Patreon launched its first holiday gifting campaign on December 1, featuring comedian Stavros “Stavvy” Halkias as a mob boss-style Santa Claus who resents the platform’s subscription model disrupting traditional gift-giving, per Podcasting Today.

The campaign, titled “Santa Hates Patreon,” was directed by Daniel Thrasher, who also co-stars as Santa’s associate in the dark comedy short film. Both Halkias and Thrasher are creators on Patreon’s platform and collaborated on writing and producing the video.

Revenue from gifts on Patreon has increased 250% since November 2024, Mike McGarry, SVP of Marketing at Patreon, said in an interview with Chief Marketer. According to McGarry, gifting sales rose 50% in November 2025 compared to October 2025.

The platform soft-launched its gifting tool in June 2024, ahead of a full rollout for the 2024 holiday season. Patreon has more than 10 million paying members and 100 million free members, with approximately 300,000 creators on the platform.

“Creators have wanted it for a while. Fans have wanted it for a while. It was very successful last year, hence why we’re doubling down with a more robust 360 campaign this year,” McGarry said.

Campaign Positions Subscriptions Against Gift Cards

The video portrays Santa as “an unhinged mob boss” frustrated that consumers are choosing creator memberships over physical gifts, according to Podcasting Today. McGarry contrasted Patreon subscriptions with generic gift cards.

“When you’re giving the gift of Patreon, it’s saying, ‘I know that you have a deep fandom for this creator and I’m going to give you the gift of the opportunity to get to know them deeper by becoming a part of their Patreon community,'” McGarry told Chief Marketer.

Production and Creator-First Approach

The campaign took approximately six weeks from concept to launch, McGarry said. Patreon tapped creators on its platform rather than using external agencies.

“We’re coming with kernels of insights and truly co-creating with creators from the ground up, which leads to work that is disruptive and resonates with our audiences,” McGarry said.

The platform emphasized the project’s human production in contrast to AI-assisted advertising, according to Podcasting Today.

Gift Recipients Show Retention

Creators can identify gift recipients in their backend systems and market to them differently. Many creators who generated gift subscriptions in 2024 are promoting the feature again this year, McGarry said.

“A lot of those fans that come on end up sticking around,” McGarry said. “The reason for that is people are giving it when they know that someone is a super fan of a certain creator; it’s not just arbitrary.”

Patreon said it will measure campaign success through gift volume, video engagement, non-skip views, completion rates, and social media sentiment, as well as increases in free memberships, subscriptions, search traffic, and web traffic.