A Christmas or holiday-season video message is a short personalized recording that names the recipient, ties one shared memory to the season, and closes with a specific wish; on Brillay the creator sets the price, and Brillay's editorial recommendation is to request one 5 to 14 days ahead, a buffer layered on Brillay's 120-hour Personalized Video turnaround cap. Personalized Videos let a follower pay upfront for one personalized video for themselves or someone they care about: you set the price and the delivery time, then record it on your schedule.
For Christmas delivery, Brillay editorially recommends ordering 5 to 14 days early; this is guidance, not a platform rule.
No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate (pricing). You set the Personalized Video delivery time, up to 5 days (how it works).
The request usually starts as a DM: "Can you send my mom a Christmas message from you? She'd love it." The National Retail Federation reported that 91% of U.S. consumers plan to celebrate the winter holidays and budget an average of $890.49 per person on gifts, food, decorations and other seasonal items, of which $627.93 goes to gifts for family and friends (NRF, "Consumers to Spend Second-Highest Amount on Record," Oct. 16, 2025). The National Retail Federation's $890.49 per-person holiday budget covers physical goods and food rather than personalized services, so a personalized holiday video sits outside the spending category most households consciously plan — one reason creators tend to record holiday messages as unpaid favors instead of listing them as a priced offer.
On Brillay, a follower requesting a holiday video pays upfront and submits the recipient's name and details through the creator's page, instead of sending the request as a free DM.
What Is a Christmas or Holiday-Season Video Message?
A Christmas or holiday-season video message is a short personalized recording in which a creator names a specific recipient, references one shared detail, and closes with a seasonal wish. The format covers Christmas-morning greetings, general "happy holidays" wishes and year-end thank-yous, and it is distinct from an in-character Santa performance or a midnight New Year's Eve countdown video.
Paid personalized video is an established product category, not a novelty. The personalized-video marketplace Cameo states on its own about page that it sells "Personalized video messages from 50,000+ stars". The video request lives in your own bio link: one tap from the post they just watched takes a follower straight to your page, not to a marketplace roster.
Non-physical gifts are also a mainstream holiday purchase rather than a niche one. Deloitte's 2025 Holiday Retail Survey found that 47% of surveyed consumers planned to give experiential gifts such as restaurant, event and spa outings, based on 4,270 U.S. consumers surveyed between Aug. 27 and Sept. 5, 2025. A personalized video message is not an outing, but it belongs to the same non-object gift category that Deloitte measured at nearly half of shoppers.
A holiday video message sits between a birthday shoutout and a generic seasonal card: personal enough to use a name and a shared reference, general enough to fit any December occasion. A holiday video is commonly bought as a gift for a third party — a parent, a sibling, a group chat — rather than for the buyer. Treat gift-for-someone-else as a common use case rather than a measured share of orders.
What Are Good Christmas Video Message Ideas for Family and Friends?
Good Christmas video message ideas for family and friends center on a specific named moment rather than a generic "Merry Christmas" line: state the recipient's name, add one shared memory or inside joke, name one concrete wish for the season, then close warmly. Five reliable angles cover most December requests, and each carries a fill-in-the-blank template below.
- The Christmas-morning surprise. Timed to play while gifts are opened, referencing what is under the tree or a running family joke. Template: "Merry Christmas, [NAME]! [BUYER] told me you'd be opening presents right about now, and that you still [RUNNING FAMILY JOKE]. Hope you get [SPECIFIC WISH] this year — have the best morning."
- The long-distance family greeting. For a relative who cannot travel this year; it names who is missing them and closes with a specific "see you soon." Template: "Hi [NAME], [BUYER] asked me to tell you that everyone back in [CITY] is thinking about you today. They wanted you to remember [SHARED MEMORY]. See you in [MONTH] — merry Christmas."
- The group-call message. Written to play on a shared screen during a holiday video call, addressing the whole group by name. Template: "Hey [NAME 1], [NAME 2] and [NAME 3] — happy holidays to the entire [FAMILY OR GROUP NAME] call. [BUYER] tells me [GROUP DETAIL]. Have a great one, all of you."
- The "naughty or nice" bit. A lighter, teasing message for siblings or a friend group, delivered in the creator's own voice without claiming to be Santa. Template: "[NAME], I checked the list twice. [TEASING DETAIL] puts you firmly on the [naughty / nice] side this year. Merry Christmas anyway — [BUYER] still thinks you're alright."
- The pet-parent holiday card. Treats a family pet as part of the household greeting. Template: "Merry Christmas to [NAME], and of course to [PET NAME], who I hear [PET DETAIL]. Hope you both get [SPECIFIC WISH] this year." The American Pet Products Association reports that 95 million U.S. households own a pet, per its 2025 National Pet Owners Survey (APPA, Industry Trends & Stats).
The long-distance angle has the clearest external backdrop. AAA projected that 122.4 million Americans would travel at least 50 miles from home during the 13-day year-end period from December 20, 2025 to January 1, 2026, a record for that period (AAA, "Year-End Holiday Travel Expected to Set New Record," Dec. 2025). AAA's figure measures holiday travel volume, not demand for video messages, so read it as evidence that families are scattered in late December rather than as a market size for recorded greetings.
"Holiday celebrations look different for everyone, but a common thread is the desire to travel, whether it's returning to your hometown or exploring new destinations." — Stacey Barber, Vice President of AAA Travel (AAA newsroom)
Brillay's editorial recommendation is that a request supplying two or three real details (the recipient's name, one shared memory, one wish) gives the creator more to work with than a request supplying none. Creators can enforce that by making those fields required in the request instructions.
A Pew Research Center survey published in December 2017 found that 90% of Americans, and 95% of Christians, say they celebrate Christmas (Pew Research Center, "5 facts about Christmas in America"); Pew has not published a more recent measurement of that share. Because Christmas is the specific holiday most U.S. requesters mean, "Christmas video message" is a more precise phrase to build a listing title around than the softer "holiday video."
How Do You Script a Year-End Thank-You Message?
A year-end thank-you video message is scripted in three beats: name the person, name one specific thing they did during the past year, and close with a forward-looking line for the next one. Unlike a holiday shoutout a follower buys for a third party, a year-end thank-you is creator-initiated and sent to an existing supporter.
A reusable template for that three-beat structure: "[NAME], I wanted to close out the year by thanking you for [ONE SPECIFIC THING THEY DID, WITH A DATE OR DETAIL]. It mattered more than you probably realize. Here's to [FORWARD-LOOKING LINE FOR NEXT YEAR] — talk in January."
Naming one concrete action ("thanks for trusting me with your resume this year") is the Brillay editorial rule that separates a year-end thank-you from a generic "thanks for everything." Vague gratitude is the failure mode a named detail fixes.
The National Retail Federation reported that consumers planned to spend $29 billion on gift cards during the 2025 holiday season, with 43% of shoppers buying at least one (NRF, "Gift cards gain popularity as top choice for holiday shoppers in 2025"). Gift cards also topped the list of gifts U.S. consumers said they wanted to receive in the 2025 holiday season, named by 50% of respondents against 46% for clothing or accessories (NRF). A recorded, named year-end message competes with the $29 billion gift-card default on the one axis a gift card cannot match: specificity about a single person.
How Early Should You Request or Offer a Holiday Video?
Brillay's editorial recommendation is to request a Christmas or holiday video 5 to 14 days before it is needed, reserving the longest buffer for a fixed date such as Christmas morning. Each recommended buffer adds time for the follower to decide, send complete details, and leave you enough time to deliver the one video by their date.
For an external comparison, the personalized-video marketplace Cameo instructs its talent to "Complete their request within 4 days" (Cameo Talent Hub) — a 96-hour expectation, slightly tighter than Brillay's 5-day ceiling.
Mid-December congestion is documented outside the creator economy. The U.S. Postal Service identified the week of Dec. 14–21 as the busiest mailing, shipping and delivery week of the 2025 holiday season (USPS, "The Postal Service Is Ready for the Busiest Week of 2025," Dec. 10, 2025). The National Retail Federation separately reported that 42% of holiday shoppers planned to begin browsing and buying before November (NRF), which means a December listing is competing for attention that started moving weeks earlier.
One disclaimer covers every timing number on this page: the 5-to-14-day request buffers recommended for holiday video messages on this page are written by the Brillay team, not measured demand data, not a platform rule, and not an industry standard. Every buffer is built the same way — the delivery time you set, up to 5 days, plus extra time for the follower to send complete names, dates, and instructions before you record.
| Request type | Recommended buffer (Brillay editorial) | Why the buffer is set there |
|---|---|---|
| Christmas-morning surprise | 10–14 days before Dec. 25 | Leaves room for the delivery time you set and gives the follower time to send complete details before a fixed date |
| Long-distance family greeting | 7–10 days | Fits the 5-day cap with slack for a follower who supplies recipient details late |
| Group-call or family-video message | 5–7 days | Matches the 5-day cap almost exactly; the call date is usually flexible by a day |
| Year-end thank-you (creator-initiated) | Anytime in December | No follower deadline; the creator controls both the script and the send date through Dec. 31 |
Because every buffer starts from a 5-day ceiling, the shortest Brillay recommendation for a holiday video is five to seven days rather than two. Creators expecting a December spike should either shorten their advertised delivery time or pause new requests once the calendar is full — see how fast creators should deliver personalized videos for a broader breakdown of delivery time expectations.
A digital video message has no carrier deadline, unlike a physical gift, so the only real cutoff is the one the creator publishes in the listing description. Publishing a December cutoff date is what converts an open-ended December inbox into a schedule a creator can actually deliver against.
How Is a Christmas Video Different From a New Year's Eve Countdown?
A Christmas or holiday video and a New Year's Eve countdown video are different products. A Christmas video is built around a named recipient and the holiday season and can land any time before December 25, while a New Year's Eve countdown is built around one exact moment — midnight on December 31 — and works as a toast.
| Dimension | Christmas / holiday video | New Year's Eve countdown video |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor | A named recipient and the season | One fixed moment: midnight, Dec. 31 |
| Typical buyer intent | "Something for the holidays" | "Play something right at midnight" |
| Delivery time | Any time before Dec. 25 | Must land before Dec. 31 evening |
| Tone | Warm, personal, family-facing | Toast, hype, group-facing |
| List it as | The default December Personalized Video | A separate, date-locked listing with an earlier cutoff |
The midnight moment a countdown video is built around carries its own audience: the Times Square Alliance, the official organizer of the New York ball drop, states that a worldwide audience estimated at over one billion people watches the ceremony each year (Times Square Alliance, "History of New Year's Eve & the Times Square Ball") — an organizer estimate rather than an audited measurement. A December 25 greeting and a December 31 toast are therefore aimed at two different viewing occasions.
Listing a Christmas video and a New Year's Eve countdown video as two separate offers keeps a December request from turning into an ambiguous catch-all. See New Year's Eve countdown video message ideas for how that companion offer is scripted and priced.
How Do Followers Request a Holiday Message Without DMing You?
Followers request a holiday video message by paying upfront for a Personalized Video on the creator's Brillay page and submitting the recipient's name and occasion details in that form instead of negotiating over social DMs. A creator answers a holiday DM with their Brillay link, where the request and payment happen on the page.
Buying a holiday gift through a link rather than a conversation is already the default behavior: the National Retail Federation reported that online is the top holiday shopping destination, with 55% of consumers planning to make holiday purchases digitally in 2025 (NRF). Deloitte's 2025 Holiday Retail Survey similarly found that 56% of gifts were expected to be purchased online versus 44% in stores. A paid request form matches that habit, while a DM negotiation does not.
Alongside the full video, Tips let followers send a one-time thank-you, with nothing for you to deliver and no membership for them to join.
What Should a Holiday Video Message Cost?
There is no fixed market price for a Christmas or holiday video message: each creator sets the number from recording time, script complexity, and how full the December calendar already is.
Typical U.S. online card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 is handled separately by Stripe, and Stripe notes that rate applies to domestic cards, with international cards and currency conversion priced higher (Stripe pricing).
How to calculate a holiday video price from time, fees, and demand
A creator can derive a holiday-video price from three inputs instead of guessing a number: handling time, fee drag, and December scarcity. Handling time is every minute one order consumes — reading the request, planning the message, recording the video, and uploading or linking the finished video. Fee drag is the published Brillay platform fee (8% when a follower pays for work, 5% on tips and goals) plus card processing. Scarcity is how much of December is already booked.
Worked arithmetic on an invented $30 list price: the 8% Brillay platform fee on a Personalized Video order is $2.40, typical U.S. online card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 is $1.17, and roughly $26.43 remains before tax. If that order consumes 20 minutes end to end, $26.43 is about $79 per hour of recording time — which is the number a creator should compare against what an hour of their December is worth. The $30 list price and the 20-minute estimate are illustrative; only the platform fee stated above and the 2.9% + $0.30 processing rate (Stripe pricing) are published figures.
Demand is the third input because December is the one month a Personalized Video listing can run out of capacity. Raising the list price is the mechanism that rations a filling calendar; lowering it, or widening the delivery time, is the mechanism that fills an empty week. A date-locked "must arrive by Dec. 25" version should carry a premium only when the creator genuinely holds calendar space to honor it.
Hypothetical pricing examples — not market rates or benchmarks
The tiers in the table below are hypothetical illustrations of how a December listing can be structured. The dollar figures are invented for illustration: they are not market rates, averages, benchmarks, survey results, or Brillay-set prices, and no creator is guaranteed to earn them.
| Hypothetical tier | Example scope | Hypothetical price (illustrative, not a benchmark) | How the number is derived |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard holiday greeting | 30–60 seconds, one recipient, one detail | $15–$35 | Shortest handling time, so it anchors the hourly rate the other tiers are scaled from |
| Christmas-morning delivery | Same script, guaranteed to land before Dec. 25 | Standard price plus a $10–$25 date premium | The premium prices scarcity — a reserved slot on a fixed, unmovable date — not extra recording time |
| Group or family message | Up to 90 seconds, several names, group-call framing | $35–$75 | Roughly double the handling time of a standard greeting, so roughly double the price at the same hourly rate |
| Year-end thank-you | 45–60 seconds, creator-initiated to one supporter | Often unpriced, or bundled into an existing offer | Retention rather than revenue; no follower is paying, so no fee math applies |
A creator building a December listing should decide, before publishing it, whether a standard holiday shoutout and a "must arrive by the 25th" version carry the same price, and write that distinction into the request instructions.
The willingness to spend on people rather than on things is what a personalized holiday video is priced against, and the National Retail Federation states that directly.
"Time and again, Americans prioritize spending on loved ones for holidays despite economic uncertainty." — Katherine Cullen, NRF Vice President of Industry and Consumer Insights (NRF press release)
A personalized video message competes with the discounted retail default by offering what a sale item cannot: a specific, named recording that only the recipient's creator of choice could send.
Frequently asked questions
These answers cover the six questions creators and followers ask most often about holiday video messages on Brillay: how a Christmas video differs from a general holiday video, whether the recipient needs an account, whether a creator can decline, what Brillay charges, how fast delivery must happen, and how a Santa video differs.
What's the difference between a Christmas video and a general holiday video?
A Christmas video and a general holiday video are usually the same listing. "Christmas" names the specific holiday most requesters mean, while "holiday season" covers softer, non-Christmas-specific wording for the same November–December window. One Personalized Video listing can serve both if the request form lets the follower specify wording.
Can a follower request a video for someone who isn't a Brillay user?
Yes. Followers pay by card as guests on the creator's page, enter their name, email, card, recipient details, and instructions, then share the delivered video with the recipient.
Do creators need to accept every holiday request?
No. Followers pay upfront; you can decline a request. A clear December cutoff date in the listing description prevents last-minute requests from becoming a scheduling problem.
What does Brillay charge for a holiday video message?
Brillay has no monthly fee and no follower minimum, so you can offer Personalized Videos even with a small audience; the platform fee comes out only when a follower pays, at the rate given near the top of this page. Typical U.S. online card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 is handled separately through Stripe.
How fast must a holiday video be delivered on Brillay?
For Personalized Videos and Custom Work, you set the delivery time at up to 5 days and can advertise any shorter delivery time. The 5-to-14-day request buffers on this page are Brillay editorial guidance layered on top of that 5-day ceiling.
Is a Christmas video message the same offer as a Santa video?
No. A Christmas or holiday-season video is a message from the creator, in their own voice, to a named recipient. An in-character Santa performance for a child is a different, more specialized request, and creators who offer both should list them separately so buyers don't confuse the two.
Create your free Brillay page, put one link in your bio for Personalized Videos and your other offers, and turn this December's "can you send a quick holiday message" DMs into paid requests with a fixed price and delivery time you set.
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