Unsurprisingly, gifting and food feature heavily in our December top 5. Perhaps more surprisingly, pizza features twice. We’re not ashamed, pizza rules. As does innovative email design that stands out in our inboxes like the Christmas lights on Oxford Street. So without further ado, please enjoy our final top 5 of 2023!

1. Yard Sale Pizza

SL: HO HO HO… IT’S ALMOST CHRISTMAS PIZZA TIME 😱

Chosen for: Design

No matter where you stand on Love Actually (can you love and hate a movie at the same time?!), there’s no denying that it’s become one of the most iconic Christmas films of recent years. So Yard Sale’s simple but effective design is gimmicky in all the right ways: instantly recognisable, relatable, festive and fun. We also love the pizza snow globe in the secondary blocks. Oh, to be in a snowstorm of pizza….. (Drifts off dreamily)

2. Misfits

SL: The ultimate festive snack 🤤☁️

Chosen for: Design and Copy More snow - yes! This time, a snowstorm of S’mores.

And what a pretty snowstorm it is, thanks to the realistic animation Misfits has used in the hero. Within the copy, they’ve layered festive song references on top of cosy Christmas scenes to bring the appeal of their product at this time of year right up. And the visually delicious way of listing the product’s ingredients makes it even more enticing. S’mores for our stocking fillers, please!

3. Becel

SL: 5 fast and festive recipes for busy hosts

Chosen for: Content and Design

The festive recipe ideas (oh look, more pizza!) in this email from Becel make us feel as warm and twinkly as their cute fairy light design. Not only are they super helpful, but the impressive product photography makes the recipes look good enough to give Paul Hollywood a run for his money. But in a homely, comforting way, that - let’s be real - Hollywood could never deliver.

4. Rituals

SL: Our bestseller gift guide

Chosen for: Interactivity

It’s all about the interactive element in the hero of this email from Rituals. Select from three options and witness the content of the email change completely! We especially like the way the CTA also shifts to complement the copy for each differing block, making it more interesting and therefore, the reader more likely to click through.

5. Quip

SL: 🥛🍪Gifts for the cookie cleanup | 20% off

Chosen for: Copy

With a brand name like ‘quip’, it’s wise to make any copy you put out there strong. Luckily, they’ve done just that in this email. With humour throughout, puns a-plenty and festive themes a-flowing, they’ve well and truly cracker-ed it (soz), particularly in the product headers. We also like the module at the bottom that uses a calendar design to highlight final order dates before Christmas. Oops, we mean Quipmas.