How to Make a Christmas Message Video from a Template in Premiere Pro

What better way to reach out this season than to create a personal holiday greeting. In this tutorial we'll show you how to make one quickly and easily using a Premiere Pro Christmas video template.

Featured Template

Before we get started, here's a brand new Christmas animation Premiere Pro template from Envato Elements.

Christmas

This is a nice simple Christmas message template for Premiere Pro, featuring 1080 resolution and 12 placeholders for text. Animated snowfall features heavily in this template, making it perfect for seasonal greetings.

How to Make a Christmas Greetings Video

Resources

If you'd like to follow along, here's a list of the resources used. They're all from Envato Elements, and so included in a monthly subscription.

Template

Christmas Slideshow

Footage

Images

Music

Christmas Miracle

1. Open the Template

This is how the template looks when you open it up. You can see that on the Timeline there's Main Scene, which is what you'll be editing. The effects—scratches, light leaks, vignette—are layered above it.

The main project is broken down into three folders: Edit, Final and Assets.

2. Add Footage and Stills

Go into the Edit folder and open the Shots subfolder.

Each one that you can see listed is footage that can be replaced with your own media. Double-click on Shot 01 and you'll see a placeholder in your Timeline.

Drag in your footage or still so that it fits above the placeholder in the Timeline.

You May Need to Resize Footage or Stills to Fit

If you make it the same length as the example one, it'll fit the template properly but be aware that you might need to resize or otherwise adjust it so it looks right. Replace all of the Shots in the Edit folder in the same way.

If you're using moving footage (rather than stills) you'll need to make sure that the action being demonstrated in the footage is over the placeholder, otherwise you might not actually see the right bit in the template!

Be Sure to Check Image Framing in Final Sequence

Because of the overlayed effects on the template, you should keep checking in your Final Sequence to keep an eye on the framing of your media to be sure of what you'll actually see.

3. Edit Text

It's probably a good time to note that if you don't install the font that a template uses, it'll default to one you have, so you might want to choose a nice festive font.

Open Final Folder and the Titles subfolder.

Double-click on any title to edit it.

It'll appear in your Timeline and you can double-click it again there to bring up the edit box.

Check how the text works with the background and effects

Again, refer back to your Final Sequence to see how it looks in the actual template.

4. Add a Music Track

Go to Final Sequence and drag your audio track into the Timeline, where it says Audio 1.

You'll probably need to edit your track to fit the template properly. If you're not comfortable with editing audio, just fade the track out at the end.

5. Render and Enjoy

Render out your video and you're ready to wish those you love a very Merry Christmas—and we hope you have one too!

About This Page

How We Picked

We looked at projects and considered all kinds of variables, including organization, complexity, experience required and overall difficulty, minimum hardware specifications, included versions and options, formats, resolution, file size, dependencies and required plug-ins (if any), language options, software versions supported, style, design, and cost. You can read more about how we select items at How We Pick Templates to Feature on Envato Tuts+.

About The Authors

This page was edited by Jackson Couse. It was written and updated by Marie Gardiner.

Have you used one of these templates? Let us know on the Envato forums. We love to see the projects you create!

How to Make a Christmas Message Video from a Template in Premiere Pro