Christmas is the time to think about changing and improving your audio branding to reflect the Christmas spirit using festive Christmas themed radio jingles. You can change the sound of a regular radio jingle to have a Christmas sound by adding sleigh bells, father Christmas and even a parody of some of Santa’s elves. The choice is yours as to how creative you want to be!
When Is The Best Time To Play Christmas Jingles?
There is a negative side to starting too early. Christmas songs and jingles should be saved until at least the start of December so that they don’t burn out.
Content For Christmas Radio Shows
There isn’t usually much happening over the Christmas period so it can often be hard to think of good content to talk about on the air. It is the time of year when many feel good and happy news stories are floating around. The best radio show, in my opinion, to do during Christmas is the Christmas Day breakfast show. The content is almost self generated by listeners to the radio station who will call in. You can chat to kids on the air and find out what presents they’ve opened already and the plans for the day. You’ll find before you know it 10am has rolled around, it’s time to leave the radio station and that means you’ll be home in time for Christmas dinner!
Podcasters Think About Your Global Audience
Christmas is a time to consider what everyone in the world will be doing. Australians, for instance, won’t be freezing and sitting by a hearty fire they’ll most likely be having a barbie on the beach. A podcast episode is out there forever and anyone could listen to your podcast at any point in the future. Would a podcast about Christmas sound good in July? Izabela argues that it is good to add a Christmas theme to your podcast if you like that kind of stuff.
Podcasting is evergreen content but trends change and it’s good to refresh and do an episode on Christmas. I did an episode on Christmas audio last year and know that there will be more relevant content in this podcast episode compared to last year.
Can You Pre-Record Over Christmas?
You can pre-record podcast episodes or radio shows over the holiday season. If you do want to take time off from podcasting you should let your listener know that you’re away even if it’s a 60 second recording saying, “hey, I’m on a beach and will be back next year!” Many podcasters pre-schedule episodes to go out over the holidays using WordPress. We use Spreaker to publish our podcast.
The iPhone 5s has a good internal microphone which allows you to record a half decent podcast. You can even do it with a mini studio setup using the Spreaker app for iOS and the Spreaker app for Android. I made a video to show the quality of the iPhone mic.
Christmas Conclusions
1st December is the best time to get started with seasonal content. So, why are we publishing this podcast in late October?! Well, it’s evergreen content and podcasts are searched for in places like iTunes and Google. If you release a Christmas episode ahead of when people are looking for Christmas shows the likelihood is that you’ll show up when the search trend increases! To browse our own selection of Christmas Jingles and Royalty Free Christmas music head over here.
Birthday Greetings
I was overwhelmed with your birthday well wishes for me over last weekend. Thank you!
Great podcast as normal. Personally I think its never too early for Christmas
Thanks Russ. Even in October? 😉
hi mike
another ace pocast once again i loved the switch between the jingles and i have just done the same thing with my feel good jingle.
please can i send you a sample? thank you once again for a fantastic podcast
Thanks Liam. Glad you like the Christmas versions or our radio jingles.
Feel free to send a sample always good to hear what you’re up to. Thanks for listening this week 🙂
thank you mike
ill send it acress for you now
Hi guys,
GSAA (great show as always)!
If podcasters plan to take a break, and I see no problem with them doing that, they can create a “best-of” show for the holidays. Preferably not a wholesale repeat, but combine parts of several old shows with new commentary in between. This might be easier for some than others based on their content.
Even if you are just doing a short announcement of “no show this week”, use it to thank the listener and build community. Maybe you have a PDF or tutorial that you have sold in the past and you can give it away as a gift now?
Mike, here’s an idea for the whole MRC gang. You have likely seen videos where a number of voice artists are recorded each doing a line or two from “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. Maybe you all would be up for something like that, which can be the feature for your Christmastime podcast!
And to know what is possible with podcasters at Christmas, listen to this old “Sessions with Slau” podcast: http://sessionswithslau.com/if-every-day-were-christmas/.
Hi Ron,
Thanks for listening to the podcast this week. A “best-of” with some unique commentary in between is a great idea for a Christmas filler episode although, knowing Izabela and I, we’d probably create a whole new episode of commentary 😉
Love the idea for voice artists to record Christmas lines and that podcast sounds great too. Thanks for sharing Ron!
Thanks for a great set of ideas, and for the charming Polish co-host (Dzień dobry).
You’re most welcome and Izabela will love the Polish feedback 😉
Good article, as always. Your absolutely correct in starting in Dec. It always seems it gets earlier and earlier every year.
Thanks Eric, glad you agree, December is early enough for sure 😉
in october??
A little too early? 😉