Holly Template — Complete Guide

Holly is a vintage Christmas card. Your cover photo sits inside a lush holly-and-berry wreath tied with a velvet bow, on a cream card that stands on a deep green tablecloth under a string of fairy lights. Further down, the countdown hangs as glass baubles from a holly bough, your photos are tied with bows, your story hangs from a ribbon, the programme reads like a Christmas menu, gifts are wrapped as presents and a Christmas cracker sits on top of the reply card. The page closes on a decorated tree whose lights come on string by string.

Holly is made for family Christmas dinners, Christmas Eve gatherings, company Christmas parties and festive December weddings.

This guide covers how Holly looks, the options unique to it, how to apply it to your event, and how it lays out each section of your invitation.

Holly is available on every plan, Free included.

For an overview of the template gallery and the picker, see How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation.

What makes Holly different

Standard templates change colours and fonts over the same shared layout. Holly replaces the layout itself: its own cover and closing, its own section heads, and its own treatment of the message, countdown, gallery, story, programme and reply.

Signature design elements

• A holly wreath — three rings of glossy holly leaves with clusters of red berries around your cover photo, tied at the bottom with a velvet bow whose tails hang down the card
• A Christmas card — cream card stock with a gilt double rule and a holly sprig in each corner, standing on a deep tablecloth
• Fairy lights — a string of lights swagged across the top of the cover and four strings around the tree at the close. They come on one string after another, then twinkle
• A velvet ribbon in your colour — the bow on the wreath, the ribbon your story hangs from, the bows on your photos and presents, the cracker and the buttons all share one ribbon colour you choose
• Three card colourways — classic red and green on cream, Nordic white and silver, or midnight navy with gold
• Vintage lettering — a high-contrast serif for your event name and the titles, a flowing script for the cover line and the small labels, and a warm book serif for everything you read
• Always readable — whatever ribbon colour you pick, even a pale yellow or a near-black, the buttons and the drawings are adjusted until they read clearly

When to choose Holly

Holly suits any gathering in the Christmas season:

• Family Christmas dinners and Christmas Eve — the menu-style programme is ideal for the evening's courses and moments
• Company Christmas parties — pick the Nordic or midnight colourway for a cooler, more polished card, and write your own cover line
• December and winter weddings — your photo in the wreath, your story hung on the ribbon, a velvet bow in your wedding colour
• Festive open houses and neighbourhood get-togethers — rewrite the cover line and the section labels to suit

Holly's default wording is festive without being religious; add your own greeting through the cover line if you'd like one.

Whatever the occasion, the photos your guests take matter as much as the invitation. Guests can scan the event QR code and add their photos to the shared gallery. See how Fotify works for company holiday parties and weddings.

For an advent calendar with doors that open, try Advent. For a snowy alpine knit, try Chalet.

Applying Holly to your event

1. Open your event, click Invitation in the sidebar, then the Invitation tab
2. In Design Template, click Change template if the gallery is collapsed, and find Holly under Designs (it is listed under the Party filter, and under Corporate and Wedding too)
3. Optional: press Try it on to see Holly with your own invitation details in the live preview — nothing is saved until you press Use this design
4. Or click the Holly card to apply it straight away
5. Open Holly options below the gallery to pick your card colours, your ribbon colour and the other options described below. Changes save automatically

Holly works on every plan. On free events a small "Made with Fotify" badge appears in the bottom corner of the invitation; any paid plan or an active subscription removes it.

Switching to another template later is non-destructive: your event content stays exactly as you entered it, and your Holly options are kept in case you switch back.

Holly options

Holly has five options of its own. They take the place of the standard colour and font controls, which Holly doesn't use.

1. Card colours

The whole card in one choice:

• Classic red & green (default) — cream card stock on a deep green tablecloth, red berries, gilt rules and multicoloured fairy lights
• Nordic white & silver — white card on a frosty grey-green, soft eucalyptus-green leaves, silver berries and rules, and amber and ice-blue lights
• Midnight & gold — a navy card on a midnight tablecloth, gold rules and lettering, and warm golden lights

2. Ribbon colour

The velvet ribbon that ties the page together: the bow on the wreath, the ribbon your story hangs from, the bows on your photos and presents, the Christmas cracker, one of the countdown baubles and the buttons. Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Velvet red (default), Emerald, Gold, Burgundy or Navy
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker, so you can match your wedding colours or your company's brand exactly. The colour's code is shown beside the chips

Any colour works. Holly keeps the ribbon visible against the card, and if a button would be hard to read it deepens or lightens the colour just enough. A grey ribbon stays grey, which looks lovely as silver on the Nordic card.

3. Twinkling lights

On by default: the fairy lights come on one string after another when the page opens, then twinkle softly, the star on the tree glows, the countdown baubles sway gently on their ribbons and the cracker gives an occasional wiggle. Turn it off for steady lights and a still page. Guests whose device asks for reduced motion always see a still page.

4. Cover line

The script line above your event name (up to 60 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("Join us this festive season"). Try "Christmas dinner at ours", "Our winter wedding" or "The office Christmas party".

5. Closing line

The line under the tree at the end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("Can't wait to celebrate with you").

Every piece of text Holly prints on the invitation — the cover line, the Reply and Reply now buttons, the section labels and titles, the countdown units, the closing line — can also be rewritten directly on the page: switch the live preview into edit mode and double-click the text. Section titles you have already set in their own settings (story, countdown, gifts, where to stay, getting there, FAQs) are edited in place the same way.

How each section is treated

Cover

Holly's cover replaces the standard header: a Christmas card standing on the tablecloth, under a swag of fairy lights.

• The wreath — your cover photo in a round window inside the holly wreath, keeping the horizontal crop you set, with the velvet bow at the bottom. Without a cover photo the window shows a gilt star
• The cover line (option 4) in the flowing script, then your event name in the vintage serif with a small gilt flourish under it
• The date and time on one line, then the place in italics — the time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover, the date and the place follow Show date and Show location, and every guest sees the date you picked, whatever their time zone
• A Reply button that scrolls to the RSVP form. It only appears when your RSVP section is visible, and never on a save-the-date page

On a wide screen a decorated tree stands beside the card, with glass baubles and presents on the other side. Your event name is printed exactly as you typed it; long names step down a size so they never break mid-word.

Section heads

Each section opens centred, like a line on a Christmas card: a small holly sprig, a label in the script, then the title in the vintage serif and, for the story and gifts, your subtitle or gift message.

Message — inside the card

Your message written inside a card with a gilt double rule, a holly sprig pinned over its top edge and a small one in the closing corner. The first letter is set large in the vintage serif, like an illuminated letter on an old card.

Countdown — glass baubles

The days, hours, minutes and, if you show them, seconds each hang as a glass bauble on its own ribbon from a bough of holly and berries: one in your ribbon colour, one in gold and one in holly green, each with a gilt cap. The number sits on the glass, the unit underneath. It counts down to your event's date and time in the venue's time zone, and shows your completed message once the moment arrives.

Gallery (Carousel) — prints on the mantelpiece

Every photo is a print with a scalloped cream border, tilted a touch, with a velvet bow at its top. Two across on a phone, three on a wide screen; a last print on its own stands in the middle.

Story — cards hung on a ribbon

A velvet ribbon in your colour runs down the page and every milestone is a card tied to it with a little bow: the date in the script, the title, your text and the photo. On a wide screen the ribbon runs down the middle and the cards hang on either side in turn; on a phone the ribbon runs down the side. A milestone without a photo is simply a shorter card.

Itinerary — the Christmas menu

Your programme printed like a Christmas menu: one tall card with a gilt double rule, each day under its script heading between gilt lines (only when the day has a date or a label), and every moment centred — the time in small capitals, the moment in the vintage serif, its place in italics and any note — with a small holly sprig between moments. Your entry icons are not shown.

RSVP — the cracker card

The reply form sits on a card with a gilt double rule, under a small script label, the title and your RSVP deadline, with a Christmas cracker in your ribbon colour laid across the top of the card. On a save-the-date page the card holds the save-the-date note instead of the form.

Gifts — wrapped presents

Every registry, payment option, charity and wishlist item is its own card wrapped as a present: a striped wrapping-paper lid in holly green, gold or the tablecloth colour in turn, a ribbon in your colour across it and a bow on top. Cards are grouped under small labels when you offer more than one kind. Payment details sit in an inset box with a Copy button; pay links, scan-to-pay QR codes and wishlist reservations appear as buttons on each card.

Event Details, Location and Save the Date

These share their structure with Fotify's other picker-coloured designs, dressed as Holly's cards with a gilt edge:

• Event Details — a card per topic: the dress code with your suggested and avoided colours as swatches, where to stay and getting there as small cards (with a Book button where you added a link), and the FAQ as questions that open on tap
• Location — a map card beside an address card with your address, your directions and an Open in Maps button. When a map can't be shown, the map card draws a pin with the venue's coordinates; without coordinates the address card spans the row
• Save the Date (Calendar) — one card with the title, the event date and Google, Apple (downloads the calendar file) and Outlook buttons

Closing

Back on the tablecloth: the decorated tree with its gilt star, glass baubles, four strings of fairy lights and three wrapped presents at its foot, then your closing line in the script (option 5), the date and place, and a Reply now button.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Holly's style:

• Photo upload, QR code, Table assignment, Playlist, Sub-events, Special treatments and custom sections

Each sits in the same column as the rest of the page on a card with a gilt edge, with titles in the vintage serif and buttons in your ribbon colour. Photos in custom sections are capped in height so a tall portrait never takes over the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Holly only for Christmas? A: It is made for the Christmas season — dinners, Christmas Eve, office parties, winter weddings. Rewrite the cover line, the section labels and the closing line to fit your gathering; nothing on the page mentions a religious occasion unless you write it.

Q: I picked a pale ribbon colour. Why do the buttons look darker? A: Holly keeps every button readable. A very light colour, such as a pale yellow, is deepened just enough for its label to read clearly; the rest of the ribbon keeps as close to your colour as it can.

Q: Can I turn off the twinkling? A: Yes — switch off Twinkling lights. The lights stay lit, just steady, and the baubles and cracker stand still.

Q: Where does the name on the cover come from? A: From your event name, exactly as you typed it. Holly never splits or rewrites it.

Q: Does Holly work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the story ribbon moves to the other side and the cards hang from it the other way. The wreath, the tree and the cracker are symmetric, and the cover photo's crop stays as you set it.

Next steps

• See How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation for the template gallery and how to try a design on before applying it
• Compare the other winter designs: Advent, an advent calendar whose doors open, or Chalet, an alpine knit with snow
• Let guests share their photos with a QR code: read about Fotify for company holiday parties, weddings and digital invitations with RSVP

Need help? Get in touch through the in-dashboard help widget.