Holiday Card Designs

Holiday releases of cards are far from the most "valuable" options, but they can be a lot of fun if the manufacturer isn't afraid to be a little bold and have a bit more fun with the design.

I write mostly about the business side of cards, but I’m also a collector. Those two are not at odds with each other, but they do have different opinions at times.

For example, from a selling perspective, targeting a prominent release like Prizm, and particularly buying up Prizm Silver’s to get graded and sell, is a really, really smart move. As a collector, I find Prizm to be pretty boring. Give me something with a bit more character and design. It’s nowhere near as valuable, but for my own collection, give me a Wembanyama’s Court Kings (particularly Level II) over his Prizm Silver any day off the week.

I’ve always loved the “odd-ball” releases, so it’s no surprise that I have a soft spot for the holiday versions of card sets.

I feel like this year, Topps absolutely knocked it out of the park with their Holiday baseball release. I mean, come on…how fun is this design?

Last year’s base was mostly just snow in the background, and while this is an admittedly noisy background, it’s also just fun. Then of course you have all the variations like the Elf Hat, Santa Belt, etc. On top of that you have the parallels, and those are pretty fun too. I actually really like the Holiday tree (1:1 in the tins).

Panini had a winter Hoops version last year, but it’s incredibly boring by comparison. Just some snow in the background—no fun variations, no clever parallels.

I’m hoping they get more bold this year (assuming we get a winter/holiday release—it looks like 2024 Hoops may not even be out until January). I thought they did a little better job with the Haunted Hoops stuff.

My kids were loving the Slime parallel.

And I actually think the Holo parallels looked pretty nice, particularly the Holo webs.

I would like to see more of this from Panini. If you’re going to to random holiday releases, go all out and lean into it a bit more. Be creative and bold. Remember what it’s like to be a kid ripping this stuff.

I’m sure not everyone will agree with me on this stuff. These designs aren’t exactly timeless or sophisticated.

But they’re fun. Holiday releases aren’t aimed at the “investor”—they are 100% squarely aimed at collectors. And collecting is supposed to be fun.

More bold and wild holiday designs, please.