When to post Christmas models

Most Christmas models go up in the last two months of the year. The ones that went up in October did better. On MakerWorld, the typical Christmas model posted in October had about 1.3x the downloads of the typical model posted that month without a holiday word in its title. One posted in December had 0.56x, about half.

We studied 1,004,137 public models from MakerWorld and Printables, two of the biggest sites for sharing 3D printing files: 327,759 from MakerWorld and 676,378 from Printables. Every number here describes those models, not every model ever posted.

When they go up

We counted models whose title names Christmas, in English and a handful of other languages, from November 2023 to October 2026. That's 5,792 on MakerWorld and 4,521 on Printables.

On MakerWorld they peak in November, at 103 per 1,000 new models, and stay high in December at 69. Printables runs a month later: 40 per 1,000 in November, then a peak of 53 in December. In September it's still quiet on both, 10.1 and 3.0 per 1,000.

Which ones do better

To compare fairly, each Christmas model from the 2024 and 2025 seasons is set against the median model posted on the same site in the same month, so they've all had the same time to collect downloads. We leave out any model with a Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day or Easter word in the title when we find that median, and we match titles by those words in English and a handful of other languages, so the exact multiples move a little with the word list. 1x means a Christmas model did as well as everything else that month.

On MakerWorld the line runs downhill. October Christmas models sit at 1.28x, November at 1.05x, December at 0.56x. Only 36.9% of the December ones beat the typical model from their month.

Printables, counting free models only, is kinder to latecomers. October Christmas models sit at 1.73x and November at 1.62x. December ones still come in above the line, at 1.08x.

In the chart below, each site has its own scale. The same bar length means a different multiple on each site, so go by the numbers.

September looks good on MakerWorld, at 1.53x, but it's a small group: 93 models over two seasons, against 400 in October. On Printables, September's 39 models sit at 1.00x. We wouldn't plan around it.

If you upload

Have your Christmas model up in October. It goes up before most of the others do, and in our sample October's Christmas models beat the rest of their month on both sites. December is the month to avoid on MakerWorld, where Christmas uploads are at 69 per 1,000 and the median one trails the rest of the month.