Thirty-six pieces of Christmas text art in keyboard characters: six trees, five snowmen, a wreath, a stocking, baubles, candles, presents, Santa and one reindeer. From a 10-character tree on its side to a 16-line one with presents under it.
Read the full guide
Find the tree, the snowman or the greeting
The subject filters sort the set: 6 Trees, 9 in Snow and snowmen, 9 Decorations, 6 in Santa, reindeer and treats, 3 Presents and tags. For merry christmas text art, open Words and banners: 5 of its 8 pieces spell the greeting, from one line of 27 characters to capitals five rows high.
Getting a tree there with its branches on
A tree stays a triangle only in a monospaced font with every space kept. The cat ASCII art page has the reasons, and what Markdown does to a backslash: 24 of these 36 contain one. Squash-proof has 6: the three one-liners, and a tree, a snowman and a present padded with dots. Fits a comment box marks the 30 within 8 lines and 30 columns.
Tips
An ascii art Christmas card in a hurry: take Christmas tree with a sign and type over MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Merry Christmas bunting respells: each flag is a letter between two slashes over a v. Add or remove whole flags.
Which Christmas ASCII art is short enough for a bio or a status?
Three pieces are a single line: Christmas tree on its side at 10 characters, Snowman lying down at 18 and Merry Christmas, one line at 27. None contains a double space. Next up is Small snowman, 3 lines, 7 columns wide.
Can I put my own message on them?
Seven take words. The tree's sign and the snowman's placard hold 15 characters each, the stocking's cuff 8, the cracker 10, the gift tag two names of 8. Merry Christmas, one line takes any length. Pad with spaces so each line keeps its length.
How do I make the tree taller?
Asterisk Christmas tree grows a row at a time: put 11 asterisks under the 9, starting at the left margin. Christmas tree on its side gains a layer with each less-than sign. Tall Christmas tree is the largest piece here, 16 lines by 21 columns.
Christmas tree on its sideOne line: a star, seven layers of branches, a trunk and a pot, tipped over to the left. Add a less-than sign for a taller tree. 1 line, 10 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Merry Christmas, one lineThe greeting between two small ornaments. Type over the words with any of your own, at any length. 1 line, 27 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Snowman lying downOne line: two snowballs, the larger first, then a head with a carrot nose and a hat. It has fallen over to the left, or the thaw has started. 1 line, 18 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Show all 36 pieces (33 more)
Small, 2 to 4 lines 6
Christmas crackerA cracker pinched at both ends. Type over BANG, 10 characters at most, and keep 12 between the two pinches. 4 lines, 22 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Holly sprigTwo prickly leaves and two berries. Add an o for a third berry. 3 lines, 19 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small snowman, 3 linesA hat, a face with a nose and one ball of body with a button. 3 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Squash-proof presentA box with a bow on the lid and a ribbon down the front, padded with dots. No line starts with a space. 4 lines, 8 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Squash-proof snowmanHat, face and two snowballs, with dots where the spaces would be, so there is nothing to fold. 4 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
String of lightsA twisted flex with six bulbs under it, small and large by turns. Copy both lines again and paste them on the end for a longer string. 2 lines, 25 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Medium, 5 to 9 lines 25
Asterisk Christmas treeFive rows of asterisks, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, over a trunk of three bars. For a bigger tree, put a row of 11 under the 9, starting at the left margin. 6 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Bell with a bowA bell with a bow at the crown and the clapper showing under the rim. 7 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Candy caneA hooked stick of striped candy, eight lines tall, with a slash for each stripe. 8 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Christmas baubleA glass ball on a loop, with a band of two stars between two wavy stripes. Swap the stars for a name of 3 characters. 7 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Christmas present, big bowA box in starry paper, tied both ways with ribbon, with a bow of two loops on the lid. Swap the asterisks for another character to change the paper. 8 lines, 11 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Christmas puddingA round pudding with icing running down it and a sprig of holly on top. 5 lines, 12 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Christmas tree with a signA decorated tree with a star on top and a sign under the trunk. Type over MERRY CHRISTMAS, 15 characters at most, and keep 17 between the two brackets. 8 lines, 19 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Fireplace with stockingsA mantelpiece with four stockings hung under it and a fire in the grate. 7 lines, 25 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Four candles, four heightsFour lit candles on one base, each a step taller than the one before. To put a candle out, type spaces over its flame. 7 lines, 23 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Gift tag to editA luggage-style tag with a hole for the ribbon. Type over each NAME, 8 characters at most, and pad with spaces so the right-hand bar stays where it is. 5 lines, 21 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Gingerbread manRound head, arms out, two icing buttons and both feet turned out. 7 lines, 10 wide. Keyboard characters only.
House in the snowA house with a smoking chimney and a lit window, a fir tree beside it and snow coming down all round. 8 lines, 26 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Merry Christmas buntingTwo strings of flags, one letter to a flag. To spell something else, change the letters and add or remove whole flags, four characters each, with the string above and the point below. 6 lines, 37 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Mittens on a stringA pair of mittens, thumbs out, joined cuff to cuff by a string so neither gets lost. 6 lines, 23 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Reindeer faceTwo branching antlers, two ears, two eyes and a large round nose. 6 lines, 9 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Santa faceA hat with a bobble and a fur trim, two eyes, a round nose over a moustache and a beard of tildes. 9 lines, 12 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Small Christmas treeA star, three baubles and a trunk in five lines, 8 columns wide. 5 lines, 8 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Snow globe with a treeA glass dome on a stand, with a small tree inside and snow falling round it. 8 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Snowflake, 7 linesSix arms round an asterisk: barbs on the upright and the crossbar, a round tip on each diagonal. 7 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Snowman holding a signA snowman with one stick arm on the post of a placard. Type over MERRY CHRISTMAS, 15 characters at most, and pad with spaces to keep 17 between the two bars. 8 lines, 19 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Snowman with a scarfTop hat, carrot nose, a striped scarf and a stick arm out to each side. 7 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Squash-proof treeA Christmas tree packed round with dots, so no line starts with a space and no two spaces touch. 5 lines, 7 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Stocking with a nameA stocking with a name on the cuff and stars down the leg. Type over HOLLY, 8 characters at most, and keep 10 between the two bars. 9 lines, 16 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Three baubles on a branchA branch with three baubles hung from it on strings of three lengths, each with its own pattern. 8 lines, 19 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Wreath with a bowA ring of leaves made of @ signs, with o and * for berries and lights and a bow at the bottom. 9 lines, 16 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Large, 10 lines and up 2
Merry Christmas in blocksThe greeting in capitals five rows high, each letter built from copies of itself on a grid three columns wide, five for M. There is an empty line between the two words. 11 lines, 35 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Tall Christmas treeSixteen lines: a star, four tiers hung with tinsel and baubles, a trunk and two presents underneath. 16 lines, 21 wide. Keyboard characters only.
How this list was compiled: Every piece was drawn for this page and checked in a monospaced font on 2026-09-19; none is copied from an archive or another site. The set covers what the plan for this page names, a tree, a wreath, a stocking, a snowman and a Merry Christmas banner, and adds five more trees, presents and a gift tag, baubles, a bell, candles, holly, lights, a fireplace, a cracker, a pudding, a gingerbread man, Santa and one reindeer. Every figure is generic: none is a character from a film, a song or an advert. Each character was looked up in the Unicode Character Database, version 18.0.0: names and categories in https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt, width classes in https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/EastAsianWidth.txt, the Emoji property in https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-data.txt, all read on 2026-09-19. Keyboard characters only means the 95 printable ASCII characters, U+0020 to U+007E. Squash-proof means no line starts with a space and no two spaces touch. The comment box badge means at most 8 lines and 30 columns: a rule of thumb of this site, not a promise about any app. Licence: own work