If the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear; the chicest way is to paint your nails with a festive design. And there’s plenty of fun holiday motifs to pick and choose from, since the colors of the season are timeless and can usually be easily incorporated into just about any design you already love. Plus there’s a plethora of holiday nail stickers you can find online to make accomplishing nail art designs a breeze. But some of the cutest Christmas nail designs this year have to be the ones that incorporate the classic holiday treat: candy canes.
Some trends that surfaced in 2023 can be used to your advantage when incorporating red and white stripes into your nails, such as colored French tips or nails that have a nude base color with a festive design over it.
You may be hoping for a set of nails that aren’t too long and subtle and sophisticated enough for work yet still cute enough for a party. Or maybe you want to be bold and go for some long acrylics with a loud, sparkly pattern. Whatever your heart desires this Christmas, there is a nail design for you.
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Keepin’ it Classy
This adorable nail set by @naileditbeauty incorporates colored French nails and a Christmas-y design. If you’re doing this at home, take a look at this sticker pack, which includes tiny reindeer stickers and little candy canes that can fit on your nails.
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Candy Cane Outline
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Wavy Canes
These nails by @luxenailandbeautylounge have a neutral base and wavy, red and white design with a shiny finish. They’re not too hard easy to achieve if you have natural nails and don’t want them to be too long, and due to their organic shape, you don’t have to worry about being incredibly precise.
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Making Spirits (& Nails) Bright
These nails by @heygreatnails have a bit of a twist on the French nail trend. One half is just a regular French nail, and the other half sparkly red. The red and white combination is perfect for the holidays and the sleekness of the design will have everyone at the office party complimenting your nails.
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Candy Cane Accent Nail
@Heluviee designed these nails that have a few elements to them. While two are French tips and one is solid red, there’s also one that has a candy cane stripe design using red and silver polish. But what makes them stand out is the pointer finger, which has teardrop shapes on each end of the nail that you can paint on with these brushes.
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Stripes & Snowflakes
There is a lot going on with these nails by @nylove_nail. If you don’t have long enough nails to fit all of the stripes, snowflakes, and angled tips, you can try out these clear press-on almond shaped nails, and to make your life easier, paint the designs onto the press-on nails before you attach them to your nail beds.
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Maroon > Red
These nails by @nails.by.iz_ swap the bright red for maroon, so if you’re more into jewel tones than primary colors, these are the ones for you.
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Red and Silver Angled Tips
Angled French tips are so cute, and these nails by @thehotblend are made even cuter with the angled design on the bottom of the nail as well. A thin, angled brush would be helpful for achieving this look.
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Santa’s Favorite Candy
Santa’s certainly one to indulge in candy canes, and these nails by @jodiesbeaute adorably reference that. Using the French tip as a Santa hat is genius.
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Blue Christmas
This pinwheel design by @pop_polished is a reminder that you can always do a Christmas design using colors other than red and green. They may not be in classic red and white you’d expect of candy-cane nails, but there’s no mistaking the peppermint swirl.
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Red and Green Canes
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Run Run Rudolph
These nails by @kathryncollins_naillash_artist have both a red and white striped design as well as a Rudolph accent nail that your kids will love because, well, Rudolph is kind of the hero of Christmas.
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Matte Holiday Nails
Each of the long matte holiday nails by @pegi_nails are rocking a different design, but you can still stick to the same main colors and make your life super easy by grabbing a set of decals to pull off a smiliar look at home.
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Gingerbread and Candy Canes
Another design your kids will love: these cute, smiling gingerbread cookies with candy canes by @gsbeautybase. These gingerbread man stickers would be perfect if you can’t paint them on yourself.
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North Pole Nails
These red and green nails by @nailartbysofia_ feature peppermint swirls and polar bears with scarves — it really doesn’t get more wholesome than that.
Whether you want to go merry and bright or neutral with a holiday twist, your Christmas nails will shine with any of these candy-cane-inspired designs on them.
