78 [Not Overused!] Holiday & Christmas Instagram Captions—with Templates!

Kristen McCormick
Last Updated: December 16, 2022 | Instagram
HomeBlog78 [Not Overused!] Holiday & Christmas Instagram Captions—with Templates!

How to make your holiday Instagram posts disappear:

1. Choose image.
2. Insert overused caption (I’m looking at you, “sleigh all day” and “tis the season”).
3. Hit publish.

christmas-instagram-captions-disappear

Poof! Your followers won’t even know you posted.

The Instagram algorithm favors posts that get engagement, and the key to engagement is not just an awesome visual, but also an authentic and interesting caption. So if you want to make your posts shine, read on to find over 78 funny, inspiring, and interesting Instagram captions for:

But first, let’s start out with some tips and tricks to come up with captions that stick.

Holiday Instagram caption ideas

Here are some general ideas for coming up with Instagram captions to spruce up your December social media campaigns.

  • Use a lyric or quote, or put your own twist on it.
    Who cares if you’ve been bad or good when you have this precious face? [Photographer post]
  • Do an online search for funny and creative holiday greeting cards.
    Whoever said “all is calm” has never been to our [house, office, gym, studio, etc]  around the holidays…

holiday christmas instagram captions - all is calm

  • Try alliteration, with a twist
    Chestnuts. Chimneys. Chocolate. Cheer. Chair pose. [Chihuahuas, CHEATERS!, etc. depending on the photo].
  • Try rhyming
    You better not pout, but it’s okay to cry…when you run out of your [your product] supply.
  • Ask questions
    Would you rather have your Spotify stuck on Dreidel, Drediel, Dredel, or Jingle Bells?
  • Put a holiday twist on something un-holiday
    Straight. Outta. The North Pole.
    If at first you don’t succeed…turn to the pros! [picture of your bakery’s Christmas cakes].
  • Search holiday hashtags and see what Instagram suggests. Or look at top posts for a particular hashtag and use it as your inspo!
    like start typing #funnyholiday… or “#inspiringhanukkah” 
  • Get personal
    While this is a very happy holiday season for me, it hasn’t always been that way. To those of you struggling this season, know that there are better years to come!
  • Share a memory
    When I was a kid I used to [something funny]. What about you?
  • Give practical tips or helpful advice
    Keep Sparky safe this year! Chocolate, macademia nuts, and salty snack foods can be harmful to your pooch.
  • Share a stat or fact
    Did you know there are 16 ways to spell Hanukkah?

🎁 Bonus tip: Use emotion!

Free download: 120 Words & Phrases for Marketing with Emotion

Christmas Instagram captions

Sometimes, all you need for original holiday copywriting is a little prompt or the ol’ fill in the blank.

  • This holiday season, let us treasure what is truly important in all our lives, the reason for the season: [monkey bread/something funny]
  • Christmas comes but once a year, but when it comes we [get into gear/tremble with fear/persevere].
  • The best way to spread Christmas cheer is [an Instagram giveaway! / something funny/inspiring happening in your photo]
  • We wish you a Merry Christmas and [lots of good beer! / a merrier
  • [Describe scene]….yup, that’s about right.
  • Oh the weather outside is frightful, but [these/my/our ___] are so delightful
  • Oh the weather outside is frightful, but you know what’s really scary?
  • And since we’ve no place to go [describe what’s happening in the photo/give recommendations]
  • All I want for Christmas is you(r amazing cookie recipe)
  • Christmas list when you were a kid: a piggy bank! a sleeping bag! a trampoline!
    Christmas list now: a mortgage loan. a good mattress. a nap maybe?
  • “[Insert something relatable],” said no one ever.
  • Silent night? More like [describe the opposite going on in your picture].
  • My ideal 12 days of Christmas: [off you go].

christmas-instagram-captions-lancome

Image source

Your Instagram marketing strategy just got a whole lot more fun now, didn’t it?

RELATED: 41 Ready-to-Publish Christmas Social Media Posts & Canva Templates

Funny Christmas Instagram captions

Now I’ll admit, some of this may be slightly used. They’re on the fence but they’re good enough to keep using in your fun and festive holiday marketing.

  • Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and receipts for all major purchases closest.
  • Apparently, being good for goodness’ sake was not enough motivation.
  • That warm feeling isn’t the Christmas spirit. I think you left the oven on.
  • It’s beginning to *cost* a lot like Christmas…
  • You had me at hoho.
  • I’ve decided to give everyone my opinion instead of presents this year.
  • Ho ho ho? Oh no no no.
  • Christmas has me feeling extra Santamental.
  • December 25th: the only day I become a morning person.
  • Gonna go lay under the Christmas tree to remind my family that I’m a gift.
  • “There are three stages of man: he believes in Santa Claus; he does not believe in Santa Claus; he is Santa Claus.” – Bob Phillips
  • I wonder what would happen if I only jingled half of the way?
  • The only time of year in which one can sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of socks.

funny-christmas-instagram-captions-the-only-time-of-year

Inspirational Christmas Instagram captions

When in doubt, use a famous quote, a book or movie quote, or a lyric!

  • “Nothing ever seems too bad, too hard, or too sad when you’ve got a Christmas tree in the living room.” – Nora Roberts
  • “Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.” Ruth Carter Stapleton
  • “Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.” – The Polar Express
  • “Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand.” – Dr. Seuss
  • “Christmas is forever, not for just one day. For loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away.” Norman Wesley Brooks
  • Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” – Dr. Suess

holiday christmas instagram captions - grinch quote

 

RELATED: 60 Perfectly-Worded Christmas & Holiday Greetings

Hanukkah Instagram captions

Increase your Instagram engagement with these funny, warm, and inspirational Hanukkah captions and ideas.

  • May your Hanukkah become brighter, lovelier, and happier each time you light your menorah.
  • Nes gadol haya sham (A great miracle happened there).
  • Keep your light shining bright year-round.
  • Eight nights, eight lights—an eternity of happiness.
  • “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” –Anne Frank
  • “There are two ways of spreading light: To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”—Edith Wharton
  • “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.”—James Keller
  • This Hanukkah, I wish for the light of faith, the warmth of home, and the love of family.
  • “Warmth of joy, the glow of prosperity, the sparkle of happiness”
  • Eight nights, eight lights—way too many [word rhyming with lights].
  • Dizzy as a dreidel over here.
  • I can‘t speak for your Hanukkah, but mine is LIT!
  • My secret to a happy, stress-free Christmas? I’m Jewish!
  • It would be a Hanukkah miracle if we could all come to a consensus on how to spell “Hanukkah.”
  • Let it glow.
  • Deck the halls with matzo balls.
  • Light, laughter, and lots of latkes.
  • “A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness.” -Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi

holiday hanukkah instagram captions - a little light

RELATED: 131 [Not Overused!] New Year’s Instagram Captions & Templates

Kwanzaa Instagram captions

Kwanzaa occurs every year from December 26 to January 1. It’s a celebration of African heritage focused on family, community, and social values. It has a slightly different tone from Christmas and Hanukkah, so these caption ideas are aligned with the seven principles of Kwanzaa: Unity, self-determination, cooperative economics, collective work and responsibility, creativity, purpose, faith.

  • May the light of Kwanzaa bring a lot of happiness to your life. Happy Kwanzaa!
  • May the light of your kinara fill your home with peace and light your new year with love.
  • ​​There’s the holiday spirit Kwanzaa is a holiday of the spirit
  • Unity. Self-determination. Cooperative economics. Collective work and responsibility. Creativity. Purpose. Faith
  • Umoja. Kujichagulia. Ujima. Ujamaa. Nia. Kuumba. Imani.
  • A family is like a forest when you are outside it is dense, when you are inside you see that each tree has its place.
  • “We will never know ourselves if we do not know our history.” -Maulana Karenga
  • Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.
  • Many hands make light work.
  • Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.
  • If you have a purpose in which you can believe, there’s no end to the number of things you can accomplish.
  • Faith is like radar that sees through the fog.

kwanzaa holiday instagram caption

More holiday Instagram captions & templates

  • Nothing gets me into the holiday spirit like…
  • Sending love and holiday wishes from our bubble to yours.
  • May all that is meaningful be yours this holiday season and throughout the coming year.
  • Hope this holiday season brings you many great memories and reasons to smile.
  • This year we’re giving a whole new meaning to [tradition/cliche/song lyric].
  • The modern-day version of [something out of a historic or 50’s holiday tradition or song].

Try out these creative holiday & Christmas Instagram captions

Use these holiday Instagram caption ideas, examples, and templates to be a refreshing change in your followers’ feeds this year.

Want more holiday content inspo?

Want other holiday content inspo?

Meet The Author

Kristen McCormick

Kristen is the Head of Marketing at Hatch, a customer communication platform for service-based businesses. She was previously the Senior Managing Editor at WordStream. Her cat Arnold has double paws on every paw, and she finds life to be exponentially more delightful on a bicycle.

See other posts by Kristen McCormick

135 words and phrases for marketing with emotion wordstream guide

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