Spreadshop’s 2025 Holiday Gift Guide: Best-Selling Merch
The holiday gifting season is right around the corner and there’s no better time to sell print-on-demand merch.
At Spreadshop, we have gift ideas for any and every niche, including top niches like bakers, gamers, hikers. Seasonal products and new additions to our assortment of 300+ products are perfect to sell this time of year.
And since we handle printing, shipping and customer service - that’s one thing you can cross off your busy holiday to-do list!
In this guide, we share the best personalized Christmas gifts for 2025. We include gift ideas for popular niches, like gamers, bakers and outdoor enthusiasts.
You will also find seasonal design ideas and examples from real print-on-demand sellers.
Holiday Merch: Why it Matters
According to Zik Analytics, nearly 40% of print-on-demand (POD) sales happen in Q4. People want personalized gifts for loved ones. They also look for custom t-shirts and sweaters for holiday parties.
But that doesn’t mean all products in your shop are created equally.
Promote products that are giftable: custom coffee mugs, holiday ornaments, oversized hoodies.
Check out some of the most popular POD niches today. We have product suggestions and tips on how to connect with these audiences. And you can do this while still making a profit!
Gifts For Outdoor Enthusiasts
Outdoor enthusiasts like hikers, campers and kayakers, are one of the most practical niches in the print-on-demand space.
They’re looking for products and holiday gifts that are functional, durable and completely on-brand.
Our Product Suggestions:
Design Ideas
We like the idea of a bold mountain graphic on the back of a windbreaker jacket. We also love a delicate, hand-drawn campfire design on the front of a camper mug.
How to Promote
Use keywords like outdoor merch, camping gear, hiking gifts in your product descriptions (you can add 30 keywords per product!).
Take promotional photography and short form videos of your merch in the great outdoors - real locations get real results. Be personal, like Clueless Bushcraft, a TikTok creator experienced in this niche.
Gifts for Bakers
The world of baking (breadmaking specifically) has been given the Taylor Swift treatment. She professed her love for sourdough on the promotional run for her new album and mentioned a funfetti concoction.
Pillsbury took notice and dropped a limited-edition funfetti sourdough bread mix a few weeks later.
That’s the kind of marketing savvy and enthusiasm you need to have with your baking-themed merch this holiday season.
Product Suggestions:
Design Ideas
You can use many unique baking symbols in your designs. These include whisks, rolling pins, cookie cutters, and more. And we love the idea of putting a seasonal spin with phrases like, “Whisking You A Merry Christmas”, or “Baking Seasons Bright”.
Play around with sizing and different versions of designs for your products.
How to Promote
Make a short baking tutorial, even if you’re not a great baker. Wear or use your merch products to get more engagement on TikTok.
Do a little research on this niche and use high volume hashtags and keywords in content and product titles/descriptions.
Gifts For Fitness Addicts
We all wish we could be those people that get up in the morning and go straight to the gym.
They love items that speak to their passions of weight-lifting, cycling and pilates. And we have products they’re going to love in and out of the gym.
Product Suggestions:
Design Ideas
If the world of fitness is out of your wheelhouse, put a spin on classic holiday designs. Make a “Tough Cookie” design with a Christmas cookie lifting weights and breaking a sweat - cooling down with a glass of milk of course.
How to Promote
Take lifestyle shots of these products, preferably in motion. If you don't have time for that, take a flat lay photo. Show how items like socks and water bottles can be great stocking stuffers.
Gifts for Gamers
Gamers are serious about not only their community, but their setup, too. We have a wide variety of products that speak to this niche if you take a good look at our assortment.
And among all these top niches, we’d say gamers are the most likely to make and buy print-on-demand merch.
Product Suggestions:
We recommend cozy products like oversized tees and sweatshirts and fleece blankets for gamers. Functional merch items like mouse pads and pouches to carry headphones are easy products to market, too.
Design Ideas
Pixel graphics are an easy way to get the message across. Make pixel versions of Christmas icons like Santa and elves in Kittl. Use built-in AI tools to streamline your process.
How to Promote
Show merch in short skits or gaming setups.
Pair trending gaming sounds (like meme clips or lo-fi music) with product reveals.
Partner with micro-streamers for unboxings or UGC.
Festive Favorites Your Customers Will Love
The best-selling merch for the holidays just might be the classics you think of right off the bat: Santa hats, stockings, ornaments.
These items make the best personalized gifts and help tie special memories to the holiday season.
5 Must-Have Personalized Gifts
Seasonal Design Ideas:
Christmas Sweater Motifs
Holiday-themed puns: The cheerier, the better
Minimalist and neutral inspired designs
Personalized: Baby’s First Christmas
Free Holiday Merch Design Pack
We’ve created a pack of FREE designs just for you! Customize seasonal favorites and cozy classics with one click.
Download these designs and customize as many products as you want!
We hope this gift guide helped prepare you to sell merch this holiday season.