If there’s one moment in the year when storytelling really earns its keep, it’s Christmas.

People are actively hunting for gift ideas, plotting days out, booking travel, and looking for ways to dodge festive faff. Sponsored articles across the Reach network meet that intent in trusted environments, turning casual browsing into action — whether that’s a click, a booking, or a basket.

Why Sponsored Articles Shine At Christmas

The build-up to Christmas is noisy, but it’s also incredibly focused. Readers arrive with questions: What should I buy? Where should we go? How can I make this simpler? A well-shaped article answers those questions in a calm, useful voice, while naturally putting your brand at the heart of the solution. Because it sits within our editorial ecosystem — among titles audiences read every day — it earns attention, time on page, and trust. And once you’ve told the story, we can surround it with smart distribution and retargeting to move people from inspiration to action.

Formats That Work

Retail

In retail, lists and service-led guides are Christmas workhorses. Think curated gift round-ups that remove decision fatigue, or “here’s how to avoid the crowds” pieces that save shoppers time and stress. We’ve run pieces like this gift guide in the Mirror, or this story for SPAR in the Express, offering a practical guide to avoiding Christmas food shopping chaos, and the Manchester Evening News’ localised gift finder for the Manchester Fort Shopping Park. Check out that story here.

Each story taps into a specific reader need — inspiration, shortcuts, or local relevance — while guiding people towards products and offers without feeling pushy.

Travel

Travel brands tend to win with pieces that make the journey feel part of the magic of Christmas. Community-led angles build warmth and trust, like the Daily Record’s look at how ScotRail supports older people at Christmas. This is a heartwarming story about Scotrail’s charitable efforts to support Age Scotland. The call-to-action (CTA) takes readers to the ScotRail website, where they’re encouraged to purchase rail travel. Read the story here.

Discovery articles put festive events on the map — literally — as Liverpool Echo’s Merseyrail feature shows. The article, on behalf of Merseyrail, showcases the local events happening in and around Liverpool at Christmas, cleverly highlighting the nearest rail station to visit them. The story teases a competition at the end to keep readers engaged.

Competitions add sparkle and data capture, as seen in the Bristol Post’s festive trip giveaway. The article aims to announce the opening of a new travel firm in Bristol, and again offers a competition for readers to keep them engaged. The real story here is that the travel firm is established and trusted over the border in Wales and is now expanding into Bristol. It would be difficult to convey that message through standard advertising, so storytelling through sponsored articles is the perfect solution for Leisuretime by Toureasy. Check it out here.

Entertainment and Leisure

For entertainment and leisure, showmanship matters. Visually-led features drive FOMO and footfall — Nottinghamshire Live’s illuminated trail piece is a great example. Add a prize element, like GlasgowLive’s “you and your friends could win” activation, and you’ve got shareability plus first-party data. Check out the article here. New openings and pop-ups benefit from “what to expect” previews — just look at Bristol Post’s Christmas Village launch piece. Through images and storytelling, the article creates a sense of FOMO for the event, with a strong CTA to find out more and book tickets.

And then there’s the broader Christmas canvas. Cause-led storytelling builds powerful affinity — ChronicleLive’s 12 Strays of Christmas shows how brands can align with community spirit in a way that feels natural and generous. Big festive competitions — such as WalesOnline’s “win a share of £10,000”  — create buzz, boost databases and provide a strong hook for paid amplification.

What Makes A Great Christmas Article

Start with a vivid promise. The opening paragraph should tell readers exactly what they’ll get — save money, save time, discover something delightful, or avoid a headache. Keep the copy warm and practical, with subheads that make scanning easy on mobile. Show don’t just tell: weave in specifics like locations, timings, prices, stock notes and how to book or buy. If there’s an offer, be crystal clear on dates and eligibility. And because local relevance is gold dust at Christmas, thread in place names, stations, venues and neighbourhood tips to make the content feel made-for-them.

Calls to action should feel like helpful next steps rather than hard sells. At natural break points, invite people to “shop the list,” “plan your route,” “book your tickets,” or “enter to win”, and repeat towards the end for skimmers. Trackable links and pixels ensure we can see what’s working and scale the best bits fast.

To find out more about storytelling strategies, read our previous blog here.

How Reach Makes It Easy

Storytelling is at the heart of what we do. Across our trusted national and regional news brands — from the Mirror to Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo — audiences come to us daily for the stories that matter in their communities. That’s where your Christmas campaign belongs: in environments people already rely on, delivered with the right balance of scale and specificity.

You bring the objectives; we turn them into a story people want to read and act on. Our content studio handles the lot — strategy, copy, design, imagery, editing, and distribution — all built for mobile and aligned to your brand guidelines. We secure quality placements, layer on precise targeting, amplify across channels, and report transparently so you can see what’s delivering. If you’ve got multi-location needs, we’ll localise at scale without losing your brand voice.

Ready to make your Christmas story unmissable? Work with Reach to plan and deliver a campaign that’s emotional, useful and measurable. Whether you need local precision or national scale, we’ll deliver with a local heart. Complete the form below to book your Christmas activity and start crafting a story your customers will remember — and act on.