Finding the right Christmas card and personalizing it with photos, colors and a holiday greeting is fun and easy, right? What could possibly go wrong? The truth is, not much, if you know what not to do. Here are the 6 dos and don’ts of Christmas cards that will help you avoid a costly (or embarrassing) mistake.
Christmas Card Photo Ideas
20 Christmas Card Photo Ideas
‘Tis the season to gather family photo ideas! After all, your Christmas cards won’t create themselves. To help, we’ve gathered the best family photo ideas that will make creating your Christmas cards quick and snappy (and extra merry) this year!
1. Holiday traditions
Create a truly traditional card by capturing holiday moments your family does year after year. Like picking out the tree, decorating the tree or baking holiday cookies.
2. Make a Run for it
Have the whole family make a run for it. You’ll be surprised how fun this photo idea is!
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What to Wear for Your Family Photos
Moms, we know how challenging planning your family photos can be. Choosing outfits, getting your kids in a happy mood and ensuring everyone is dressed and ready to go—it’s a process. So we’re lending you a hand by crafting outfit ideas that show you what to wear for your family photos. In addition, we’ve paired these outfits with the perfect holiday photo card to make your photos look even better this holiday season.
Rustic Casual
This look combines denim and leather, with touches of gold. Pair it with our Holly Jolly Reindeer card for a gold accent, or one of our many cards that offer natural wood grain backgrounds, like our Merry and Bright Swatch Book.
Woman: Leather Motorcycle Jacket, J.Crew | Super Skinny Low Jeans, H&M | Sleeveless Mesh Button Down Shirt, American Eagle | Pave Paillette Long Necklace, Chloe and Isabel | Noellle Boots, Steve Madden | Man: Chambray Iconic Worker Shirt, Gap | 1969 Slim Nep Denim Jeans, Gap | Coulter Chukka Boot, DSW | Girl: Cropped Denim Jacket, Gymboree | Sparkle Rose Top, Gymboree | Miscellaneous Ocelot Foil Tutu, Seed Heritage | Basic Legging, Seed Heritage | Two-Tone Riding Boots, Gymboree | Toddler Boy: Checked Shirt, Gymboree | Pull-On Plaid Cuff Jeans, Gymboree | Polo Ralph Lauren Ethan Low Ez Shoes, Zappos | Cards: Holly Jolly Reindeer, Pear Tree | Merry and Bright Swatch book, Pear Tree
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5 Christmas Card Photo Ideas
Photos, photos, photos. With the rise of Instagram and Pinterest over the past couple years, photos have become the focal point of online sharing. This trend has influenced our designs in Christmas cards, as we’ve introduced more Instagram-friendly cards as well as more cards with multiple photo cards. Here are 5 Christmas card photo ideas to help you to find and take the best photos, as you get ready for the holiday card season.
1. Sibling cuteness. Show off your kids’ personalities and how they interact on a daily basis. Are they silly? Does one like to tell jokes? Show that in your photos. Remember, sharing day-to-day fun gives friends and family a glimpse of your kids’ personalities, which is what they really want to see.
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Not Your Usual Christmas Card Photo Ideas
Are you struggling to find good photos for your Christmas cards? Or maybe you just need one or two more photos to fill out a card that has a lot of spaces for photos? At Pear Tree we see a lot of creative Christmas card photo ideas from our customers that aren’t what you’d expect to see, but that’s why we love them. Here are some alternative photo ideas you can borrow for your cards!
Pets as family members: A photo of your pet always brings a smile. Does he know any tricks? Even better.
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More Christmas Card Photo Ideas
We’ve chosen some of our favorite new Christmas cards to illustrate how clothing choices and the use of photo filters in your Christmas card photos can dramatically change the way your cards look. (Of course, starting with one of our awesome Christmas card designs doesn’t hurt!)
If you already have your card picked out, be sure to show it to your photographer because, aside from letting him or her know the style of photo you like, it can inspire location, posing, propping or lighting ideas. Knowing whether you may want to try black and white or a photo filter is important, too. Here are some Christmas card photo ideas from our new collection we wanted to share.
Make your colors count
The red sweater, green pants and scarf on the little boy in our Merry Merry Picture Frame Christmas Cards absolutely make the photo, especially with the white snow, dog, and relatively colorless background to make the colors really pop. Similarly, the bright colors of the shirts on the kids in our Twinkle Lights Photo Book Christmas Cards match the card’s bright color palette. If you want a bright card, wearing bright clothes is one way to achieve that!
Let your card wear the colors
Another way to emphasize bright colors is use black and white photos, and frame them in a colorful card to let the holiday message stand out. To make sure your photo looks great in black and white, wear darker colors than your skin tone so faces are highlighted. And if you are starting with a color photo and adding a black and white filter, try adding the contrast & sharpen filters or the vibrance filter to intensify the lights and darks in the photo. Four examples shown, clockwise from top left: Joy Full, Sparkly Wishes, Vintage Treescape Circle and Tall Tale Christmas Cards.
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Autumn inspires colorful Christmas card photo ideas
As we enter into the peak season for beautiful fall foliage, don’t miss this narrow window of opportunity to take advantage of a stunning color backdrop for your holiday photo cards, courtesy of Mother Nature. The warm yellows, oranges, reds and browns of autumn, are eye-catching, flattering to faces, and available only for a limited time!
A path through the woods, a pile of fallen leaves, or the textural interest of dried grasses and blooms in your garden make wonderful backgrounds for your Christmas card photo ideas. Whether it’s a shot of you with your dog, your significant other, or your family of five, the focus of the photo should be your smiling faces, but it’s fun to play with different angles and aperture settings to bring that colorful background into sharp focus (larger f-stop numbers) or to blur it (smaller f-stop numbers). Themomtographers.com has a great explanation of aperture settings if you want to experiment, but check your camera first. Many newer models have automatic settings that achieve the same results.
What if you miss the boat and all the fall leaves are gone by the time you start thinking about Christmas card photo ideas? Don’t worry, there are plenty of fall activities that make great photo opportunities, such as the all-important pumpkin-choosing day, pumpkin carving, raking leaves, apple picking, hayrides—even Thanksgiving if you can wait that long! Since great photos are the key to fabulous photo Christmas cards, the more photos you take, and the sooner you start taking them, the better your selection will be.
Once you have a photo you love, you’ll be ready to start creating your holiday photo cards. Still looking? Read more family photo ideas on our blog. The holidays will be here before you know it!