Christmas Cross Stitch 2026 — what you can still finish

If you love to stitch, Christmas is the best excuse there is. Here are a few ideas for the season, sorted not by theme but by the thing that matters most before Christmas: how long each one takes.

However much time is left until Christmas, there is something you can make. Start early, and it becomes a present, finished and wrapped before the rush begins. Start late, and it becomes your own quiet time in the middle of the holidays, a hoop on your lap after the guests have gone home. Both are good ways to spend a winter evening.

And if you are not the one stitching, a kit is one of the easiest presents for someone who is. Plenty of these end up under the tree, waiting for a stitcher to open them on Christmas morning. There are a few ideas for that further down.

One thing before we start. Every estimate below is a rough guide for an average evening of stitching. Everyone stitches at their own pace. If a piece we call "about a week" takes you two, that is not falling behind — that is two weeks of evenings you enjoyed. The point of a Christmas project is the evenings, not the deadline.

How much time do you have?

Format	Finished size	Roughly	Good for
Bookmark	6 × 19.5 cm (2.36 × 7.70 in)	1–2 evenings	stocking stuffers, a first project
Small design	7 × 8 to 8.5 × 10.5 cm	2–4 evenings	ornaments, cards, gift tags
Christmas word	about 21.5 × 11 cm	about a week each	one word a week through December
Wreath, bird or sampler	15–21 cm	a week or more	the piece you frame and bring out every year
Full-coverage landscape	23 × 30 cm	next winter	a long, slow winter project

Rough guides, not deadlines. Pick the row that feels comfortable, not the one that feels heroic.

One or two evenings: Christmas cross stitch bookmarks

If you only have a weekend, start here. A bookmark is small enough to finish in an evening or two, and it is the rare handmade gift that gets used every day. Slip one into a book you are giving, tuck it into a stocking, or keep it for the novel you have been saving for the holidays.

All nine are 6 × 19.5 cm, stitched on white 16-count Aida with the background left unstitched, so the design sits on the fabric like an illustration on a page.

• Christmas Santa Gnome — a gnome in a long red hat, 7 colours. The easiest place to begin.
• Santa's Deer — 9 colours.
• Winter's Deer — a quieter, Nordic-looking reindeer, 7 colours.
• Cardinal — the red bird of every American Christmas card, 10 colours.
• Polar Bear — 10 colours.
• Bear and Snowflakes — 8 colours.
• Gingerbread Man — 9 colours, and the cheeriest thing in this article.
• Penguin — 9 colours. Not strictly Christmas, which means it works all winter.
• Yule — 9 colours, from our Wheel of the Year series, for the winter solstice a few days before Christmas.

Each kit comes with a colour chart with symbols, white Aida, Peri floss with about 50% extra, a needle and step-by-step instructions that take you right through to the finished edge.

Two to four evenings: small Christmas cross stitch you can finish as ornaments

In the United States and Britain, a small piece of Christmas stitching very often ends up on the tree. Cross stitch ornaments are a tradition of their own: stitchers swap them in ornament exchanges, some make one new ornament every year, and a whole box of them becomes a family history in thread.

We do not make ornament kits as such. What we do make are small Christmas designs that take two to four evenings — and they are exactly the right size to finish as an ornament.

• Christmas Bullfinches — 7 × 11 cm, 10 colours.
• Snowman — 7 × 10 cm, 10 colours.
• Christmas Teddy Bear — 7 × 8 cm, 10 colours. The smallest of the four.
• Penguin — 8.5 × 10.5 cm, 8 colours, on 14-count Aida, so the stitches are a little larger and easier on the eyes.

They also make a gentle first project. If you have never stitched before, our guide for beginners covers everything from threading the needle to the last cross.

Three ways to turn a small design into an ornament

• In a small hoop. A 5-inch (13 cm) wooden hoop fits all four designs; the Teddy Bear and the Snowman also fit a 4-inch one. Tighten the fabric, trim it into a circle a little larger than the hoop, fold the edge to the back and glue a circle of felt over it. Add a ribbon loop at the screw.
• As a flat pillow. Trim the stitched piece with a margin, place it face to face with a square of felt or fabric, stitch round three sides, turn it out, add a pinch of stuffing and close the last side. A ribbon loop goes into the top seam.
• In a hanging frame. Small wooden or acrylic frames made for ornaments are easy to find. Mount the stitching on a piece of card, close the back, and it is done in ten minutes.

About a week each: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love

Here is an idea for the four weeks before Christmas: one word a week.

In one common tradition, each of the four candles on an Advent wreath has a theme — hope, peace, joy and love — and one more is lit every Sunday until Christmas. Traditions differ on the order of the first, second and fourth, but the third candle, the pink one, is always joy. In 2026 the Sundays of Advent fall on 29 November, 6, 13 and 20 December. Start a word each Sunday, and by Christmas Eve you have the set.

Every letter in these designs is a small Christmas character. In Hope the H stands in curled elf boots, the O is a holly wreath, the P wears a Santa hat. The others are just as busy.

• Hope — 21.5 × 10.5 cm, 10 colours. Week one, from 29 November.
• Peace — 21.5 × 12 cm, 10 colours. Week two, from 6 December.
• JOY — 21.5 × 11.3 cm, 10 colours. Week three, from 13 December.
• Love — 21.5 × 10.5 cm, 7 colours. Week four, from 20 December.

All four are on white 14-count Aida. If you would rather have the words on one piece, the Christmas Word Tree stacks Joy, Love, Peace and Believe into the shape of a tree (14.5 × 21.3 cm, 7 colours). And two more words carry on the theme: Believe (22 × 10 cm, 10 colours) and Festive Love (14.5 × 14 cm, 12 colours).

And if you start Hope a week late? Then you finish Love on Boxing Day, and it still looks lovely on the shelf next December.

A week or more: wreaths, birds and samplers

These are the pieces you frame, or finish in a larger hoop. They take a week or more — the cardinal wreath, with 24 colours, takes the longest — and they are the ones that come out of the box every December for years. If one of them catches your eye, start it now and stitch it slowly. There is no prize for finishing first.

Two of them make a pair across the Atlantic. The Christmas Wreath with Cardinal (19 × 18.5 cm, 24 colours) is the American Christmas card: a scarlet cardinal in a wreath of fir and berries. The Robin on Holly (15 × 13.7 cm, 20 colours) is the British one. The story goes that Victorian postmen wore red waistcoats and were nicknamed "robins", and that is why the bird began turning up on Christmas cards they delivered. Whether or not it is the whole truth, the robin has been on British Christmas cards ever since.

• Merry Christmas Wreath — 20.7 × 19.5 cm, 11 colours.
• Angel Choir — 16.5 × 11 cm, 10 colours.

Christmas samplers

A sampler is a picture made of many small pictures, and a Christmas sampler is a whole season in one frame.

The Christmas Deer Sampler (15.8 × 17.6 cm, 11 colours) has a reindeer at its centre with a bauble hanging from its antlers, surrounded by the words JOY and NOEL, a stocking, a bell with holly, a candy cane, little trees, presents and pale blue snowflakes.

The Merry Christmas Sampler comes in two versions of the same design, and the choice is really a choice of mood. On white Aida it is the classic: bright, clean, festive. On black Aida the colours glow like fairy lights in a dark room. Both are 18.7 × 18.9 cm in 10 colours. Black fabric is harder to count on, so stitch it in good light and lay something white across your lap underneath — the holes show up much better.

A gift for someone who stitches

If you are shopping for a stitcher rather than stitching yourself, look at the Needlework Christmas Tree (12.5 × 22.5 cm, 18 colours). The tree is built entirely from sewing notions: a thimble for the pot, tiers of buttons and ribbon, a tape measure, a pincushion full of pins, and a pair of scissors with a red star on top. Anyone who sews will recognise their own workbasket in it.

The last kit in this selection is our newest design this year, Gingerbread Joy (11.5 × 15.8 cm, 14 colours): a little gingerbread house sitting in a festive mug, for a bit of Christmas at home.

Not only Christmas: winter designs to stitch into February

The Christmas rush is over by Boxing Day. Winter is not. Some of the designs above have nothing Christmassy about them except the snow, so they are just as good to stitch in January: the Penguin and Polar Bear bookmarks and the small Penguin.

And one more for the long evenings after the holidays: Frosty Morning (15 × 13 cm, 19 colours), a small blue tit on a frozen branch. There is no Christmas in it at all — just a cold, bright morning — which is exactly why it suits February. It is also one of our most popular designs.

For next winter

Winter is a full-coverage landscape, 23 × 30 cm, stitched in three strands with 19 colours. Every square of the fabric is filled. It is unlikely to be finished by this Christmas, and that is fine — it is a project for the whole of winter, the kind you come back to on quiet evenings and watch grow. Plenty of stitchers like to have one long project in the basket while the small ones come and go. And Winter has company: the same series includes Spring, Summer and Autumn, if you would like the whole year on one wall.

Around Christmas

Two more winter days are worth knowing about. St Nicholas Day on 6 December, when children in many European countries find small presents in their shoes or under their pillow. And Yule, the winter solstice, on 21 December — the longest night of the year. Our Yule bookmark belongs to it.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a cross stitch bookmark take?

For most stitchers, one or two evenings. A bookmark is 6 × 19.5 cm with the background left unstitched, so there is less to fill than you might think. Your pace may well be different, and that is fine.

What can I stitch in a week before Christmas?

A bookmark or a small design comfortably, and probably one Christmas word such as JOY. Leave the wreaths and samplers for a slower start.

What is a good Christmas gift for a cross stitcher?

A kit they would not buy for themselves — the Needlework Christmas Tree is made for exactly that. If you are giving a finished piece instead, add a note on how to look after it; our guide to caring for embroidery covers washing, ironing and framing.

Are these kits suitable for beginners?

Yes, especially the bookmarks and the small designs. Every kit has a colour chart with symbols, where one square is one stitch, about 50% extra floss so you can unpick without worrying, and step-by-step instructions. The bookmarks and small designs leave the background unstitched, which keeps them quick.

How do I turn a small design into an ornament?

Finish it in a small 4- or 5-inch hoop, sew it into a flat felt pillow, or mount it in a small hanging frame. There are short instructions for all three above.

When should I order for delivery before Christmas?

Orders from our website usually take 12–18 days to arrive, and the post is slower before the holidays, so for delivery before Christmas we suggest ordering by the end of November. Some of our Christmas kits are also on Amazon in the US and the UK, and Amazon UK delivers across Europe too. It can be quicker for a last-minute order, though not every design is listed there.

Choose the row in the table that feels like a pleasure rather than a race, put the kettle on, and start. All our Christmas designs are in one place: Christmas Cross Stitch Kits.