54 Festive Christmas Nail Designs for the 2024 Holidays (2024)

Santa is coming to town, and it’s time to prepare. If Christmas nails sound like Christmas carols to your ears, then stick around cause we have 54 different Christmas nail ideas you can gather inspiration from for your next manicure. These various colors, shapes, and design ideas will get your creative juices flowing just in time for the holiday festivities.

Gingerbread Nails Video Tutorial

Try this super cute Christmas Nails style in this simple, step-by-step video.

Simple Christmas Nails

Sometimes with everything going on around the holidays, the dinners, the shopping, the entertaining, the parties, it can become overwhelming. If the last thing you want is exceptionally festive nails that only add to the Christmas chaos, give these nails a shot.

Red is an excellent color for the holidays because almost any shade of it screams Christmas. For simple Christmas nails, we recommend going for a deep warm shade of red, like a glass of red wine.

Red Christmas Nails

The shade red is a perfect winter and Christmas color. Not only does it look lovely on your wrapping paper, your Christmas tree, or Santa’s hat, but it also looks stunning on your fingernails. The added shine to red nails will give them an elevated look. You may think this manicure is hard to achieve, but what if we told you it’s straightforward and you can do it at home?

Here are a few easy steps to getting red chrome nails like these:

What you’ll need:

• Red Nail Polish
• Base Coat
• Chrome Pigment
• Buffer
• Top Coat

Now that you have completed all four steps, you should have extra shiny and ornament-looking red Christmas nails. The chrome pigment is the star of the show, looking like a million mini mirrors are plastered onto your fingernails.

White Christmas Nails

If you want white Christmas nails for their simplicity or a chance to show off your love for snow, these oval nails are perfect. Using white and silver polish dotted all over the nail’s tip and maybe even adding a few smaller distinct white snowflakes is a unique Christmas manicure. This is also an easy manicure to do at home if you have the right tools, such as:

1. Dotting tool
2. Nail liner brush

Acrylic Christmas Nails

If the Christmas season is your time to ball out with your manicures, we suggest going for acrylic nails to get the best results. This is because not only do they look good, but acrylic nails add length, resulting in more room for your nail art.

These cute dark blue nails give off an icy vibe while simultaneously being cute and charming. The coffin-shaped acrylic Christmas nails allow nail artists to draw designs like Christmas dwarfs, snowflakes, and tartan. With shorter nails, this may have been very difficult.

Cute Christmas Nails

One of the cutest things about the Christmas holidays has to be all the little characters that embody it, such as Santa’s reindeer, snowmen, gingerbread men, elves, and many more. Try incorporating your favorite Christmas character for cute Christmas nails this year. If you also like Rudolf, just like us, give these red and beige Christmas nails a whirl, but don’t forget to add a little reindeer design to one of your fingernails.

Candy Cane Nails

Halloween has candy corn, Valentine’s day has chocolate, and Christmas has candy canes. If you are a sweets lover, we suggest putting the infamous candy cane stripes or individual candy cane designs on your Christmas nails. With the right tools, this manicure isn’t hard to achieve at home, but it will also look nice when done in the salon.

Candy Cane Stiletto Nails

When you were a kid, did you ever suck the bottom end of the candy cane into a sharp point? If you know what we’re talking about, think that but in the form of Christmas nails. Stiletto nails are a shape of acrylic nails. They look almost claw-like with sharp pointy tips.

These acrylic nails add both length and more surface area for fun, festive Christmas designs. If simple red and white stripes aren’t enough, try adding snowflakes or stars to your ring fingers, similar to the photo.

Gel Christmas Nails

Getting a gel manicure is a perfect idea for the holidays. There’s no denying that it can be the most beautiful time of year, but it can also be the busiest time of the year. If you are lumped into the group of people with limited time over the holidays, we suggest getting a gel manicure.

Gel polish typically lasts between 2 to 3 weeks before it starts to chip. If you get it near the beginning of December, it will be time to change them just after Christmas and just in time for a new set of New Years’ Eve nails.

Nightmare Before Christmas Nails

If one of your favorite Christmas pass times is snuggling up on the couch with a hot chocolate and watching a Christmas movie, we have the perfect Christmas nails for you. We suggest incorporating designs that represent your favorite holiday movie into your manicure.

If the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of your favorites, try doing something similar to these nails. These might be a bit spooky for the Christmas festivities, but if it’s something you love, who cares.

Coffin Christmas Nails

Coffin Christmas nails sound like an oxymoron, but we promise you it’s not what you think. A coffin nail is a nail shape. Coffin Christmas nails are not necessarily about what’s on the nails and more about the shape. You can add nearly anything to your coffin nails, red, white, or green, perhaps an elf or snowflakes.

The characteristics of coffin nails are:

1. Long
2. Round at the edges of the tip
3. Flat at the very tip
4. Resembles the shape of a coffin

If you aren’t sure what design you want for your coffin manicure, these pretty dark blue and sparkly nails are ideal and look great with the shape. Sometimes because the nail shape is already dramatic, adding drama to the nails with designs can become too much. Therefore, going for a similar look to the photo is a great way to keep the drama low while still looking festive.

Green Christmas Nails

One of the all-time best Christmas movies is The Grinch. It never gets old and is just as good every Christmas season. If you feel the same way and want to elevate your green Christmas nails, we suggest taking some inspiration from the legend himself, Dr. Zeus.

Short Christmas Nails

French tip nails are a huge trend, and we suggest capitalizing on that for your Christmas nails this season. Take these lovely navy french tip nails as an example. Even though the white has been swapped out for a blue shade, they still look elegant and crisp. To make it more festive, don’t be afraid to add little designs like Christmas nail stickers.

Nail stickers are a cute and fun way to incorporate nail art without the time and patience they take to create. If you are unsure of whether or not nail stickers are a right fit for your Christmas nails, here’s a pros and cons list to help.

Christmas Gel Nails

Gel polish is excellent for those looking to have a long-lasting manicure for the holiday season. Finding time to go to the nail salon or paint your nails during the holiday can take time and effort. Gel polish lasts up to 3 weeks, perfect for those on a time crunch.

What we like most about these Christmas gel nails is that they aren’t the typical nails you’d see over the holidays. We acknowledge that all the bright greens, reds, and golds might not be your thing. These give off a winter holiday feel, while the lovely dark silver gives a cold icicle vibe.

Pink Christmas Nails

The color pink and Christmas aren’t two things you often think of together. However, for all those reading this who love the color pink and the Christmas holidays, we got you. The trick to incorporating pink and Christmas is to do something on every finger representing the holiday, like candy cane patterns, glitter, snowflakes, and sweater patterns, but make them pink.

Black Christmas Nails

One of the prettiest sites to see during winter is snowfall at night. Everything goes silent, and all you see is snow dumping down, illuminated under a street light. Fun fact, if you have ever noticed that it goes hushed while it snows, that is because the snow absorbs the sound around you.

Just because black isn’t your usual Christmas color doesn’t mean you can’t make it festive. Adding small snowflake designs will really bring to life that snowfall-at-night look.

Christmas Press-On Nails

One of the best things about press-on nails over the holidays is all the different designs already available for you. Press-on nails make it effortless to have a perfect Christmas manicure for your festivities. These gingerbread press-on nails are a great example. They are fun and festive, full of intricate little designs. Having this one done in the salon would likely take hours and result in a numb bum. But you can skip all that with the press on nails.

Acrylic Coffin Christmas Nails

Some people in this world are blessed with strong nails that can grow out without breaking. If that’s not you, you have come to the right place. Acrylic coffin Christmas nails will make your fingers look primed and ready for the holiday season and long and thick, just like we dream of. Acrylic coffin nails are fake nails in the shape of a coffin. Traditionally a coffin shape is long, rounded at the edges, flat at the very tip, and resembles a coffin.

We suggest these blue snowflake chrome and sparkle nails. The dark blue, lightly coated with chrome pigment and painted over with white polish and glitter, is the perfect combination.

Easy Christmas Nails

One of the best ways to do an easy manicure that looks anything but easy is to incorporate more than one color. These nails here are an ideal example. Using the Christmas tree green paired with the shimmering gold makes this manicure look like a well-thought-out decision. In reality, all it took was the use of two different colors.

Christmas Tree Nails

What would be cuter than having little pine trees on your Christmas nails? If you love going and getting your tree for the holidays, decorating it with the family, and turning on the lights for the first time after it’s done, then the nails will be perfect for you.

These little Christmas tree nails will remind you of the smell of pine and how pretty a Christmas tree is. These nails are a perfect opportunity to try out some nail stickers.

Christmas Ombre Nails

A fun way to encapsulate the glitter and shine of the holidays is by adding both to your Christmas nails. You can take it further than using one glitter by adding two shimmer colors and creating an ombre effect. Ombre is a two-toned color effect typically darker at the bottom and lighter at the top.

White Ombre Christmas Nails

If you’re into the ombre glitter but not with all the colors, instead try white ombre Christmas nails with white and silver colors. These Christmas nails are elegant and classy, but the silver sparkle adds character and festive fun. Ombre nails are super easy to achieve at home.

Red and Green Christmas Nails

Two of the most infamous Christmas colors are two shades that look great on a fresh set of manicured hands. Red and green go together and scream Christmas, perfect for Christmas nails. You can either alternate colors or do all fingers on color except for one. Choosing your Christmas nails is a time for you to be creative. You can take inspiration from these nails and do a red and green ombre style.

Red and White Christmas Nails

Another Christmas color combination that oozes the Christmas spirit is red and white. You could go for a candy cane approach or something less predictable like these red and white swirl nails. This melted candy cane-looking manicure is a fantastic way to add a modern twist to your Christmas nails.

Red and white can be two very bright colors, but to tone them down a bit, doing a nail look similar to this can make the colors less prominent as they cover less of the nails.

Classy Christmas Nails

When we picture classy nails, we think simple but elegant, your typical nude color with a hint of that Christmas magic, aka glitter. If you are one of those people that a) likes it natural and b) sticks to routine, classy Christmas nails will likely be just what you are searching for.

These pink nude nails are the ideal length and color and something you probably already get at your regular nail appointments. However, by adding a bit of glitter, you are elevating them to look more Christmassy.

Christmas Stiletto Nails

Stiletto nails are a nail shape that is long and pointy. They are great for creating Christmas designs because of the added length and surface area. Because of their length and size, they add a lot of drama. If you want to add even more drama to your Christmas stiletto nails, try to apply gems and rhinestones similar to this image.

Applying gems and rhinestones is a straightforward process and only takes a few minutes.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Rhinestones
• Top coat
• Rhinestone picker dotting pen

Now that you have all the tools, here is a step-by-step process to add some drama to your Christmas nails:

1. Using the dotting pen with the rubber end, pick up the rhinestone and place it on top of the polish while it’s still a bit sticky.
2. If the polish has already dried, the stone won’t stick. You can always apply a layer of top coat to work as a binding agent.
3. Once the rhinestone has dried into place, apply two layers of top coat to ensure it won’t come off.

Christmas French Nails

Going for a classic french tip nail over the Christmas holiday is always the right idea. They’re clean, sharp looking, and the perfect amount of sexy. If you don’t want to stop there, there are ways to jazz up your essential french tips, such as:

1. Adding glitter
2. Adding nail stickers
3. Changing the tip color
4. Adding gemstones
5. Adding a design

If option five speaks to you, these cute Santa hat french tip nails will have you swooning over your fingernails this winter.

Christmas Glitter Nails

Over the Christmas season, everything sparkles, so why shouldn’t you? There are so many different glitter colors, but the ones that scream Christmas the most are these green, red, and silver glitter nails. The fun thing about these is that they don’t look like much in dull lighting, but when they catch the light, they will glitter and shine.

Black Glitter Christmas Nails

White Glitter

Just because black isn’t generally associated with Christmas doesn’t mean it’s not a nail color to be worn during the holidays. However, if you want to make it seem more festive, try going for black glitter Christmas nails. These are really stunning; as a bonus, they’ll look good with whatever outfits you have chosen for your holiday events.

Blue Glitter Christmas Nails

These nails scream snow globe. They have a baby blue tint that snow globes often have, and the sparkles on top look like the shimmer and fake snow particles inside the water. Nothing would look more fitting over the Christmas holidays than you with these blue glitter Christmas nails holding a snow globe.

Gold Glitter

Let your nails shine like the star on top of your Christmas tree with these gold glitter Christmas nails. Your nails will encapsulate the Christmas spirit and look absolutely glowing. You can add gold glitter to nearly any Christmas nails to elevate them.

Silver Glitter

If silver is more your color as opposed to gold, try going for silver glitter for your Christmas nails. Silver glitter is excellent for Christmas nails if you are trying to create an icy feel. Silver glitter looks great either:

• By itself
• As ombre
• Overtop of other colors

Red Glitter

Adding red glitter to your claws will make them stand out. They might even remind you of Christmas ornaments.

White Glitter

Impress Christmas Nails

If you are not into having a ton of color on your nails but don’t want to have dull unfestive nails, we suggest going for white glitter. It adds shine and luminosity to your nails when caught in the light without being over the top.

Green Glitter

Green is a super trendy color, and the holidays are a perfect opportunity to hop on the trend. Since just green can look a bit plain, especially over the holidays, choosing green glitter to go over the top will make you shine like the star you are.

Disney Christmas Nails

If you are a Disney adult and love everything Disney, here’s your chance to capitalize on your love by channeling it into your Christmas nails. There are hundreds of Micky Mouse and other Disney nail stickers you could choose from to spice things up. To make your Disney Christmas nails appropriate for the holidays, we suggest selecting colors like red and green to capitalize on the Christmas spirit.

Mickey Christmas Nails

If Micky Mouse is your favorite Disney character, we invite you to put him all over your nails. However, we suggest taking inspiration from this photo to turn them into Christmas nails. Choosing different Christmas themes, like reindeer and Santa, and putting those on Micky Mouse silhouettes will be easy with nail stickers and an adorable way to get Micky Christmas nails.

Modern Christmas Nails

If you are heading to the salon for a Christmas manicure but want to keep it both modern and festive at the same time, these stylish Christmas nails are a great choice.

The one clear nail makes the manicure stand out from the rest and adds fun with an elegant touch. What’s even better about these nails is that they can be done at home. All you’d need is red sparkly nail polish, a snowflake nail sticker or a nail art brush, and white paint. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Santa Nails

These Santa nails are perfect if you are the creative type. Seriously, who doesn’t love Santa?

Christmas Nails Snowflakes

Whether or not you live in a cool climate, I’m sure when you think about Christmas, you think about snow. Perhaps the song “Let it Snow” is one of your all-time favorites; it’s definitely one of ours. Channeling your love for Christmas and snow into your nails is a great way to express your inner Christmas spirit.

If you are planning to do snowflake nails, it’s important to remember that there aren’t very many colors other than white when it snows or when you are in a winter wonderland. Therefore, we suggest you use limited colors similar to these nails.

All you need color-wise to achieve these nails would be:

• A nude pink polish
• White polish
• Silver glitter polish

Long Christmas Nails

Getting some fake nails is crucial for long Christmas nails if you plan to add tons of different colors and designs to your nails. The more length and surface area, the easier it is to add on different and intricate designs. These nails are a great example of how length can create much more room for creativity with your Christmas nails.

Almond Christmas Nails

An Almond is a nail shape that resembles the form of an almond. Typically it’s a shape used when someone has acrylic nails, but if your natural nails are long enough, you can file them into an almond shape.

If you choose an almond shape for your Christmas nails, it looks fantastic to accentuate the nail’s tip by only adding the color at the top. It will elongate them and make them stand out, like in the photo.

Red Christmas Almond Nails

Just because these nails don’t have any glitter or Christmas-themed designs doesn’t mean they don’t represent Christmas. These almond-shaped nails are a cute and simple way to join into the Christmas spirit while keeping it toned down.

Short Almond Christmas Nails

Going for shorter almond shape nails can be tricky but possible. These stunning nails are a great example of almond-shaped nails on the shorter side. If you want to avoid adding color to your short almond Christmas nails, try adding small nail sticker designs to bring out your festive spirit.

Red and Gold Christmas Nails

Red and gold are two Christmas colors we love to see together. A fun way to incorporate the two shades is to do one finger on each hand, a sold red and a sold gold. Then on the remaining fingers combing the gold and red to create a pretty simmer ombre look adds some brilliance and character to your nails.

Gold Christmas Nails

Shine like a Christmas tree star with winter with gold Christmas nails. If only gold isn’t festive enough for you, it pairs nicely with any color, so get creative.

Matte Christmas Nails

Channel that cold frosted window look into your Christmas manicure. A matte top coat will pull all the shine out of the nail polish, resulting in a completely matte finish. You can get creative and pair both shiny and matte nails.

Impress Christmas Nails

Impress nail company has a wide variety of different press on Christmas nails to choose from. Press-on nails are a quick and easy way to get a top-notch manicure without sitting at the salon for hours and spending loads of money.

SNS Christmas Nails

SNS stands for Signature Nail System, aka dip powder, and comes in many shades, like regular gel or nail polish does. These grey nails are pretty SNS Christmas nails, perfect for any holiday festivities.

The characteristics of SNS nails are:

1. Extra strength
2. Adds length
3. Lightweight feel
4. Thinner than acrylic
5. Thicker than gel polish
6. Natural looking finish

Subtle Christmas Nails

More can often be less when it comes to Christmas nails when you don’t always want to go over the top. These brown and little gingerbread nails are the perfect examples of subtle nails. The one little gingerbread man does the trick.

Silver Christmas Nails

Pay homage to the Christmas silver bells by getting these silver Christmas nails. This combination of sparkles and silver will have you shining bright like a diamond.

Christmas Shellac Nails

Shellac polish is a great alternative manicure for those in a rush because it takes little dry time. They also make the nails appear thicker and last much longer than regular or gel polish. Plum and white go perfectly together over the Christmas holiday; show this photo to your nail technician to recreate it.

Pretty Christmas Nails

These pretty Christmas nails are fun and festive while looking classy and put together. The small whirls add fun but don’t take it too far.

Sparkly Christmas Nails

If you want sparkly Christmas nails, there are different alternatives to choose from that add some twinkle, such as:

• Glitter
• Rhinestones
• Gemstones

Adding sparkles encapsulates the Christmas spirit and makes you appear like a fun and glowing person.

Square Christmas Nails

Square-shaped nails are usually the best shape for people that have shorter nails. Instead of a pointed nail tip, all it consists of is a flat top. Adding Christmassy designs on these nails will give them the ultimate Christmas touch.

Christmas Present Nails

If opening gifts on Christmas day or giving gifts to friends and family is one of your favorite things about the holidays, try giving these Christmas present nails a try. Choose whatever color you like and add a ribbon drawing onto your ring finger, like in the picture.

Christmas Nails Tutorials

There are tons of Christmas nail tutorials online for you to copy and take inspiration from, such as this 10 Easy Nail Art Designs For Christmas Ultimate Guide or 14 Christmas nail art tutorials you need in your festive life.

Tips / Considerations

Tip 1: Decide what design you want to do first. Depending on the design, you can choose what nail shape, a fake or natural nail, and what type of polish you need.

Tip 2: Use nail stickers! They are a great alternative to drawing designs onto your nails and reduce the chance of having to start all over.

Tip 3: Plan out your holiday outfits before getting your Christmas nails. You should make sure your shade choice fits the outfit of your event.

DIY

If you decide to try your Christmas nails at home, there are lots of great video tutorials or step-by-step photos to help guide you through the process. Here are a few examples to check out.

And To All A Goodnight

After 55 different Christmas nail ideas and tips, we hope you feel prepared for your next trip to the salon. Taking screenshots of the nails you like and showing them to your nail technician or having them on the screen when you do your nails will significantly help in recreating the manicure. Don’t be afraid to get creative with your nails by mixing and matching shades and different polishes. You may surprise yourself with what you come up with.