Last Order Dates for Christmas 2026

We've Moved to Shopify A quick bulletin to say that our new Shopify store is live! You may not be able to tell at first that we have changed, as the design and colour scheme of our site is much the same. But I hope that you will soon find that it functions more smoothly than the old site. Despite my best efforts, the old one was never satisfactory. Benefits of Shopify There are lots of benefits for me, as the store is much easier to manage than the old one. This leaves me more time for creating art and fiction because I'm not constantly trying to fix broken bits of the site, and because the inventory, management and marketing links are of a much better design. Benefits of Shopify to you will be a smoother browsing experience where it is hopefully easier to find what you are interested in. Most of all, the checkout is improved. While the old checkout was safe and secure, it looked clunky and did not inspire confidence! You now have the peace of mind of Shopify's familiar smooth checkout to help you purchase. Let us Know As usual, there is just me doing everything so there are bound to be small errors here and there. So do let me know if you find something that needs fixing or have a problem with anything. Help us by having a browse around the site - enjoy the new features and make sure there is no missing information. If you haven't signed up to our email list, why not visit the Subscribe page and get your free short story or printable art greeting card?  

I can't believe that I am talking about Christmas 2026 at Castle Sefton Press! Not because it has come round quickly - it always does that - but because so much has happened to me and CSP since I was writing last year's Christmas post. It has been a positive year in so many ways and I have worked really, really hard to convert our store to Shopify, launch on Etsy, refigure our social media and tweak many other aspects of the business. I hope you enjoy the results this Christmas! New Christmas Range for 2026 You may remember this painting from the blog last year, entitled simply Christmas Tree. It's now live on our store on a range of products: cards, coasters, apron, tea towel, tree ornament, and storage tin. I'm so pleased to have captured a deep warm glow and some magical detail in this painting, and it looks wonderful printed on the items using our manufacturer's high-quality techniques. Take a look for yourself in the Christmas Shop. Christmas Offers 2026 If you follow me you'll know that I'm not a lover of offers. We try to charge fair prices for what we sell and don't include massive margins. And we don't bulk manufacture, so we don't have mountains of dead stock to clear. But I do like to offer a small discount or bonus to encourage new customers, reward loyal ones or encourage you to buy early for Christmas! Buying or ordering early is the best thing you can do to support small businesses at Christmas. And it's better for you too - there's far less chance that you'll spend Christmas Eve in a long phone queue to Royal Mail trying to find out where the temporary delivery man has left your parcel. (We try to make sure that never happens, but the couriers are not under our control). Early Bird Discount on Christmas Card Packs Enjoy 10% off all our packs of 10 and 20 Christmas cards until 14th November. If you send your cards early, you can save by sending them 2nd Class and with a saving on the cards themselves! Just add the cards to your basket for the discount to be applied. Christmas Bundle You know that we offer some permanent bundle discounts that pass on some of the savings we make when you buy multiple items. We always offer a special Christmas version, and this year you can save 15% when you choose any four items priced under £20. It's a little help with your Christmas shopping. Mix and match your own bundle items. Free 2m Roll of Wrapping Paper with an Original Art Work Turn one of our original artworks into a stunning and special gift this Christmas with free wrapping paper. A 2m roll of our original eco art paper - available in two designs - will be delivered to you free of charge if you add it to your basket along with an original art work. Black Friday I know, I know ... I don't like it either. But like so many other things that I don't like - Meta, AI & VAT for example - it is part of the business environment in which we exist. Many customers expect it and wait for it. So, we will be offering a storewide 10% discount from 23rd November until 30th November. Last Order Dates for Christmas Writing this section normally makes my heart sink, as it's so complex with all our different product types and delivery destinations. Happily, our art print manufacturer gets better every year at organising Christmas, and this year I can give you a fairly simple breakdown. Do remember that we can't guarantee anything only give you the best information possible. UK Dates For most products the last order date is 17th December. This is for all prints, frames, cards, aprons, notebooks, mugs, playing cards, tins and wrapping paper. Some products should be ordered by 12th December. These are paperback books, tea towels, coasters, tree ornaments and bags. Original art works can be ordered until 21st December. Don't forget that ebooks can purchased at any time - even Christmas morning! USA Dates We recommend ordering all physical products by 12th December. Don't forget that ebooks can purchased at any time - even Christmas morning! Canada, Australia & New Zealand Normal manufacturing and delivery times will apply for these destinations, which can vary from 5 to 17 days. All the details should be clearly on the product page, but if you are not sure or have trouble finding the information you need, please just drop me a line at contact@castleseftonpress.co.uk . Merry Christmas I love Christmas and I hope you enjoy some of our product offerings during this festive season. A Merry Christmas to you from both of us at Castle Sefton Press!

Christmas 2025 It's our first Christmas selling our full range of items: paperbacks, ebooks, art and products featuring our art, and I won't pretend it hasn't been a rush preparing. I was only just beginning marketing the online store at all when it was upon us. But we still have managed a few good things. Christmas Products for 2025 We have brought out a Christmas range featuring our artwork. There is a selection of art Christmas cards available singly, in packs of ten and packs of twenty. The Winter Bird design also appears on gift wrap, gift tins and a ceramic Christmas tree ornament, and the Santa's Tea Break picture appears on a festive jigsaw available in a range of sizes. We also have a special seasonal tote bag/gift sack. I was particularly pleased with the Winter Bird tins and ornament. The design transfers to those gentle gloss materials beautifully and looks both peaceful and elegant. I also launched my Harlequin Collection in the autumn and this is a very festive, colourful design that is perfect for Christmas. You can hear more from me about the inspiration for the Christmas collection and the new Harlequin design over on our new YouTube channel. Christmas Offers for 2025 We have been experimenting with some Christmas offers. One is a festive version of our regular bundle offers. The other two are focussed on encouraging customers to shop early, as the last ordering date for Christmas is earlier for our made-to-order items than it is for items held in stock. Christmas Gift Bundle We have some regular bundle offers always available and from mid-November until the last order date for Christmas, we are offering a special Christmas Gift Bundle. Pick any four items, including repeats, from our selection and get £10 off. That's a really good saving to introduce you to our new Christmas items and we hope you'll enjoy using it. Free UK Shipping on Christmas Cards until 1st December We don't generally offer free shipping, because the only way to do that is by adding the cost of shipping – there are costs such as packaging, fuel, staff, vehicles etc – to the price of the products. And we would rather be transparent about what you are paying for. However, we do sometimes offer free shipping on specific products as a promotion, and this is designed to encourage you to buy your cards early and get writing! Small Business Saturday It probably won't surprise you to learn that we don't do Black Friday. We don't make massive profits on our products, and the only way we could offer huge blanket discounts is by charging our customers more the rest of the year. (I'm not saying don't buy in the Black Friday sales, but it is worth doing your homework and making sure that you really are making a saving, and that it is a genuine product that you are buying and not an inferior one that's not normally for sale. Dodgy things go on in business!). We have decided to run a Small Business Saturday offer instead. Small Business Saturday is 29th November in USA and 6th December in UK. This makes it a perfect time for you to shop with us, as we have an early cut-off. We will be offering extensions of some of our usual bundle offers: £5 off all art prints, rolled and mounted. A big saving on our usual buy four to get £5 off bundle. Buy a paperback and get a second half price. Our usual bundle offer is 33% off the second book. Buy any hardback notebook and get a second half price. Our usual offer is £3 off when you buy two. We think these are good options for gifts (perhaps for yourself!). The offers will run 29th and 30th November and again on 6th and 7th December. Half-price Ebooks Because we do have an early cut-off for Christmas, from 16th December until 24th December our ebooks will be half-price. This means that if you missed out on shopping for our physical products for Christmas gifts, you can still give an ebook. Remember our ebooks are suitable for all formats and devices, so the lucky recipient is certain to be able to enjoy them. Last Ordering Dates for Christmas 2025 Please note that we can't guarantee delivery in time for Christmas. Things sometimes go wrong at busy times, especially with courier services. However, if you stick to these dates you should get your order in time for the big day. Paperback Books At the time of writing, I still haven't had the Christmas cut-off date confirmed by the paperback manufacturers. I'm recommending 14th December for UK, Europe, USA, Canada and Australia. For other countries I would order earlier if possible. If you need exact information, please drop me a line at contact@castleseftonpress.co.uk and I will ask the manufacturers. Original Art Works UK: 20th December Europe: 16th December All other destinations: 15th December Other Artwork UK Greetings Cards: 12th December Art Prints: 16th December DIY Frames: 16th December Framed Prints: 16th December Mugs: 14th December Notebooks: 16th December Coasters and Placemats: 10th December Teatowels: 10th December Aprons: 16th December Playing Cards: 14th December Jigsaw: 15th December Wrapping Paper: 16th December Tote Bag: 10th December Christmas Tree Ornament: 10th December Storage Tins: 14th December USA Greetings Cards: 16th December Art Prints: 11th December DIY Frames: 12th December Framed Prints: 8th December Mugs: 12th December Notebooks: 10th December Coasters and Placemats: 1st December Teatowels: 1st December Aprons: 8th December Playing Cards: 8th December Jigsaw: 16th December Wrapping Paper: 11th December Tote Bag: 1st December Christmas Tree Ornament: 1st December Storage Tins: 1st December Europe Framed Prints: 27th November Notebooks: 10th December Coasters and Placemats: 27th November Teatowels: 27th November Aprons: 8th December Playing Cards: 27th November Jigsaw: 10th December Tote Bag: 27th November Christmas Tree Ornament: 27th November Storage Tins: 27th November All other destinations We recommend ordering by 26th November. In Australia, Canada and New Zealand some items may be available later. Contact us for more details. Finally Thank you for your interest in and support of our small creative business in 2025. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New YearfromJohn Blake and Emily Tellwright