December Desktop Wallpapers: A Year-End Collection

As the year draws to a close and deadlines loom, a fresh desktop wallpaper can offer a moment of visual respite. This December, artists from around the world have contributed their designs to help you welcome the final month of the year and, for those celebrating, get into the holiday spirit.

This collection features each design in versions both with and without a calendar, all available for free download. You can click any preview image for a closer look. Artists retain full creative freedom, so the themes here reflect their own interpretations of the season rather than a uniform prompt. You'll also find some selections from our wallpapers archives included, perfect for rediscovering a past favorite.

Each wallpaper below is available as a preview file, followed by links to download it in a range of common resolutions, from 320x480 up to 2560x1440, with and without the December calendar overlay.

Sweet Ride Into The Holidays

PopArt Studio from Serbia celebrates the season with a snowboarding cookie man, combining National Cookie Day with the festive spirit. The illustration is designed to evoke the joy of holiday treats and cherished memories.

Sweet Ride Into The Holidays

Spread The Soul Of Christmas

Designed by Bhabna Basak from India.

Spread The Soul Of Christmas

We extend a huge thank you to all the artists and designers who shared their work with us for this collection. If you'd like to contribute your own creative talent, we're always looking for new submissions for future wallpapers posts. More designers will be featured in the following sections.

Energy Drink

Kicking off the selection with an energetic visual punch, this wallpaper channels vibrant hues and bold composition. Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden, the piece is well-suited for those seeking a dynamic splash of color on their desktop this December.

Available in a wide range of formats to accommodate most display sizes.

Energy Drink

Wallpapers of December: Green Meetings and Peaceful Scenes

As the year winds down, the December wallpaper collection offers a mix of seasonal cheer and contemplative escapes. Two designs stand out this month: a call to environmental action and a serene riverside retreat.

Go Green

Produced by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden, this month’s set is paired with a free Smashing Meets Goes Green event scheduled for Thursday, December 7. The session invites designers and developers to consider how their daily work can contribute to a greener world, and the wallpaper carries that understated, naturalist theme. Gimenes's design is offered in a complete range of sizes, with or without a built-in calendar. Previews and download options are available via:
Go Green
Calendar-inclusive versions are available from 640x480 up to 3840x2160. The no-calendar set mirrors the same resolution ladder, including the common 1080p, 1440p, and 4K tiers, so matching your specific display should be straightforward.

The House On The River Drina

The team at PopArt Studio from Serbia looks to the natural world for a contemplative break in this submission. The wallpaper depicts the famous solitary home perched on the River Drina in Bajina Bašta. The artist’s note paints the scene: a quiet workspace away from civilization, gently swaying with the river’s motion, free from neighbors—though they admit the internet connection is an open question. This design is distributed without a calendar, focusing entirely on the scenic still-life. The artwork is available in resolutions from 640x480 up to 2560x1440, covering most laptop, desktop, and high-density portable panels.

Christmas Wallpaper — The House On The River Drina
Whether you are looking for a practical tool for eco-conscious design talks or a serene spark for your desktop, the December archive provides both the festive and the peaceful. Individual download links for every wallpaper and format are listed on each design's dedicated preview page.

Seasonal Scenes, Hand-Illustrated

“During Christmas season, in the cold, colorless days of winter, Cardinal birds are seen as symbols of faith and warmth. In the part of America I live in, there is snowfall every December. While the snow is falling, I can see gorgeous Cardinals flying in and out of my patio. The intriguing color palette of the bright red of the Cardinals, the white of the flurries and the brown/black of dry twigs and fallen leaves on the snow-laden ground fascinates me a lot, and inspired me to create this quaint and sweet, hand-illustrated surface pattern design as I wait for the snowfall in my town!” — Designed by Gyaneshwari Dave from the United States.

Cardinals In Snowfall

Home for the Holidays

“Winter coziness that we all feel when we come home after spending some time outside or when we come to our parental home to celebrate Christmas inspired our designers. Home is the place where we can feel safe and sound, so we couldn’t help ourselves but create this calendar.” — Designed by MasterBundles from Ukraine.

Winter Coziness At Home

A Nocturnal Christmas

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Bat Christmas

Frozen in Time

“A seemingly forgotten world under the shade of winter glaze hides a moment where architecture meets fashion and change encounters steadiness.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.

Enchanted Blizzard

Seasonal Screens: Downhill and Down South

This month’s selection begins with Sweden’s Ricardo Gimenes, whose colorful topographic style returns.

King Of Pop
The design layers curved bands of vibrant color, evoking a playful pop-art landscape.

King Of Pop

Winter Garphee
Razvan Garofeanu of Romania depicts “Garphee’s flufiness glowing in the snow,” with a soft, luminous take on the season.

Smashing Wallpaper - December 2012

Joy To The World
Drawing on the classic carol’s refrain, Morgan Newnham of Boulder, Colorado creates a whimsical celebration.

Joy To The World

Ninja Santa
A stealthier take on the holiday visitor comes from Belgium’s Elise Vanoorbeek.

Ninja Santa

Hot Hot Hot!
Turning the thermostat up, Ricardo Gimenes also delivers this fiery counterpart from Sweden.

Hot Hot Hot!

A Winter Feast for the Eyes

December is a month that begs to be visualized, and the designers contributing to this month's wallpaper collection clearly felt the same way. From cozy, warm interiors to playful, offbeat takes on holiday iconography, each design brings a distinct flavor to the season.

The Comfort of Home

For those who find the holidays best experienced from inside, "Sweet Snowy Tenderness" by PopArt Studio is a tribute to that ideal. The concept focuses on the warm, relaxed feeling of a snug home while snow falls gently outside the window. It is a romantic, quiet scene that embodies the peace of the season. You can view a preview of the work, and various without calendar resolution options ranging from 320x480.jpg to 2560x1440.jpg are available for download.

A similar appreciation for togetherness is found in "Christmas Cookies" by Maria Keller. Here, the season is framed as a way to share love, one in which holiday baking and confections take center stage. The piece transforms the classic December activity into an inviting visual, with wallpaper versions available in a wide range of aspect ratios designed to fit multiple screens and devices.

New Year's Reflections

As the calendar flips, the mood can often turn nostalgic. "All That Belongs To The Past" by Dorvan Davoudi explores this territory. The work is inspired by the way that new beginnings often prompt us to revisit places and people we remember fondly, not as a retreat into the past but as a way to celebrate those brief, welcome reunions before embracing the year ahead. The design is well-suited to usher in a period of fresh starts and happy memories.

A Modernist Deviation

Breaking from the standard conventions of winter scenery, "Trailer Santa" presents a mid-century modern Christmas scene. Crafted by Houndstooth, the imagery deliberately moves away from snowflakes and landscapes to showcase a more avant-garde and stylish holiday aesthetic. For those who prefer a different visual language in their decor, this adds a unique, non-traditional option to the collection. Download options (without calendar) are available for resolutions including 1024x1024, 1440x900, and 2560x1440.

Cozy Season Motifs

For The Hannon Group, the shortest days of the year are the best excuse to lean into warmth. Their submission leans on the rituals of winter evenings—blankets, hot drinks, and company—as a way to bring a sense of hygge to the desktop.

Getting Hygge

Jo Smets offers a visual reminder that December is not one single season. Coming from Belgium, her mental image is snowbound and cozy, but she points out that the Southern Hemisphere experiences summer during this month. The illustration captures those two contrasting views of the same calendar page.

Christmas Wallpaper — December Through Different Eyes

Winter from the Ground Up

Romanian designer Anca Varsandan documents the natural side of the cold season. Her photographs were taken during a particularly frosty week before Christmas, capturing the crystalline patterns that form on surfaces when temperatures plummet.

Smashing Wallpaper - january 10

Seasonal Quirks and Missed Ornaments

Not every holiday tradition goes as planned. Jonas Vanhamme, also from Belgium, turns an obscure observance into a playful scene: December 5th is known as Bathtub Party Day, and his design imagines what a celebration in the tub might look like.

Bathtub Party Day

Metallic and Mishap

Violeta Dabija from Moldova contributes a monochromatic winter scene with a silver palette, available for the standard widescreen resolutions.

Smashing Wallpaper - January 2011

Elise Vanoorbeek of Belgium captures the spirit of holiday decorating, with a comic take on what happens when the centerpiece does not cooperate. The designs range from small screens up to large 4K displays.

Christmas Wallpaper — Christmas Fail

Seasonal Desktop Art, Ready to Download

Designers from around the world have submitted their latest work to our monthly wallpaper collection, and the December selection is filled with winter scenes, festive motifs, and calm, reflective imagery. Each entry below offers a preview and multiple download options in resolutions ranging from mobile-friendly sizes up to 2560x1600, so you can find a fit for your screen.

Catch Your Perfect Snowflake

Catch Your Perfect Snowflake — Igor Izhik, from Canada, frames the season's spirit of big dreams with a design centered on a single, delicate snowflake. "This time of year, people tend to dream big and expect miracles. Let your dreams come true!"

Resolution options include 800x480, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1440x900, and 1920x1080, among others in the standard aspect ratios. View a preview of the calendar version or browse the full set of no-calendar downloads.

Dream What You Want To Do

Dream What You Want To Do — Hong Zi-Qing from Taiwan offers a motivational take on the year's end. "The year will end, hope the last month, you can do what you want to do, seize the time, cherish yourself, expect next year we will be better!" Available without a calendar in sizes from 1024x768 to 2560x1440, with a preview and direct links to all variants.

Christmas Wallpaper — Time For Reindeer, Snowflakes And Jingle Bells

Time For Reindeer, Snowflakes And Jingle Bells — Acodez IT Solutions from India taps into nostalgic holiday feelings in this piece. "Christmas is a time you get homesick, even when you're home!" The design mixes classic festive elements like reindeer, a Christmas tree, and gifts with a sense of comfort and shared joy. Offered in both standard wallpaper ratios and portrait resolutions such as 320x480 and 640x480, with a full preview and all PNG downloads without a calendar.

Christmas Wallpaper — Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland — Dipanjan Karmakar from India illustrates a cozy scene of comfort and warmth. The design is paired with a quote from Edith Sitwell: "Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home." Available as a JPG set from 1280x720 up to 2560x1440, with a preview and direct links to each resolution.

Warm Designs for Cold Days

December’s chill is a recurring theme in this year’s wallpaper collection, and a few designers have leaned into the season’s cozier side. Kim Lemin, a designer from Belgium, offers a playful take on winter weather with a giraffe wrapped up in a scarf to beat the cold.

Christmas Wallpaper — Cold Outside

Marko Stupić from Zagreb, Croatia, finds holiday magic in an unexpected place: the deep sea. His design draws a connection between the glowing allure of jellyfish and the shiny sparkle of Christmas lights, describing them as “lights of hope in the deep blue sea.”

Christmas Lights under the sea.

Two other designs round out the seasonal selection with classic holiday cheer. Sofie Keirsmaekers of Belgium contributed a festive piece simply titled Christmas Time, while Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden offers the straightforward greeting Happy Holidays.

Christmas Time!
Happy Holidays

All wallpapers are available in a wide range of resolutions, from small mobile screens up to 4K, and each comes with options for a calendar or without one. Previews are provided for each design so you can see how they will look on your desktop.

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