Christmas Background Generator
Make a Christmas background for a desktop, a phone, a video call or a printed card: a snowy night with pine trees and a moon, glowing bokeh lights, strings of lights, hanging baubles or a big lit tree with a star, with snow falling in front. Pick a preset or set your own: colours, how much snow and in how many depth layers, the wind, hills and trees, and the lights. Every picture comes from a seed number: the same seed and size always give the same picture, and New seed gives you a fresh scene. Press Animate snow to watch it fall in the preview. Choose desktop, 4K, phone, a 16:9 video-call background (for Zoom, Teams or Meet), tablet, square, banner or your own size up to 4096 pixels. It is a whole picture, not a repeating tile, and it is artwork drawn by our code, not a photograph. Download a PNG or JPG, or a PDF to print. Nothing is uploaded.
100% private — everything runs in your browser. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
The preview is the same picture drawn smaller; Animate snow moves the snow in the preview only. PNG and JPG download at the full size; the PDF fits the picture on one page.
Picture
Snow
Landscape
Christmas lights
Runs in your browser with our own code: nothing you type is uploaded or saved. Every tree, light and snowflake is drawn by our own code from the seed; it is artwork, not a photograph. You may use what you make here, including commercially, with no credit needed.
How to make a Christmas background
- Pick a preset: snowy night, bokeh, string lights, baubles, lit tree and more.
- Press New seed until you like the scene.
- Set the snow, the hills and trees, and the Christmas lights.
- Choose a size: phone, desktop, 4K, video call or your own.
- Press Animate snow to see it fall, and Stop when you like.
- Download the PNG or JPG, or the print PDF.
What you can use it for
- Desktop and phone wallpapers for December
- Video-call backgrounds for the office party
- Christmas cards, flyers and menus
- Slides, videos and social posts
- School and church notices
- Website and newsletter headers
The 12 presets
| Preset | Colours | What is in it | Snowflakes | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snowy night with trees | Snowy night (navy) | 3 hills, 26 trees | 700 | 1920 × 1080 |
| Gold bokeh lights | Black and gold | 70 bokeh | 160 | 1920 × 1080 |
| Red and green bokeh | Pine green | 60 bokeh | 120 | 1920 × 1080 |
| String lights on green | Pine green | 66 bulbs, 1 hills, 10 trees | 300 | 1920 × 1080 |
| Hanging baubles on red | Christmas red | 18 bulbs, 9 baubles | 250 | 1920 × 1080 |
| Lit tree in the snow | Snowy night (navy) | lit tree, 2 hills, 14 trees | 600 | 1920 × 1080 |
| Video call: soft lights | Midnight blue | 16 bulbs, 45 bokeh | 0 | 1920 × 1080 |
| Phone wallpaper: lit tree | Midnight blue | lit tree, 1 hills, 6 trees | 500 | 1170 × 2532 |
| 4K snowy village night | Snowy night (navy) | 30 bulbs, 3 hills, 40 trees | 900 | 3840 × 2160 |
| Icy blue baubles | Icy blue | 7 baubles, 1 hills, 0 trees | 400 | 1920 × 1080 |
| Warm lights and snowfall | Black and gold | 52 bulbs, 40 bokeh | 900 | 1920 × 1080 |
| Light: green trees on cream | Cream and green (light) | lit tree, 5 baubles, 1 hills, 12 trees | 120 | 1920 × 1080 |
Worked out by the tool.
Sizes
| Size | Pixels | Width ÷ height |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | 1170 × 2532 | 0.462 |
| Desktop | 1920 × 1080 | 1.778 |
| 4K | 3840 × 2160 | 1.778 |
| Video call background | 1920 × 1080 | 1.778 |
| Tablet | 2048 × 2732 | 0.750 |
| Square | 2048 × 2048 | 1.000 |
| Banner | 1500 × 500 | 3.000 |
Every size is drawn at its own pixels, not stretched.
How the snow layers differ
| Layer (of four) | Brightness | Speed (heights per second) | Seconds to fall the picture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Layer 1 (farthest) | 0.50 | 0.035 | 28.6 |
| Layer 2 | 0.65 | 0.050 | 20.0 |
| Layer 3 | 0.80 | 0.065 | 15.4 |
| Layer 4 (nearest) | 0.95 | 0.080 | 12.5 |
Worked out from the rule the tool uses: with more layers, the nearer ones are bigger, brighter and fall faster, which gives the snow its depth. Speed is in picture heights per second of animation.
What downloads
| Download | What is in it |
|---|---|
| PNG | The picture at the full size you chose, every pixel exactly as drawn |
| JPG | The same picture as a smaller JPG (quality 92) |
| One Letter or A4 page with the picture fitted inside 10 mm margins |
| Paper | A 4K picture prints at | Sharpness |
|---|---|---|
| Letter (landscape) | 259.4 × 145.9 mm | 376 px per inch |
| A4 (landscape) | 277.0 × 155.8 mm | 352 px per inch |
For a card with your own words, use the Christmas Card Template; to change the size of a picture afterwards, the Image Resizer.
Which tool to use
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| A whole Christmas scene or wallpaper | Christmas Background Generator (this page) |
| A repeating gift-wrap tile | Christmas Wrapping Paper |
| A frame around a page | Christmas Border |
| Snow with no Christmas lights | Snow Background Generator |
Other tools: the Christmas Wrapping Paper designer for gift wrap, and the Christmas Border maker for page borders.
More free tools
Christmas and winter designs?
Picture and print tools that run privately in your browser, with no sign-up and no watermark.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a photo?
No. Every tree, light, bauble and snowflake is drawn by our own code from the seed: it is artwork, not a photograph.
Can I use it as a video-call background?
Yes. Choose Video call background (16:9, 1920 × 1080), download the PNG or JPG and pick it as a virtual background in your video-call app. Keep the lights away from where your head will be, or use a calm preset such as Video call: soft lights.
What is the difference from the wrapping paper tool?
Wrapping paper is a small tile that repeats across the sheet. This page draws one whole scene at the size you choose: sky, hills, trees, lights and snow in front.
How is the snow made to look deep?
The flakes are split into one to four layers. Nearer layers have bigger, brighter flakes that fall faster; the table below gives the numbers.
What does the seed do?
It fixes where every flake, tree, light and bauble goes. The same seed and size give exactly the same picture, pixel for pixel, so you can come back to a scene you liked.
What does Animate snow do?
It makes the snow fall in the preview. It stops by itself after 720 frames, when you press Stop, when you change anything and when you switch to another tab. The downloads are always the still picture.
How big does the PDF print?
The picture is fitted on one Letter or A4 page inside 10 mm margins, turned to suit its shape. The table below gives the printed size of a 4K picture.
Is it free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Every pixel is worked out by JavaScript in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or saved when you close the page.