With this guide, you can easily create your own Christmas sound effects, using just what you already have in your house. It’s quick, free, and a lot of fun.
To make this hands-on guide, I asked my sound-designing friends for ideas, consulted the excellent Guide To Sound Effects and did some of my own experimenting in the studio.
Thanks to everyone who’s helped out – and without further ado, I give you:
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO MAKING YOUR OWN CHRISTMAS SOUND EFFECTS
1: A cozy fireplace
Let’s start out with the warming, cozy Christmas fireplace: To create the sound effect of a crackling fire, there are several ways to do it: Slowly squeeze a bag of potato chips, or crumple a piece of cellophane. For the larger cracks and pops, slowly twist some bubble wrap, or break some matches.
2: Icy Sounds
Here’s how you create some great ice-cracking sounds: First off, freeze some water in an ice cube tray. Once it’s frozen, twisting and bending the frozen tray will give you some brilliant cracking and creaking sounds.
3: Magic
To sprinkle your projects with a bit of Christmas magic, there’s one particularly effective tool for that: Wind chimes. They give out a great, recognizable sound to use when something magical happens and you want to take the Christmas spirit to 11. It’s also a great sound for wintry ambiences. If you don’t have any wind chimes handy, here are several clever ways you can easily create your own.
4: Mistletoe kissing
For kissing under the mistletoe, here’s a recipe for creating a kissing sound from Mary Schoals: You’ll need a glass of water, your lips, and your forearm. Take a sip of water and wet your lips. Then, make out with the underside of your forearm, the part with very little hair–letting your mouth make sloppy kissing sounds.
If you’ve got an “assistant” at hand, you may be able to think of other ways of achieving a kissing sound.
Here's the Christmas Sound Effects Bundle:
With over 170 Christmas sounds and one-shots as well as other ringing, twinkling bells, this collection will help you complete your yuletide soundscape, conjuring up images of falling snow and hot cocoa, or a day on the beach with a fruity cocktail if you're in balmy Queensland.
For a little Christmas cheer, have a listen to the aptly-named 'Christmas Sound Effects Bundle'.
5: Ornaments
Dangle and shake metallic jewlery like earrings or similar for a ringing sound. Do you have a chandelier or similarly glass-equipped lamps or decorations in your house? They’ll make a great source for some glittery sounds too.
6: Presents
For the sound of presents being handled, sound designer Stuart Ankers suggests that you use a shoe box and fill it with various objects such as plastic toys, DVD cases, coins etc. Then shake the box with various degrees of excitement! For the sound of gift wrapping: Tear, glide, rub together and crumple old newspapers – or preferably magazines that have a slightly thicker paper quality – for some really useful sounds.
7: Santa in the chimney
For the sound of Santa squeezing himself through the chimney, try rubbing a balloon in sync with any visuals showing Santa’s wiggling efforts. Experiment with the various squeaks and creaks you get out of it. If Santa becomes stuck and manages to get free, add the almost-mandatory sound of a cork popping for a cartoony effect.
8: Skiing
A simple way to make a skiing sound is simply to rub a sheet of paper across a table or desk. For a harsher, icier sound, you can rub polystyrene against a concrete surface.
9: Sleigh Bells
You’ll of course get the best sound with the real deal – but if you’re low on bells, try this: Dangle a bunch of keys for the basic sound. For added effect, try dangling some metallic jewlerly (note: it might get slightly scratched, so beware) in sync with the key dangling for some more ringing. If you’ve got a sturdy metal chain with lots of links, you can also try beating/stroking/stepping on this while it’s laying tangled in a pile on the ground for some more ringing.
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WINDY HILL is a collection of high quality exterior wind ambiences.
The library consists of wind gusts through branches, shrub, dry grass, coniferous trees and more.
Recorded at superb 192 kHz/24 Bit2 Super wide AB recordings with a pair of spaced out DPA4060’s
3 M/S (decoded) with Sennheiser MKH8060 combo + Ambient ATE208
3 Sony PCM D100 recording
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RECORDED WITH:Â Sound Devices MixPre 6 + Sennheiser MKH 8060, ATE208, 2x DPA4060, SONY PCM D100
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Transportation – Ambiance is a great collection of ambience recordings performed at various transportation scenarios.
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A total 2h 37m of content.
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50 powerful industrial kicks tell a story about the role of a man among machines and unprecedented heavy mechanisms. The right kick is 50% success for a track in the true techno style and other experimental sounds. The pack includes oneshots of varying sizes and sonics, with booming subs, persistent tones and reflections. Inspired by illegal raves, parties at abandoned factories and dark basements.
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Ambisonic – Transportation is a great collection of ambisonic ambiences recordings performed at various transportation scenarios.
It is aimed to provide you with great spherical content to wrap your dialogue or main focus content, allowing you to create a conniving and immersing soundtrack.
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All files are tagged and categorized for your convenience – supporting multiple tag filtering browsing applications.A Sennheiser Ambeo microphone paired with Zoom H8 was used to create this product.
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Editing footsteps in audio post-production can be time-consuming. Footstep Loops II is a sound library that delivers a comprehensive kit of footstep sound effects made to ease your daily work.
The collection contains footstep sounds of various shoes and surfaces, recorded in different paces and edited to continuous but lively 30-second sound loops.
VARIETY
The Footstep Loops II Sound Library covers a wide range of different footsteps:
Barefoot, Socks, Slippers, Flip-Flops, Sneakers on Wood, Sneakers on Concrete, Boots on Wood, Boots on Concrete, Heels on Wood, Heels on Stone;
Grass, Gravel, Forest, Foliage, Dry Foliage, Stones, Puddle, Mud, Snow;
Stairs up + down: Wooden Stairs, Metal Stairs, Stone Stairs
PACEEach type of footsteps is available as a set of 13 sound files that represent a range from walking very slowly up to very speedy. Paces are sorted by Footsteps per Minute (FPM):
Ground Footsteps: from 40 FPM to 160 FPM
Stairs Footsteps: from 60 FPM to 180 FPM (up) / from 80 FPM to 200 FPM (down)
LAYERSSince all (ground) footstep loops have the same FPM paces, they can be layered easily. E.g. you can add a puddle sound element to sneakers walking on concrete etc.
CLOTHINGYou can add clothing as a layer to make the movements sound more natural. The sounds of jeans & jacket fit to all ground footsteps. Furthermore, versions with well-balanced clothing sounds of all main footstep loops are already included as ready-to-use files!
ADDITIONAL ELEMENTSSome experimental elements are also included in the library:
2 layers of floor creaks and one layer that adds the sound of keys in the pocket while walking.
TIME-COMPRESSPaces of the sound loops included in the Footstep Loops II sound library increase in steps of 10 FPM each. If you need a value in between, time-compress the file just a tiny bit – the quality loss is almost inaudible in modern digital audio workstations.
ONLINE FOOTSTEPS GENERATORTo get an impression of what you get with the Footstep Loops II sound library, go HERE and play around with footsteps online.
- 663 audio files
- 331 minutes total runtime
- all files contain meta-data / keywords for easy search
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All sounds from this library are included in:
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10: Sleigh Ride
For the sound of the sleigh moving through the snow, sound designer Kini Kay suggests you use a combination of flour and corn starch and take a block of wood and rub it around according to picture. For the sound of reindeer hooves, try beating two potatoes in a 3-beat rhythm in a pan filled with the flour and corn starch mixture above. You can experiment with adding sand, rice, and crushed crackers to alter the effect. Sprinkle with sleighbell sounds and make some huffs and puffs with your mouth to simulate those hardworking reindeer’s breathing.
11: Snowman-making
When you’re making a snowman, you’ll be rolling some big snow rolls to make up the body. To recreate the sound of this, fill a leather pouch or a balloon with corn starch, flour or salt. Then roll it between your hands as if you were rolling a sausage. For the squeaky sound of smaller patches of snow being added to a snowman, give the bag a few squeezes.
12: Snowball fighting
For a snowball being compacted-sound, squeeze a bag of salt / flour as with the snowman sound effects. For the inevitable snowball impact sound, punch the bag or a duvet. To sweeten the impact effect, also add the sound of you giving your chest a thump.
13: Tree felling
For the chopping sounds, chop on a wooden cutting board with a knife. Watch your fingers, and consider adding some vegetables to add texture to the chopping (great for soup later on, too!). To make a a tree falling-sound, sound designer Stuart Ankers suggests using the sound of cellotape being stretched out and then slowing it right down. Experiment with different speeds and pitches, and eventually it should sound like a thick tree cracking and falling.
14: Walking in the snow
When you need to create that sound of Santa walking through the snow, here’s how: Use flour or corn starch in a pouch (or a balloon), or rock salt in an open/wide container such as a bowl, then “walk” around with your hands in it – or actually walk in it with your feet.
15: Winter wind
Sound designer Sam Watson suggests that you try turning a touring bicycle upside down. Spin the tire and press a piece of stretched silk/parachute-pants/winter-parka against it – and out comes wind. For some extra howling, let the air out of a large ziploc bag (experiment with varying the degree of opening).
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– a few wintry highlights:
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Bob Skeleton library delivers exciting action sounds of Two Men Bob and Skeleton heroes that go down the track with more than 100 kilometers/hour.
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Christmas time. The time of the year everybody calms down and settles. The period is also dominated by a lot of festivities, shopping and winter actions.
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The elves have been busy in the Epic Stock Media sound effects workshop this holiday season. And just in time for Christmas, they’ve outdone themselves by crafting the shiny all new Christmas & Holiday Sound Effects Library.  It’s a complete collection of Christmas and winter holiday sound effects that’s perfect for YouTube videos, games, home videos, films, app games, podcasts, theatrical performances, explainer videos or any multi-media production.
Professional or novice, sound engineer or hobbyist can save a stocking full of time and immediately boost the quality of any production. Sounds of Jingle Bells, sleigh bells, Santa Claus and character voiceovers, Christmas magic sounds, whooshes and transitions, Santa’s sleigh fly-bys, fire and fireplace sound, toys and wrapping presents, tree decorating and background loops. Over 900 sound effects, loops, source and designed sounds. Premixed and mastered, everything is ready to use out of the box.
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Icey cold fast swishing skiis, stomping through deep snow or leisurely gliding through a beautiful winter landscape.
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Techniques: Stereo ORTF – Equipment used: Sennheiser MKH8040ST, RME UC(preamp) and Sony PCM D50(recorder).
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Designed Ice features 47 creative ice sound effects, designed field recordings and evolving textures, that combine the natural sounds of ice with otherworldly and experimental digital post-processing. The sounds range from heavily designed to basic elements.
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Get ready to hit the slopes with this wintery gem of a sound library!
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Elements: Ice is a collection of ice sounds recorded and edited over the 2015/2016 winter by George Vlad. The library is made up of more than 1500 individual ice sounds including cracks, creaks, hits, impacts, smashes, drags, stomps, splashes and water under ice ambience. The sounds have been recorded over more than 4 months in Romania and Scotland at temperatures ranging between -25C/-13F and 5C/41F.
The library’s most obvious use is as Foley elements since it covers a wide variety of ice thicknesses and performances. As is the case with other libraries in the Elements series, these sounds can also be used for other purposes such as gore sweeteners, glass or wood cracks, bone breaks etc. Additionally, all files are recorded and mastered at 24/96 quality which makes them excellent sound design elements ripe for serious processing.
Elements: Ice at a glance:• 89 .wav files ranging from 3 seconds to 8 minutes long; more than 1500 sounds in total
• recorded and presented as 24 bit/96 kHz mono files
• 1 hour and 26 minutes total length
• 1.59 GB uncompressed size – 1.09 GB zip archive
• recorded on Sound Devices 633 with Sennheiser MKH-8040 microphones and Sony PCM D100 with on-board mics and JrF hydrophones
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If you're after high quality footsteps sounds on unique surfaces, this library is for you: ‘Footsteps One’ is the first library of the series aimed at providing exciting and unique footstep sounds for your next project. All the sounds were recorded in quiet remote locations in Northern Finland.
Surfaces included:
Forest Plain • Frozen Stairs • Grass • Gravel • Pine Needle Ground • Snow Deep • Snow Packed • Snow Scrapes • Wood Scrap
Each surface comes with walk, scuff and stomp sounds with a lot of variations. Also included is bonus material like frozen stairs walk and snowscrapes recorded at various lengths.
You get the sounds in two formats: 96 KHz 24 bit and in 44.1 KHz 16 bit, for more convenient ways of utilizing the sounds in games and other media.
Don’t forget to check out the ‘Footsteps Bundle’ which gives you both of the libraries with a special bundle discount price!
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A footstep library built from long walks in cold and snowy conditions. Recorded in a remote, deserted Swedish forest, miles away from the nearest road.
Different types of snow and boots were recorded as well as different paces:
• Crusty
• Thin/hard packed
• Deep
• Frozen stairs and porches
• Stomps/scuffs
• Sneakers
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• KamiksEach track is easy to edit into multiple single footsteps for sweetening your tracks with real snow.
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In the winter of 2013-2014, both the Northeast and the Northwest were slammed with snow, ice, wind, and blizzards. The SkewSound team braved the frigid cold and recorded what we could: footsteps, compression, breaking ice, body falls, and much more.
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Prepare for shivers! Frozen Footsteps is a huge library of winter footstep & foley sounds recorded on 8 expressive and cold surfaces in real -20 °C (and below) temperatures.
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All surfaces were recorded in real movement with multiple walking and running velocities. Frozen Footsteps library includes also real jumping and landings sounds. Jumping sounds are often missing from other foley libraries, but are extremely useful for creating character movement sounds for games. This package gets you covered.
7 surfaces were recorded during two freezing winter nights in a quiet rural area in Finland. Everything from ground to trees was totally frozen and covered in frost. However, snow hadn’t fallen yet. This special moment allowed recording footsteps on unique surfaces that are usually under snowpack. To make the package complete, the frozen snow sounds were recorded later, with real crusty snow. In freezing temperatures, as well.
All sounds were carefully edited in iZotope RX and Pro Tools 12 removing the background and clothing noise. This was quite a task, but it was worth it. This makes the sounds extremely clear, versatile, and easy to use.
Library highlights:- 8 frozen surfaces
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– Sneak, walk, run, jump, slide, scuffs, and more
– 96 kHz, 24-bit stereo WAV files
– 1.20 GB
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– Soundminer & BWAV metadata
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Need crunchy, creaking, crackling sounds of ice cubes? This library delivers 98 sounds of ice creaking, ice cubes clinking and squeaking, ice moving, melting ice, and many other really cold sound effects in 24bit / 96 kHz quality.
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from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement
- a few highlights:
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The Junkyard Metal sound library includes 3183 clips in 98.49 GB. It collects the sound of metal hits, drops, pick ups, rattles and clatters, rumbles and rummaging, rocking, rolling, and scraping.
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The sounds were performed from light to heavy intensities and captured at 192 kHz, 24-bit resolution with Sanken, Sennheiser, Neumann, and Schoeps microphones.
The bundle is delivered with Pro Tools and Reaper mixing sessions, full professional embedded metadata, and metadata keyword import files in 7 languages.
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Recorded at an old bunker constructed near the Chebucto Head lighthouse (Halifax, Nova Scotia) during WWII, now derelict and covered in rust.
These recordings were a happy accident, discovered on the way to record something else. This large, heavy steel door has been rusting since wartime, and when I noticed it I immediately knew it would have a unique sonic character. When moved, it produces interesting almost musical tones, rich with harmonics and ripe for processing.
This library includes a variety of sounds generated by interacting with the door in different ways (scraping, punching, and moving at various speeds), and was recorded in mid-side with a Schoeps Mini CMIT + CMC6 MK8 into a Sound Devices 633.
All sounds are decoded to LR stereo, normalized and processed minimally beyond noise reduction. Files are tagged with metadata in Basehead and stamped in iXML, bext and ID3 formats.
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Lo-Fi Sci-Fi is a library packed full of characterful, authentic and gritty sounds. It was lovingly created by sound designers Barney Oram and Derek Brown, in homage to classic late 70’s and early 80’s sci-fi movies.
The collection is comprised of a wide range of sounds, including metal, organics, fire, mechanical, interfaces, creatures, foley and footsteps, abstract, ambience, and much more.Lo-Fi Sci-Fi features 620 24bit / 48kHz WAV files in total, including 45 designed sounds and 575 source sounds.
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BRAVO!! =)
Glad you found it useful! :)
Great article, time to try these out!
This is so very inventive stuff! Great article! Thanks a bunch for sharing :)
Thanks, happy to do so! Fun list to put together :)