The Department of Christmas Affairs (DCA) has announced special allowances for government writers – adding festivity to communications for the holiday season.
The Festive Communications Guidebook (FCG) is intended for December-holiday use only. The FCG covers:
holiday alternatives to common punctuation
holiday alternatives to the use of bold, italics and underline
holiday messaging and terminology to spread cheer, joy and goodwill
the use of secular symbols in government content.
Communications officers, media advisers and some content writers are permitted to use the FCG. UX writers and designers working on digital products should not use this guide.
Communications teams are encouraged to apply content governance to all FCG-crafted materials. It's important to remove FCG elements from all live content by 7 January 2024.
"The FCG reminds us what December is for – merrymaking. It lets us enjoy, and promote, the holiday season, even while working." — Yuliya Tyme, Special Communications Lead, Department of Christmas Affairs
"We understand the concern of UX and content designers – however, snowflakes lose contextual meaning when viewed on a health app in May." — Yuliya Tyme, Special Communications Lead, Department of Christmas Affairs
“We hope that our colleagues and the Australian public will be delighted when reading guidance material, fact sheets, work instructions and legal disclaimers this holiday season.” — Yuliya Tyme, Special Communications Lead, Department of Christmas Affairs
Image: The DCA's seasonal writing style guide for Government
From the guide
The Department of Christmas Affairs has shared snippets of the guide in advance of its publication.
Any punctuation that ends a sentence may be replaced by the symbols below
| Symbol | Description | Alt code |
| ❄ | Snowflake | Alt+10052 |
| ❅ | Snowflake | Alt+10053 |
| ❆ | Snowflake | Alt+10054 |
| ✾ | Mistletoe | Alt+10046 |
| ▨ | Gift | Alt+9640 |
| ⛾ | Cider | Alt+9982 |
| ☆ | Star | Alt+9734 |
Instead of plain bold text, consider alternating red and green
Example:
RPL licence holders are not permitted to operate flying sleighs. You must hold a CPL licence to operate airborne sleighs of any weight class.
Create compound sentences and link independent clauses with Christmas trees instead of standard punctuation
You may replace en dashes, em dashes and semicolons with decorated trees by holding alt and pressing 127876.
Example:
It’s everyone’s favourite time of year 🎄 the holidays!
Attribute Department of Christmas Affairs quotes or content using a Father Christmas emoji
You may use a Father Christmas emoji for attribution by holding alt and pressing 127877.
Example:
"We understand the concern of UX and content designers – however, snowflakes lose contextual meaning when viewed on a health app in May." 🎅
Valedictions during the holiday season
You may replace valedictions such as ‘kind regards’ and ‘sincerely’ with ‘ho ho ho!’ – all sign-offs made this way must end with an exclamation point.
For further media information, contact Yuliya Tyme, Special Communications Lead, Department of Christmas Affairs.
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