Should You Pause Your Advertising Over Christmas? A Marketer’s Guide to Seasonal Strategy

The festive season brings a familiar dilemma for marketers: keep advertising through Christmas, or hold fire until January?

On one hand, this time of year often sees audiences distracted, decision-makers on holiday, budgets frozen, and inboxes are overflowing with Out of Office replies. On the other, competition thins out, costs drop, and attention can actually become cheaper to buy.

So, what’s the right move? As always, it depends on what you want to achieve…

The case for pressing pause

There are good reasons to step back during December.

If your audience is genuinely offline (think schools closing, factories shutting down, business buyers deferring decisions until Q1) then your advertising spend might be better redirected. Running awareness campaigns into a disengaged audience rarely pays off.

It’s also a good time to reset and refocus. You can review performance, refresh creative, and refine messaging for the year ahead. Many teams use December to plan Q1 launches, update audience targeting and test new formats quietly before the market picks back up.

If your buying cycle is long, pausing briefly won’t hurt. The key is to stop with purpose – not simply because “that’s what everyone does.”

The case for staying visible

The quieter period can also be an opportunity. With fewer advertisers in the mix, CPMs often drop, meaning you can buy attention at a lower cost.

People still scroll. They still read. They still plan. Even when they’re off work, they’re often in discovery mode – researching new tools, ideas or inspiration for the year ahead.

Staying visible can help your brand stay top of mind when they return in January ready to act.

For B2C brands, this period can be gold. For B2B, it’s less about conversion and more about brand reinforcement – showing up while competitors go quiet.

Consistency builds familiarity. Familiarity builds trust. And trust is what drives pipeline when the market re-awakens.

Finding the middle ground

The smartest approach usually isn’t “go dark” or “go all in”, it’s somewhere in between.

If you have the budget:

• Maintain a light presence.
• Focus on always-on content, social visibility, and thought leadership rather than hard-sell campaigns.
• Use retargeting to keep warm audiences engaged.
• Test formats that might perform better when noise levels are lower.

If you decide to pause paid activity:

• Don’t disappear completely.
• Keep organic channels active – post on LinkedIn, send that end-of-year wrap-up, share insight pieces that show value without asking for attention.
• The goal is to stay present without being pushy.

How to decide what’s right for you

Ask yourself three questions:

1. What’s my audience doing over Christmas? Are they switching off or planning ahead?
2. What does the data tell me? Look at last year’s performance. Did engagement really drop, or did you just assume it would?
3. What’s my objective? Awareness, nurture, or direct response? Each demands a different approach to timing and spend.

Let your audience behaviour and your objectives decide, not the calendar.

Our perspective at Elixirr Digital

At Elixirr Digital, we don’t see the festive season as downtime, we see it as a chance to plan smarter. So whether continuing advertising efforts or pausing for a reset, what matters is intent.

Use December to analyse, tidy, and test. Sharpen your messaging, refine your targeting, and align your creative for the new year.

Brands that use this time thoughtfully often hit January already in stride while others are still warming up.

TL;DR

There’s no single answer to the Christmas advertising question. What matters is being deliberate. If your audience is online, stay visible. If they’re not, take a step back – but use that downtime wisely.

If you’re looking for advice on which approach fits your goals best, we’re here to help. Start the conversation today.