Whitepaper
It’s December 3rd. The pitch is solid, you send it to twelve editorial offices, and no one replies. Not because the topic was bad, but because the feature was finalized in October. Those same editorial teams are planning their January topics this week, making December 3rd a great day for that.
In this whitepaper, we show you how Christmas PR is actually timed: four windows from July to December, each with a deadline and a Plan B, backed by dated cases from our 2025 season, ranging from seven weeks of lead time to placement within 24 hours. Plus, we explain why November pushes your own calendar to the limit rather than the editorial teams', what’s still possible between the holidays, and how to land placements in days instead of weeks come January.
Plus: the angle test with four questions to ask before you hit send, five tool tips, and a seasonal checklist.
Who is this whitepaper for? For Comms and Marketing leads who manage Christmas PR alongside their daily business and want to know what "starting earlier" actually means. Read it for free now.
Viel Spaß beim lesen.
It’s December 3rd. The topic is set, the visuals are ready. The pitch is written, and you send it to twelve editorial offices. And then: nothing happens. No "no," not even a follow-up question. Silence.
The topic wasn't bad. The feature it was meant for was closed in October.
For Christmas PR, December 3rd is too late. For New Year's PR, it’s a great time. The same editorial teams currently ignoring your Christmas topic are now planning their January features on resolutions and the "January blues." Ideally, you’d pitch these topics in November, but the window is still open in December. Inboxes are just as full then as they are today—journalists are flooded all year round. But if you offer an idea this week that isn't just another "10 Resolutions for 2027," you have a real chance of getting a placement with just a few days' lead time.
The same day, two completely different outcomes. That’s why this paper covers both seasons.
The most common advice for Christmas PR is "start earlier." Thanks, we know. That’s why this paper explains exactly how much earlier, what needs to be finished by when, and what really holds things up in editorial offices.
For Comms and Marketing leads who manage Christmas PR alongside their daily business, whether in scale-ups, hidden champions, or market leaders. The focus is on B2C, where the season is most intense. Much of this can be adapted for B2B with a little skill. And where it can't, we'll tell you.
If you have your own newsroom team and wrap up your Christmas campaign in July, you’ll be bored here. For everyone else: whether you’re reading this in September or on December 3rd, at least one window is still open.
The first Christmas pitch of our 2025 season went out on September 29th. The placement came on November 18th. Seven weeks.
The fastest New Year's case went differently: pitch on January 6th, clipping on January 7th. One day.
In between lies the most important insight from several Christmas seasons with clients like trivago and Komoot: Christmas features are planned weeks in advance. January topics emerge from the news cycle of the current week. Few of our New Year's pitches from November and December resulted in placements. Those from the second week of January delivered within days. Two seasons back-to-back, two opposing timing logics. If you treat them both the same, you lose twice: once by being too late, once by being too early.
That’s why this paper doesn’t list a deadline after which "nothing works anymore." There are four windows, each with its own set of rules. They are based on our own seasonal experience, documented pitches, placements, and rejections. And for every window, we’ve included what you can do if you’ve just missed it.
The windows do not run sequentially. They overlap; the numbers follow the media lead times, not the calendar. Window 2 opens in midsummer, while Window 1 is still active.
In our experience, trade media and print plan the furthest in advance. Our earliest case from last season came from the B2B sector: for a client in the promotional textiles industry, a pitch about office Christmas celebrations (parties, gifts, labor law) went out on September 29 and appeared in *Personalwirtschaft* on November 18. The angle focused on labor law and team culture, with the product only appearing late in the piece. So, B2B can do Christmas; it usually just requires a factual topic rather than a product and significantly more lead time.
To be honest, the trade press is the toughest of the four windows for us; commitments come more slowly and less frequently than in lifestyle media. However, a placement there counts double. It serves as a reference for the exact target group B2B wants to reach, and as a source that AI models like to cite for factual topics (see the AI chapter).
What should be ready beforehand: the angle, the briefed spokesperson, a draft text, and approval from the relevant department. If you are reading this at the end of September, time is getting tight for this window. A finished topic can still go out, but for everything else, it is better to note it for next year and move on to Window 2.
The quintessential B2C window: gift guides in consumer media. And it opens earlier than many think. Monthly and lifestyle print titles plan according to the "Christmas in August" principle: we are now receiving initial advent calendar requests and sending out product cut-outs in midsummer. Online gift guides follow from October onwards, with editorial deadlines in October and November.
A food brand in our portfolio achieved seven placements here between November 9 and December 15, including *Jolie*, *BILD der Frau*, *Münchner Merkur*, and *Hamburger Abendblatt*.
Important to know: during these weeks, every editorial office is flooded with holiday topics. A gift pitch without a clear unique selling point is one of a hundred; "sustainable gifts you haven't heard of yet" beats "Top Christmas Gifts 2026." And if you want to be in listicles, you need product information and cut-outs—product photos without backgrounds—early, so editors can drop them directly into their layouts.
What should be ready beforehand: final product data and prices, cut-outs in print resolution, confirmed availability, and samples ready for shipping. This window is less relevant for B2B. Use these weeks for follow-ups in the trade press and for November preparations.
By November, editorial teams have their planning schedules set and are filling the gaps in between. The demand is no longer for a listicle topic, but for a story that truly engages readers during the Advent season. And because everyone wants to deliver at the same time in November, success here is decided less by the idea and more by the quality of the materials provided.
For trivago, we offered "Christmas markets you can stay at": an overview with cities, dates, and accommodation prices that an editorial team could publish with minimal research. This resulted in appearances in *STERN.de*, *Münchner Merkur*, and *MSN*, among others. One angle, six placements.
What should be ready beforehand: the data basis, an approved expert quote, and the ability to answer follow-up questions within 48 hours. If you are reading this in November: with a solid data basis, a lot is still possible. Without one, it will be a challenge—in which case, Window 4 and the January chapter are your best bet.
The rule of thumb: planned formats must be out by the end of November. Daily news belongs in the week it is current, not a day earlier. The December chapter shows what this looks like in practice.
The reason is simple editorial routine: a local news desk plans its December schedule in November. If you invite someone to a Christmas market event on December 4, you are competing with a finalized duty roster. Every topic loses against that. Event invitations require three weeks' notice, not three days.
One lesson we had to learn ourselves: The same topic, told twice, with opposite results. The first version was a seasonal product story pitched to eleven editorial teams—no takers. The second version focused on a specific question that readers were asking themselves that very week, complete with an expert providing a clear answer: it was published twice, right in the middle of December. Same brand, same distribution list. The difference was the angle: the editorial team received a finished story instead of a seasonal brand pitch.
If you’re reading this at the beginning of December and haven’t prepared anything: take a topic relevant to the current week and build a story around it, rather than trying to push out a gift guide at the last minute. You can find out what that looks like in the December chapter.
You’ve already read above that October and November are the crucial months. What that means for your calendar is the more unpleasant half of the story.
In August and September, many people are still in holiday mode, both in editorial offices and in your own departments. From October onwards, calendars fill up again, with one exception: experience shows that many people are away again around the autumn break in mid-October, so don’t plan for approvals during that week. After that, everything picks up at once: follow-up questions and approval loops for Christmas formats pile up, visual assets go missing exactly when the green light is given, and Black Friday and year-end communications need to be handled simultaneously—all while day-to-day business doesn't pause. In December, the holidays then eat up half-weeks. It’s the year-end sprint: everyone wants to wrap things up before New Year’s Eve, editorial teams just as much as you.
For your own team, this means less "schedule more hours" and more "decide in advance." If Black Friday, year-end communications, and Christmas PR overlap in November, it should be clear beforehand which of these projects can be handed off or postponed if necessary. Ideally, this decision is made in the summer. If you are reading this in September and November is already full: it is better to drop a window entirely than to half-heartedly cover them all.
From December onwards, the planning formats close, but the season does not. This distinction determines whether the month will be worth your while.
What usually fails in December are the planned formats: gift guides, rankings, event invitations. An invitation four days before an event or a gift guide pitch in mid-December: we advise against both; these windows are closed, regardless of the quality of the topic.
What works in December is anything that ties into the current news cycle. For rightmart, we placed Christmas bonuses as a legal topic on December 19th with BuzzFeed and the Münchner Merkur, both as interviews. The product doesn't have to be about Christmas; it just needs the calendar window and the right angle.
A different logic applies to the last two weeks of December: many editorial offices are running on skeleton crews, holiday replacements are jumping between departments, and the audience's attention is elsewhere. Major announcements don't belong in these weeks. What works well is content that a replacement can publish without needing to do research: ready-to-use guest articles, year-end reviews, and forecasts with dates. But the same rule applies as everywhere else. A forecast titled "What's coming in 2027" is the hundredth email of its kind. A forecast that identifies a concrete change affecting your industry starting in January is a story. The difference isn't the genre; it's the question of whether it ends with something someone couldn't have guessed already. You might know this principle from our Summer Slump Guide in the Hub, it’s the same thing, just with the scent of pine.
The rest of December belongs to managing open inquiries and preparing for January. Because what lands in January is built in December: defining the angle, gathering data, briefing the spokesperson, and getting quotes pre-approved. Our fastest January successes were possible precisely because everything was already finished in December.
Our January pitches from last season delivered in days, with the fastest acceptance coming one day after sending. Two examples:
For Dr. Niedermaier, "January Blues & Blue Monday" went out to seven media outlets on January 14th. On January 19th, Blue Monday, an interview appeared in an Ippen title, which resulted in four clippings across the network, including the Frankfurter Rundschau and Münchner Merkur. Five days from sending to publication.
For Komoot, we sent out New Year's resolutions on January 6th, and the clipping on CHIP was online on January 7th. One day.
Why this works: A date on the calendar is the strongest hook a pitch can have. Blue Monday, the first day of work, resolution week. For 2027, this specifically means: Blue Monday falls on January 18th, and around this date, editorial teams are predictably looking for topics. The prerequisite is the ability to deliver within 24 to 48 hours: quotes, figures, images, and interview availability. Ensuring spokespeople can deliver on such short notice is a matter of training, as covered in our whitepaper "Ready for the question that isn't in the briefing?" covers exactly that.
January brings more than just Blue Monday and New Year's resolutions; it’s packed with calendar events, from Veganuary to Dry January.
Four windows, one test, one roadmap. Before you dive in, here is why the effort pays off differently this season compared to previous ones.
Try a quick experiment. Ask Google’s AI mode for the best Bluetooth speakers. When we did, the response cited Stiftung Warentest and Techradar. The same question to ChatGPT brought up Computer Bild, Chip, and Connect. The specific titles that appear change depending on the day and the phrasing. What’s interesting is what the answers are based on: editorial reviews and comparisons, not manufacturer websites. While ads have been running in ChatGPT and Google’s AI search since this year, they are clearly labeled next to the answer and, according to OpenAI, do not influence the content itself. No one can buy their way into the answer itself. That is exactly where your PR work needs to be.
The way consumers seek buying advice is shifting measurably. 52 percent of German consumers now use AI shopping assistants for online purchases, compared to 44 percent in September 2025 (Deloitte, survey May 2026). They want advice, but they don't want the AI to make the final decision. Only 6 percent would let the AI handle the purchase entirely. The crucial factor is where the AI sits: according to Deloitte, it now holds similar importance to traditional search engines during the research and product comparison phase. This is exactly the stage where the shortlist of three products is decided.
We now have a good understanding of what these answers are made of. Muck Rack analyzed over 25 million links in May 2026that ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini cite in their responses. Journalism accounts for a good quarter of these, while paid content makes up 0.3 percent. And these citations have an expiration date: over half of the cited articles are less than twelve months old, and the curve drops sharply after six months. A placement from the previous year is practically archival for the model. If you aren't in the current coverage, you won't be in the answer.
Our CEO, Max Ziche, called 2025 "the first AI Christmas." This year, we’re entering the second round with significantly more users.
"When chatbots help decide what ends up under the Christmas tree, the sources they cite in December are already being determined in the fall. This makes PR an integral part of the holiday business." – Max Ziche, Co-Founder & CEO
For your planning, this means: a placement in a guide or trade publication has a dual impact. First, on the readers who see the article in November. Second, on the answer that an AI model builds from it in December. No one can guarantee this, as no model discloses what it will cite tomorrow. However, the trend is clear enough to factor into your topic selection.
The windows tell you when to send. The test tells you if the topic has legs. Here is the method to vet your own idea. If you answer "no" to any question, you should refine your approach.
If the answer requires the editorial team to do their own research, your chances drop significantly. The most successful angle of our last season was a ready-to-use overview, not just a topic suggestion.
If you remove the brand and there’s nothing left, it was just an ad. If the story remains, the brand can be included as a source.
The first Sunday of Advent, the opening of Christmas markets, or the day Christmas bonuses are paid: a specific date provides the justification for why the topic needs to appear right now.
Quotes, data, images, interview availability. If you can't provide these, you often lose the commitment after the initial "yes."
Check question 4 first. It determines how many angles you can realistically manage at the same time.
Tools that make these four areas easier, from tried-and-tested to brand new:
The four windows describe how editorial teams think. Here is the same season from your perspective, ready to check off:
After several Christmas seasons across our portfolio, we know exactly when each window opens and when it quietly closes. The answer to the question at the beginning is therefore: You are rarely too late and rarely too early; you are usually just in the wrong window. And the next one is already opening.
And if you would rather go through your windows with someone who does this every season – or simply don't have the time for the operational execution: Talk to Elia, our PR strategist. There is still time. Hit us up.
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