After the Last Shipping Day: The Brand Content Plan for 26 December 2026 to 15 January 2027

What should a brand's content plan for 26 December 2026 to 15 January 2027 look like?

Re-cut Christmas footage where you have it, and shoot anything new before Christmas. On the typical 7–10 days Dream Aspect's video marketing page gives for delivery, counted in calendar days, posts on Saturday 26 December need a live-action shoot by Wednesday 16 to Saturday 19 December, or a simple 2D brief approved by 21–24 December. A shoot on Monday 4 January, the first working weekday of 2027, delivers on 11–14 January, just before the window closes on Friday 15 January.

The post-Christmas window at a glance:

• The window: Saturday 26 December 2026 to Friday 15 January 2027, our reading of Google's "December 26 to mid-January".
• Gift cards and belated gifts, from 26 December: gift cards were the most-wanted gift in NRF's 2025 survey, at 50%.
• Exchanges, from Monday 28 December: NRF says most returns happen in January, and retailers expected 17% of 2025 holiday sales back.
• The fresh start, from Tuesday 29 December: self-purchase cuts, then retargeting from Monday 4 January.
• Last live-action shoot for 26 December: 16–19 December, plus booking and your approval round.

Christmas also closes the shipping calendar. The USPS recommends Saturday 19 December 2026 as the last Priority Mail Express send-by date for expected delivery before 25 December in the lower 48, and those dates are recommendations, not guarantees. As of 5 October 2026, neither Dream Aspect's video marketing page nor its CGI page says whether weekends or holidays count, so get any delivery due between 24 December and 3 January confirmed in writing, with us or anyone else.

When does post-Christmas content have to be shot in 2026?

Post-Christmas content has to be shot or briefed by working back from six posting slots between Saturday 26 December 2026 and Tuesday 12 January 2027. For live action, subtract Dream Aspect's typical 7–10 days from the posting date. For CGI, subtract the window the CGI page publishes from the day the brief is approved: about 2–5 days for 7–12 seconds of simple 2D, and 2 weeks to a month for complex 3D. The result is the last day to shoot or approve a brief before the post goes up late.

Where a slot opens a period, post on its first day. Where it leads up to a fixed date, post three days before, because Metricool measured up to about two-thirds of a Reel's views arriving in its first three days, in January–February 2025 and 2026. Each date range reads earliest to latest. Even the earliest can deliver on the posting day itself, with no room for your approval round.

• Saturday 26 December, window opens (gift cards, belated gifts, "treat yourself"): shoot by 16–19 December; simple 2D brief by 21–24 December; complex 3D brief by 26 November – 12 December.
• Monday 28 December, first weekday after Christmas (returns turned into exchanges): shoot by 18–21 December; 2D brief by 23–26 December; 3D brief by 28 November – 14 December.
• Tuesday 29 December, three days before New Year's Day (self-purchase bridge): shoot by 19–22 December; 2D by 24–27 December; 3D by 29 November – 15 December.
• Monday 4 January, first working Monday of 2027 (fresh start, retargeting): shoot by 25–28 December, in practice your last shoot before Christmas if nobody on your side works that week; 2D by 30 December – 2 January; 3D by 5–21 December.
• Monday 11 January, second wave: shoot by 1–4 January, of which only Monday 4 January is a working weekday; 2D by 6–9 January; 3D by 12–28 December.
• Tuesday 12 January, close-out three days before Friday 15 January: shoot by 2–5 January; 2D by 7–10 January; 3D by 13–29 December.

The windows count calendar days, through weekends, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. If those days do not count, or nobody works Christmas week, every date can only move earlier. UGC is left out on purpose: Dream Aspect's UGC page publishes "The production timeline is 14 to 30 days" and also says videos can be "delivered as short as 7 days", without reconciling the two, so get any UGC date in writing.

Why can't a January shoot fill the post-Christmas window?

A January shoot comes too late because a shoot on Monday 4 January, the first working weekday of 2027, delivers on 11–14 January on Dream Aspect's typical 7–10 days, and the window closes on Friday 15 January on our reading. A brand that waits until January has new content for only the last two to five days of a window that opened on 26 December, fewer after approvals. Unless you shoot on New Year's weekend, everything earlier comes from 2026 footage.

Google puts the post-holiday season at "December 26 to mid-January". We read the end as Friday 15 January, because Monday 18 January 2027 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which makes a 21-day window. If nobody on your side shoots between Thursday 24 December and Sunday 3 January, the last shoot day of 2026 is Wednesday 23 December and the first of 2027 is Monday 4 January. Your team's days off may differ from the federal schedule.

Worked forward in calendar days, a 16 December shoot delivers 23–26 December and can feed every slot, though at the slow end it lands on 26 December itself. A 19 December shoot delivers 26–29 December, making 26 and 28 December only at the fast end. A 23 December shoot delivers 30 December – 2 January only if delivery runs through New Year's Day, which Dream Aspect's pages do not say; at best it feeds 4, 11 and 12 January. Our position: book January for February, not for January. A first-week January shoot suits the steady cadence that takes over after 15 January; see how many videos a month a brand actually needs.

What should brands post on 26 December for gift-card holders and late gift buyers?

Brands should post for two buyers at once from Saturday 26 December: the person holding a gift card or holiday money, and the person still buying for someone else. Google advises campaigns for shoppers using new gift cards or holiday money to "treat themselves", run in parallel with ads for "belated gifts". NRF's 2025 survey of 8,247 adults found gift cards topped the list of gifts people wanted, at 50%, and an NRF post in December 2025 expected $29 billion of gift-card spending, with 43% of shoppers planning to buy at least one card.

Google's 2024 note says that in the 2023 U.S. season, 25 December to 1 January "saw the highest sales growth, compared with any other period from Oct. 1 to Jan. 1". That is growth, not volume, from a company that sells ads into the week, and NRF's gift-card figures are 2025-season intentions. None of these sources says when the cards get spent: we looked for a primary source dating gift-card redemption and did not find one. So the plan claims only that gift-card content has to be live on 26 December, as a treat-yourself cut and a belated-gift cut with no date in the copy.

How should content handle returns and exchanges in late December and January?

Make the exchange the hero of returns-season content from Monday 28 December through January; that emphasis is our reading. NRF says "The vast majority of returns occur in January, after the winter holidays", and its holiday FAQ treats a return as a possible second sale: "many consumers use holiday returns as an opportunity to make an additional purchase or shop retailers’ post-holiday sales." That line is why we lead with the swap.

• Most returns land in January: NRF gives no percentage, so run exchange cuts from 28 December to mid-January.
• 17% of holiday sales expected back: about one sale in six, which sizes the job.
• 76% favour an instant refund or exchange: show the swap fast (our reading), since the survey does not split refund from exchange.

The NRF and Happy Returns 2025 release says retailers expected "17% of holiday sales to be returned, consistent with previous years", and estimated 19.3% of online sales would come back across 2025. Both are expectations. Its consumer panel was 2,006 people who had returned an online purchase, its merchant panel 358 ecommerce professionals at U.S. merchants with revenue over $500 million, and the release does not say which survey produced the 19.3%. We found no small-brand figure in the NRF material we read. Happy Returns, NRF's partner, is a UPS company that sells returns services.

Is the post-Christmas shopper buying for themselves or for someone else?

The post-Christmas shopper is doing both, and the two ad platforms that sell the window describe different things. Meta says, in guidance dated 12 August 2026, that its late-December and New Year phase "is all about the self-purchase", then aims it at "shoppers who browsed but never bought for themselves": a targeting segment, not a count. Google's Ipsos data across eight countries finds "74% of post-holiday shopping occasions are for someone else".

• Meta, 12 August 2026: no footnote supports the phase; the page's percentages come from a Meta-commissioned Ipsos survey of 14,473 shoppers in 18 countries in November 2025.
• Google, November 2025: a Google-commissioned Ipsos study of 14,649 holiday purchases in eight countries including the U.S., October 2024 to January 2025.
• Google, November 2024: in U.S. Google/Ipsos data, self-shopping "was significantly higher post-holiday (Dec. 26, 2023—Jan. 3, 2024), compared to the rest of the season", from 1,825 occasions after Christmas against 17,976 before, with no percentage printed.

The figures come from different samples and seasons, so they cannot be added, but they point one way: three in four post-holiday occasions were for someone else across eight countries in 2024–25, and the U.S. self-shopping share rose after Christmas in 2023–24. Our reading is that the self-purchase grows after 25 December without taking over; Meta's phase name describes the creative it sells and the buyers it targets, not a measured majority. So plan one shoot with two intents, run both as Google recommends, and let self-purchase cuts take a larger share from New Year's Day.

What changes on 1 January, and how long does the fresh-start window last?

From New Year's Day the content job tilts toward the self-purchase and retargeting, and it runs to mid-January, which is Friday 15 January 2027 on our reading. Meta's advice for its fresh-start phase is "aspirational reels and retargeting the pool of holiday browsers who added to cart but didn't convert". Wellness brands' New Year's resolution content is a different brief, with its own timing.

• Tuesday 29 December, the bridge: a self-purchase cut, posted three days before New Year's Day.
• Monday 4 January, retargeting: short, product-first cuts for people who added to cart in December and did not buy.
• Monday 11 January, the second wave: new openings on the same footage, replacing the first-week cuts. Tuesday 12 January is the last post that keeps a three-day margin before Friday 15 January.

The second wave replaces the first-week cuts because of where views land. Metricool's 2026 study of 24,364,803 Instagram posts from 375,118 accounts found "For Reels, days 1 to 3 account for 65% of views", measured in January–February 2025 and 2026. It is a ceiling, and it measured where views land, not whether a fresh cut sells more. The second wave is our reading of that study, and it costs an edit, not a shoot. The margin is borrowed from organic Instagram views and transfers less cleanly to paid placements, where delivery depends on budget and bidding, so brief paid cuts at the same shoot with an earlier date.

How much can one pre-Christmas content day cover?

One pre-Christmas content day can cover all six slots, if the shot list is written for them before the day. On Dream Aspect's typical 7–10 days, a content day on Wednesday 16 December delivers 23–26 December, so the 26 December post has no margin at the slow end. Meta's holiday guidance makes the same bet, as advice with no data shown: "One shoot day with a real customer gives you testimonial video cuts for the entire season". Dream Aspect's video marketing page sells the unit ("Book a half or full content day") but gives no count of videos per content day, so the plan gives none.

The shot list, by the slot each shot feeds:

• 26 December: the product chosen and used by its new owner, and the product handed over as a gift, with no date in shot.
• 28 December: size, fit and colour side by side, and the exchange flow filmed on a phone.
• 29 December: the product in a start-of-year setting.
• 4 January: short, product-first shots for retargeting.
• 11 January: a second opening for every shot on the list, plus a real customer if one can be on set.

If you pay a customer, give them product or promise to feature them, disclose it clearly in the same video. 16 CFR 255.5 says material connections can include "monetary payment", "free or discounted products" and the possibility "of appearing on television or in other media promotions", and must be "disclosed clearly and conspicuously" when the audience would not expect them. That is the federal text, not legal advice. A 16 December shoot delivers in Christmas week, so agree the delivery date, and who approves, before the day.

When is a new shoot the wrong purchase for the post-Christmas window?

A new shoot is usually the wrong purchase when you already shot Christmas content. Much of what the post-Christmas window needs, such as product in use, a gift with no date and a fresh-start caption, can be cut from footage you own, and Meta's own guidance puts the order the same way: "Repurpose first, produce second, refresh throughout". If you shot Christmas content, the best post-Christmas production plan is usually no new production at all, and a January shoot mostly feeds February.

Meta goes further than Dream Aspect would: "A Reel shot on your phone outperforms most polished brand videos", with no data shown on its page. We sell polished video, so we have a reason to dispute that. For the gift-card week, though, the direction is right: a phone-shot clip of a real customer spending a card, disclosed if you paid or gifted them, is a perfectly good 26 December post. A new shoot is the right purchase when you have no footage of the product in use, when the exchange flow has never been filmed, or when the January product is new; then 26 December needs a shoot by 16–19 December, plus booking and your approval round.

What do post-Christmas production dates leave out?

Post-Christmas production dates leave out everything before the shoot and after the handover. Dream Aspect's typical 7–10 days runs from the shoot day to delivery: the video marketing page says "Full content delivery typically takes 7-10 days after the content shoot day." It does not include booking, your approval round, re-cuts for paid placements, captions in extra aspect ratios, or the colleague who signs off and is away from 18 December. Each of those moves your dates earlier, so ask for the last day to book when you ask for a quote, and whether the producer, us included, works between 24 December and 3 January.

The shopper figures are dated too. Every NRF figure here is a 2025-season expectation or intention, and NRF's Winter Holidays hub still led with "2025 winter holiday spending highlights" when we read it on 5 October 2026. NRF's winter holidays run 1 November to 31 December, so only its returns statements reach into January. We also found no test of whether posting on 26 December, rather than later, changes sales.

Planning the post-Christmas window from Los Angeles?

If the 26 December slot is still open, a December shoot is one way to keep it; a re-cut of Christmas footage or a simple 2D piece are others. Dream Aspect shoots live-action social content in Los Angeles, booked as a half or full content day, with full content delivery typically 7–10 days after the shoot day, plus booking and your approval round; agree holiday-week delivery in writing. We also make CGI product videos, from about 2–5 days for simple 2D. Tell us your dates, and we will tell you whether they can still be met, or whether a re-cut is the better buy.

Want a price for the post-Christmas window before you brief it? The Dream Aspect pricing calculator shows the price on the page: choose a one-off shoot or a monthly plan, then add or remove deliverables such as a shoot brief, priority delivery, CGI or UGC.

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