Do you decorate your forum for holidays?

[Shortie]

Something I have always loved to do either by using a theme or even using addons is decorate my forum for the holidays and other celebrations throughout the year.

Just this past year I have been able to decorate my forum for Easter and Independence Day and that was nice to be able to do.

When it comes to things such as Christmas, New Year and even Halloween or Thanksgiving, I too like to either use a new theme or add some decorations to the forum to celebrate those.

Do you decorate your forum for the holidays?

 

[Reverie]

This is one of my FAVORITE things to do. I love decorating for holidays! Halloween and Christmas has always been my favorite to decorate for - typically found the best themes or even used a theme that wasn't used before. I think it adds a special touch!

Some holidays might not be as easy to decorate for, but you can always add an image to the banner at the top of the forum!

 

[Tracy]

Nope... especially since it's a niche site that can get used in "dark sky" locales... I try to keep it as low-key as possible for the default style.
Now..... might I decide to tweak the crap out of another style to "get into the holidays"... possible... but it will NEVER apply to my default site style.
It is simply a case of looking at who your target audience is, when/where they may be using the site in it's "default" style and making the appropriate adjustments.
I promise you that in the middle of a nice cold clear night, my users don't want to see flashing lights and falling snow.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I've never decorated my forums for the Holidays. Will I change that later on this year? Maybe, I'll have to see if there are some good Holiday themes for Woltlab communities. I do enjoy when admins add Holiday themes to their forums though.

 

[Cory]

I don't since I don't feel like my board is part of a niche that would be an overall great idea to decorate for the holidays. If anything, I'd maybe change the logo to something festive, but I don't think a whole new theme would be necessary.

 

[SDL]

I’ve never really changed the design for special holidays although I do tend to stick a Santa hat on the logo or something along with festive competitions and events. Perhaps this year I’ll give it a go with my new forum!

 

[Kyng]

Yes, I have a special Christmas theme and banner.

(What I don't do, however, is add a falling snow effect... I've always found those to be really annoying TBH)

 

[Ken]

I have some festive forum themes, so yes I set my forum up for seasonal and holiday occasions.

 

[TimelessSailor]

Yes, absolutely! And I usually get the staff on it to help come up with the design. In one of the communities I ran a few years back I had a "Developer" role with one front-end and one back-end guy and would ask the front-end guy to crank out a theme or find one for the holidays. One year for Thanksgiving he took a voice message I had sent him while drunk where I said "gobble gobble gobble" and made it play in the background when people clicked on the logo.

 

[Uncrowned]

I keep trying to little feature changes, I understand that some of my users don't follow the same holidays, but I do like to do a little bit.

 

[Reverie]

Yes, absolutely! And I usually get the staff on it to help come up with the design. In one of the communities I ran a few years back I had a "Developer" role with one front-end and one back-end guy and would ask the front-end guy to crank out a theme or find one for the holidays. One year for Thanksgiving he took a voice message I had sent him while drunk where I said "gobble gobble gobble" and made it play in the background when people clicked on the logo.

This is brilliant. I need you to recreate this xD

I keep trying to little feature changes, I understand that some of my users don't follow the same holidays, but I do like to do a little bit.

That is a fair point since many don't celebrate the same holidays! I guess that could be a topic or poll, what holidays people celebrate that way you can be aware and maybe provide a few touches for everyone's day!

 

[DigNap15]

Yes, but only for major holidays.
My users seem to like it.

 

[Cedric]

Yes, but only for major holidays.
My users seem to like it.

Do you have any example @DigNap15 ? I’m curious.

 

[Empire]

Only add snow and maybe logo change and whatnot just for Christmas time I do not really focus on any other reasons. My old theme used to offer more but the theme that I use now doesn't have all reasons rather than Christmas. Each year I edit it for the first day in December and then end it after a week in the new year or in the new year before the new time I have a happy new year style added. I only did that in the last two years.

 

[Debashis]

I feel giving a slight touch of a holiday to a forum theme won't impact even if it's a niche site. Forums really look great and welcoming when they are decorated during holidays not only for the ones who celebrate it but for others who don't as well. The members from countries where, for example, Haloween is not celebrated, feel welcomed and get a sense of belonging when they login to their favorite forum and see it all decorated and ready for them to indulge in the way they are celebrating it. I really used to love how Atrium looked during holidays. Shoutout to @Reverie & team for that.

 

[Kennysplash]

Doing so will help you set your forum on the holiday mood as well. So members can be reminded of the festive period.

 

[JennyorAlice]

This is one of my favorite things to do as well. I'll either decorate my forum or have a special theme for that specific holiday.