If you don't do professional holiday pics?

What do you do for your holiday card? I've always taken my own,usually just take a picture in the house bc it's easy and the kids are comfortable. I threw a blanket down in the grass this morning and snapped some pictures to see what I could get. My sister thinks short sleeves outside in the grass doesn't seem holiday enough. What do you think? Five years in and I'm out of ideas!

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

I usually go to the Cutting Arboretum with some holiday props...a sign, a small tree, a wreath, ornaments, etc.
I dress her In a holiday outfit and get creative.
I have done it in the yard too. I like outdoors best. My house has no good spots for pics.
I always use a few props though to make it more holiday ish

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

I usually use Shutterfly to make holiday cards

ETA just try putting them in holiday outfits and try to do xmas decorations in the background.

Message edited 10/13/2016 2:38:37 PM.

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

Every year i drive myself nuts with the perfect set up, out fits, smiles. Not this year lol im taking a nice pic of both kids and using that pic on a Christmas card. Done with the stressing of the perfect card.

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In the past I've done pjs in front of the tree, last year my daughter was only five months so I had her laying on a blanket tummy time style and my 3 YO son copied her. It was very cute. For this year's card we just moved to our forever home so I plan on doing a picture of them in the backyard or at a nearby park. Regarding what your sister said, I think holiday cards can be a picture of your kids anywhere at anytime. Most cards I get are during the families' summer vacations.

If you don't do professional holiday pics?

I use a nice family photo. Last year, it was a beach picture. This year it'll be from a wedding

If you don't do professional holiday pics?

i say if you like the pictures you got today, then use those i have a bunch of friends/family that do a collage of pics from the whole year on their cards (trips, birthdays, family outings, whatever...) i really like that...and always say i'm gonna do that next year, but never do LOL
we usually just get dressed in "nice" clothes, take the camera and tripod to a park near us and see what we can get. we're getting ready to do ours for this year soon. I just went to today and bought a few "props" at michaels- big christmas "ornaments", a "Happy Holidays" sign... figure i'll set something up with those- only because i like a "holiday" feel. But again, if you like the picture you got, use it

If you don't do professional holiday pics?

Thanks everyone. I'm not totally happy with any of the pics so I'm going to try again anyway which is part of why I asked. I did the Sayville grange one year and my sister said the same thing. Maybe bc I don't get Christmasy dresses since we don't really celebrate. I may try putting a sweater over their dresses to see if that looks more wintery?

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

I've done pics in front of our Christmas tree or our decorations and with Santa at the mall.

Of course that means last minute frenzy but what else is new

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

We didn't do pro pics one year and I used a picture I took. Also, my DS is born in August so last year we did a photo shoot on the beach right before his birthday and I used a BEACH picture on the holiday card so I say anything goes, as long as you have a picture you love.

If you don't do professional holiday pics?

We don't do holiday card and we don't do professionally shoots. For anything we have done pics for they were all taken by us. I just can't see spending hundreds of dollars each holiday for pictures

If you don't do professional holiday pics?

I usually put a bunch of pictures on a card - pictures of the boys together, pictures of them on their own.

When they were younger - I tried to take holiday-ish pictures closer to the holiday but, now that they are older and don't change as much - I will be using pictures from throughout the year.

We may do a holiday shoot though this year - DH won one in a golf outing... But, that's the only reason why.

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

Aside from school. I have zero 'professional' pictures of my kids.

I like our holiday cards to be inclusive of 'who we are' that year -

My 7 year old in his hockey gear, or on the ice, the 5 year old playing baseball, a family vacation pic, something fun we did ......and I include a shot of the boys in front of the tree. That's the one I 'pose' - but otherwise, it's random

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

I throw a nice sweater on them & take them to a park and make them smile for an hour or so until I get a nice shot. lol

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

If you don't do professional holiday pics?

We don't do anything with a holiday theme. We just find a nice place that will have a nice backdrop (usually botanical gardens). When he was tiny, we took a photo in front of the mall tree (around the back from where Santa sits), but that was the only one that had a holiday photo.

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

Last year we dressed them up & plopped them in front of the tree & snapped some pics & DH ordered the cards online. Probably will do something similar this year.
I figure people will look at it for 2 seconds & throw it in the trash (except my MIL lol).. so I don't worry much about how it turns out.

If you don't do professional holiday pics?

We just go down to a local park or trail and take our own pictures. I don't make the picture "christmasy". I prefer the "fall" look with the leaves and trees.

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Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

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Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

Posted by PennyCat

We didn't do pro pics one year and I used a picture I took. Also, my DS is born in August so last year we did a photo shoot on the beach right before his birthday and I used a BEACH picture on the holiday card so I say anything goes, as long as you have a picture you love.

Re: If you don't do professional holiday pics?

Last year (their first Christmas) and this year we did professional pics because the photographer I love does mini sessions for the Holidays. This year was soooo difficult. We got ONE good pic of my twins together because they took turns having meltdowns. My photographer is awesome and still got great shots but it made me think of future Christmas cards.

I love the idea of having a collage of pics of the kids from throughout the year and may start that when they are a little older. Right now, it's chaotic wherever we are so its hard to get nice photos of them at this age (18 months) when they are constantly on the move.

This will be our card this year

If you don't do professional holiday pics?

I refuse to pay these ridiculous prices for a 30 minute shoot that includes 5-7 digital images -- I don't care how nice the pictures are. Not worth it IMO. Every year, I keep my eye out for Groupon deals and like JC Penneys photography the best (they usually have them for Picture People and Target, too). I just went last weekend and the Groupon was $23. It included a full session with 2 different backgrounds, 3 high resolution digital images of my choice from the session e-mailed to me with a print release, and 1 photo sheet of my choice (I got 8 wallets but you could have done (1) 8 x 10, (2) 5 x 7, etc.) It also waived the sitting fee. Emily at the Sunrise Mall location in Massapequa consistently gets good pictures of DD. Granted I don't like every picture from the session but there's usually always 3-5 that I think are great.