. Includes a wreath.
Christmas Cards
- Dancing Santa Claus and Christmas Tree
Learn how to easily create a picture with Santa Claus and a Christmas Tree.
- Christmas card
A Santa Claus, some fir trees and congratulations revealed this beautiful card.
- Christmas color conceptual graphic
A rather abstract illustration with a few stars and lines.
- Gifts snowing
Gifts fall from the sky. A dream comes true.
- Christmas Greetings Postcard
Very large packages. Here is the result of a card in the grunge style.
- We wish you a Merry Christmas
A cute snowman in a beautifully designed snowy landscape with some trees.
- Christmas Greeting
It has everything: candles, pine branches, Christmas balls and stars.
- A nice Christmas card
A Christmas card in the Web 2.0 style.
- Last-Minute Holiday e-Card
Golden glitter forms a Christmas tree. That also like Santa.
- Draw Merry Christmas Illustration
Some Christmas balls with different design.
More Christmas Stuff
- Christmas Shiny Background
How to make a sock with a seasonal pattern in Photoshop.
- Christmas Brush Set
30 Xmas Brushes, most are 100×100, some slightly larger.
- Snowflakes
Create your own Snowflakes step by step in Photoshop.
- Christmas RSS Icon
Adorn the RSS icon with a Christmas tree.
- Santa’s Sleigh Drawing
Santa has forgotten his sleigh. Your chance to take off.
- Pretty Girl in Christmas Suit
Santa Claus girl. Very sexy.
- Christmas Blue Candle
An abstract candle on a green pattern.
- Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph leads us through Photoshop.
- Christmas bell
Design a Bronze christmas bell with handle.
- Christmas Hat
The hat of Santa Claus. Just as we know it.
- Web Layout
Designing a Christmas-Themed Web Layout.
- Dancing Santa Claus and Christmas Tree
Santa Claus, a snowy landscape and a large Christmas tree in the background.
- Christmas Ornament Tutorial
a christmas ornament made out of shrinkable plastic and adorned with my favourite itsy bitsy buttons.
Related posts
You may be interested in the following related posts:
- Christmas Wallpapers
- Christmas Icons and Christmas Wordpress Themes
- 50 Beautiful Winter Wonderland Photos
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Paulo (December 16th, 2008, 3:10 pm)
VERY COOL POST!!!
Happy xmas for everyone! SM stills the #1!!
;)
Tom Ross - PSDFAN.com (December 16th, 2008, 3:11 pm)
Fantastic list, really comprehensive. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas too :)
Javi - warclimb.com (December 16th, 2008, 3:45 pm)
The ornament tutorial looks awesome!
nanto mago (December 16th, 2008, 3:49 pm)
cool .. but not what I’m looking for…
aurel (December 16th, 2008, 4:27 pm)
very nice
merry xmas to all ya
Greg (December 16th, 2008, 4:34 pm)
Nice images, but how incredibly hollow and superficial. All sanitized and secular, not one recognizes that the holiday is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ!
David (December 16th, 2008, 4:41 pm)
Overuse of ‘Beautiful’ Fail.
Cristian C (December 16th, 2008, 4:49 pm)
SM Rocks !!!! Thank you !!!
Guillaume Pelletier (December 16th, 2008, 5:06 pm)
Some of these are really nice or quite novel. There are some, however, that don’t live up to the standards I would be expecting from Smashing Magazine. Perhaps a shorter list would have been better in this case.
You guys are my first source of inspiration, keep up the good work!
Edit: Oh and by the way, link on last image seems like it points to the wrong place…
Andrew Houle (December 16th, 2008, 5:39 pm)
Cool list. Thanks so much for including a MyInkBlog tutorial :)
Aleso (December 16th, 2008, 7:30 pm)
wow another great collection of tutorial,thanks
Link [www.3dand2dmag.wordpress.com]
DKumar M. (December 17th, 2008, 1:09 am)
One more great resource post !!
Thank You
DKumar M.
Link [www.instantshift.com]
Romain (December 17th, 2008, 2:09 am)
I hate xmas and this “beautiful”(???!!!) post.
It’s very better usually.
Thanks for your work
linh (December 17th, 2008, 2:22 am)
just another awesome post
thx
Beppone (December 17th, 2008, 3:20 am)
Thanks again for your nice tutorials. Merry Xmas.
Beppone (December 17th, 2008, 3:26 am)
sorry.. posts … not only tuts :)
fernando (December 17th, 2008, 3:53 am)
Cool!
Thanks
iuliux (December 17th, 2008, 4:17 am)
half cool, half low quality…
ok, half +1 cool :D
Nikki - Logo Design Guru (December 17th, 2008, 9:17 am)
These are great. Thanks for sharing. I always look for new designs for my desktop every year.
hey man (December 17th, 2008, 9:24 am)
“Some ornaments and stars give a Christmas tree.
The hat of Santa Claus. Just as we know it. ”
it sounds like this was written by someone who doesn’t speak english.
Doesn’t anyone edit these posts?
ted (December 17th, 2008, 9:54 am)
This is going to be VERY handy. Thanks a lot for providing this. I was a complete noob at photoshop but there are so many online tutorials that anyone can learn. Thanks again
Bangbouh Stock (December 17th, 2008, 10:29 am)
Beautiful collection of Christmas illustrations. Thanks!
eSeM (December 17th, 2008, 11:42 am)
All nice tutorials, Good job rounding them up.
Chocho (December 17th, 2008, 11:44 am)
I think this Christmas is a bit depressing. You can tell by looking through this post…
Karen (December 17th, 2008, 7:20 pm)
What a wonderful collection of inspiring works with tutorials to boot! Seeing images like these make me think quite differently than Chocho above — Christmas is the celebration of Light coming to a dark world. Thanks for keeping the spirit of joy alive through your fine work and then being a poor magician to tell us how you did it! Kudos!
iren (December 17th, 2008, 7:45 pm)
great,cool **
Acher (December 18th, 2008, 12:15 am)
wow, very beautiful,,
hedong (December 18th, 2008, 2:02 am)
beautiful,,
emao (December 18th, 2008, 2:03 am)
wow, very beautiful
goma (December 18th, 2008, 4:33 am)
C’mon guys, don’t mind about the overused “beautiful” or “me doesn’t speak english”.. It’s Christmas! Well 60 is way A LOT! But it’s ok!
Thanks for this post!
Steave (December 18th, 2008, 8:01 am)
SM Rocks !!!! Thank you !!!!!
Rebecca (December 19th, 2008, 6:58 am)
Wow! I wish I would have discovered this before I sent out my Christmas cards! These tutorials can help me with travel photos as well (Travel-Writers-Exchange.com). Maybe I’ll take one of my photos from the UK and create a “Christmas” design using a picture of Edinburgh Castle.
Toan (December 20th, 2008, 12:13 am)
most of them are not *smashing*
NOE (December 21st, 2008, 8:44 am)
estas super padre bien bonito
im :D (December 24th, 2008, 3:14 pm)
ok nice man :D me not have :( XD me copy :D
aka_sova (December 26th, 2008, 5:03 am)
Thanks a lot!
Dea (February 24th, 2009, 2:21 am)
Full with great ideas, nice work end helpful information and free of course.
I just need this tutorials. Thanks for sharing with others.
I always wont to know how somebody creates a wallpaper. Now I get a picture.
ANDERSON (February 24th, 2009, 8:04 am)
I learned something new, now to buy photoshop cs3 - found it for $299 (my reply url).
sacar (March 12th, 2009, 5:42 am)
nice]
wanda keys (May 8th, 2009, 7:10 pm)
i am a big black lady who loves photoshop and white me
i give a little tlc to every man i meet
my i have you number
(850) 252-0252