I don’t know about you but each year I agonise over what to get for The Festive Mani as though as I were deliberating the name of a newborn child. Are the shimmery snowflakes, foil tips or glittery burgundy my favourites? Yep, it’s serious stuff.

This is serious, as a festive manicure can bring happiness and joy. Which is all the more reason why, although Christmas parties might be cancelled and salon appointments postponed, we shouldn’t forgo the festive nails this year.

These joy-giving home designs will make this year’s holiday season even more memorable. All you’ll need is a few good polishes, an orange stick (or ‘nail dotter’ as they call them in the trade) and a steady hand…

Starry starry night

5/5 Difficulty Level

Jennifer Wood, nail artist @j3nnailedit

1.     Use a base coat of electric blue nail varnish. You should apply two coats.

2.     Make small white dots where you’d like your stars to be. Use a tiny brush with a steady hand and drag four sides to create twinkles.

3.     It is highly recommended to apply a clear topcoat.

Unter der Mistletoe

Difficulty level: 2/5

Townhouse Salon @mytownhouseuk

1.     A basecoat should be applied to nails.

2.     Use one- to two coats for your neutral, sheer nail polish. We’re loving OPI Bubble Bath!

3.     After drying, apply your glitter nail varnish diagonally to the nails with a gentle curve. Once you have the line you’d like, fill in the rest of the tip with the glitter polish.

Tip of the dayUse nail tape on Amazon to assist you if it is difficult for you to draw straight lines. Place the tape on the nail and let dry. Use your glitter nail polish. After the glitter polish is dry, peel off the tape guide.

4.     Use an orangewood brush or cotton pad with nail polish remover to clean your nails.

5.     Once all nail polish has dried apply a topcoat

Sparkling tips

Difficulty level: 2/5

Georgia Rae, OPI ambassador @raelondonnails

1.     By gently pulling back the dead skin and cutting it off, you can prepare cuticles. File the nails to your desired shape.

2.     Use nail polish remover to remove oils. This will reduce nail polish adhesion.

3.     Apply a base coat followed by a sheer nude polish, you can apply 1 or 2 coats depending on how transparent you’d like it to be, you’re going to be covering the tips of the nail with glitter so don’t need to worry too much about seeing any imperfections on your natural nail!

4.     Wait for this base shade to dryAnd then decant a glitter polish onto a palette, the glitter polish I’ve used here is called ‘Confetti Ready’ ‘You Had Me at Confetti’OPI

5.     If you’re going for a minimal look, use a nail art brush or dotting tool to isolate which pieces of glitter you’d like to apply and begin individually placing the bigger pieces closer to the free edge and gradually add smaller pieces as you bring it down the nail, keeping it as random as possible.

6.     If you’d like the look to be glitzier you could use the brush directly from the bottle and place some polish at the tip of the nail and use a separate nail art brush to drag the glitter down toward the cuticle.

7.     Top coat

Let me take you to the candy shop

Level of difficulty is 3/5

Tina Michael is the founder and CEO @shoreditchnails

1. A basecoat should be applied to nails. The Top + BaseThis 3-in-1 top-and-base coat is hardening.

2. Apply one layer of pale pink – our polish The Angel is a gorgeous translucent and slightly iridescent pink.

3. Create the base of your asymmetric French by dipping your striper brush in to some white nail polish (we used Shoreditch Nails’ Tottenham) and start drawing a line from the tip of your nail down the side to create a curve.

4, Once you’re happy with the shape of your asymmetric French fill it in with white nail polish and start to draw the candy stripes using red nail polish, we used our favourite pillar box red The Bow for this.

5. You can finish the design by adding another layer to The Top + Base and some Nail Oil to keep your cuticles hydrated and help prolong your manicure.

Figgy pudding

Niveau of difficulty: 4/5

Carmen Davis, nail artist @purpleonmyfingers

1.     Form and file your nails

2.     Push your cuticles up

3.     First, apply a base coat. Then add two more layers of the brown color you choose.

4.     Add the glitter to the nails for the best dessert. Design

5.     To paint the pudding nails, apply white paint with a dotting tool or an orange stick

6.     To gently move the dots towards your cuticle, use the dotting tool. Combine

7.     Use the Berry dotting tool to create Berry dots at the edges of your cuticles. You can repeat the same process with the green leaves.

8.     Apply a topcoat to finish

Swirling snowflakes

Difficulty: 5/5

Sadie Jordan, nail expert at Peacci

1.   Let dry the Peacci 2-in-1 top coat. Then using a detail brush create an abstract curved line in white polish – Peacci’s Daisy is perfect.

2.     White will help you create your abstract shapes

3.     You can use the detail brush for a white star painted with white polish. Make three straight lines.

4.     Add some diagonal lines to make a snowflake.

5.     Place small dots around snowflakes to make them look snowy.

6.     After the design has dried, apply Peacci’s Gel’ous Topcoat to finish off your design