This December on CodePen was an invitation to a Winter Wonderland. A nice, cozy topic to close out the year. This month only had three challenges—which I’m not complaining about. I’m not a big fan of December celebrations, but I do love winter.

Prompt-wise, this month was perhaps the most “free,” and accomplishment-wise, it was my most fruitful. It resulted in two CodePen Picks and one addition to a CodePen Collection.

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Week 1: ☃️ Snow and Ice (🌟 CodePen Added to Their Collection 🌟)

The first challenge was a celebratory piece to mark the beginning of winter. The task: create a Pen with snow, ice, or even both. In this case, it was a bit of a no-brainer. I made a basic scroll animation that reveals a puppy in the snow by “defrosting” the screen.

It’s basic, not much of a “wow factor” in terms of tech. But it’s a bit of a contrast to today’s heavily polished web—and maybe that’s exactly why they picked it for a collection addition.

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Week 2: ☕️ Cozy Winter (🌟 CodePen Pick 🌟)

The second challenge was even broader: a cozy winter scene that could be anything. Nothing clicked for me until I remembered childhood Christmas tree decorations. I ended up making a Soviet-style shape collage resembling a glass cat ornament.

Since October, I’ve grown pretty fond of making these “shape pens.” It’s basically digital drawing with the potential for little easter egg tweaks.

This one was my “Baboshka Kot.” For people from ex-Soviet places, nothing screams “Christmas at Grandma’s” more than those old glass tree toys.

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Week 3: 🎉 Until Next Year (🌟 CodePen Pick 🌟)

The final challenge of the year invited us to throw a little pre-2026 New Year’s party. But after 2025, I think it’s universal to say that “new year, new me” and other optimistic outlooks feel a bit too scary to even ask for.

I went with a slightly ironic twist that represents how little motivation I have to hope for anything in the upcoming year. I think that touch of humorous irony is exactly what won me the last “Pick.”

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TL;DR;

December was “Winter Wonderland”—a cozy end to the year. I’m not big on holiday celebrations, but I love winter aesthetics. This month felt the most “free,” and it ended up being my most successful one yet.

Walked away with two CodePen Picks and one Collection addition.

Sometimes being a bit of a contrarian—choosing simple ideas and dark humor over “heavily polished” web trends—is exactly what gets you noticed. Or just do what you actually enjoy, and maybe you’ll find others along the way.