When it comes to the many things in life at which you excel, you are an amazingly supportive and encouraging parent and spouse, a pretty terrific cook and an outstanding driver.
On the flip side, you’ll probably never win the Pulitzer Prize for photography and are notorious for sending out your Christmas cards in January.
You love receiving beautiful or funny holiday photo cards from friends and family but don’t ever seem to have the time and talent to create your own, even though you really want to.
Fortunately, creating a lovely Christmas card and sending it out in a timely manner is possible — and is definitely something that an incredible person like you can conquer, all with the help of the following tips:
1. Look for Photo Ops Throughout the Year
For families with tweens and teens whose appearances likely won’t change much from March to December, be on the lookout for photo opportunities throughout the year and have your camera or smartphone ready. Conversely, say you’re a family with babies and/or younger kids? If that’s the case, you might want to wait until autumn to get a photo for your holiday card, but know that it doesn’t have to be a stressful experience.
For instance, if your kids are happily building sandcastles on the beach in July, snap a few shots of them as they work. Mornings are an especially perfect time to take photos while neat the ocean since the light is ideal. Additionally, if you’re enjoying a family barbeque with grandma and grandpa, see about nabbing a few candids of everyone laughing at the picnic table, or take some photos of your baby seeing the decorated and lit-up Christmas tree for the first time.
2. Find Inspiration Online
Another great way to find inspiration for your holiday photo cards is to look at websites that sell them. For example, Minted features full-color photos of all their cards, with examples of what type of picture would work best. Spend some time perusing the site. This should be helpful in giving you some great ideas for a card design, theme and/or wording.
3. Keep it Simple
After going through the photos on your smartphone, perhaps you didn’t find any that are holiday card-worthy. No worries — you can still pull together an adorable and amazing photo card. Just ask one of your friends who always posts incredible photos on social media to take some of your family in mid to late November.
Then, instead of the uber-cutesy matchy-matchy outfits, have your family wear clean and comfortable clothes that don’t have garish patterns and schedule the photoshoot for a time of day when you can be outside. Note: You’ll want to use natural light instead of flash.
Rather than lining up and saying, “cheese,” ask your friend to get some candid shots. For instance, hold your baby up to see the red and yellow leaves on a nearby tree, play on the swing set, walk your puppy down the block, and/or make a snowman.
4. Order and Address Early
Since most people get into a holiday time warp around Thanksgiving, your goal is to have your photo cards ordered and addressed before you put the turkey in the oven. Once you have the cards at your home, you can either print out address labels or keep the box of cards near the TV, along with pens and stamps. You can also ask your spouse and kiddos to help you. Indeed, learning how to address cards can be a great lesson for little ones. Once the cards are stamped and ready, you can drop them in the mailbox whenever you wish in early to mid-December.
See, You’ve Got This!
You don’t need to doubt your holiday photo card skills any longer. By remembering your family does and enjoys photo-worthy things all year, looking for ideas and inspiration online, keeping a planned photoshoot stress-free and fun, and getting everything done before December rolls around, people will be oohing and ahhing over your incredible holiday card this year and in the years to come.
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