Last updated: November 6, 2021

Do you love the excitement of the holiday season as you begin to plan picture perfect moments to share, post, and send to family and friends? Many people do and - they’re often surrounded by family members who don’t share their enthusiasm when it comes to dressing up for and posing for holiday photos.

Here at Plymouth Cards, we want to take a moment to share some of our thoughts on what actually makes the “perfect” photo for your holiday cards.

• Consider using another big event from the year. If your family celebrated an anniversary, graduation, new baby, new spouse…share that beautiful and memorable moment. Let others share in your joy! This is our card from Christmas 2018.

• Instead of putting everyone in their “Sunday best” and watching them twitch and tug at their clothing, coordinate favorite outfits that bring out their personality. Let your photos reflect your everyday, fun-loving, slightly imperfect, incredible family as they really are. All of these work perfectly. 

• Imagine all the holiday photo cards you’ve seen over the years and think of one that really stood out to you. Quite likely, they used humor to do something a little different from the stiff group photos. Capture your family doing something fun in a favorite location so your holiday photo has a natural glow that comes from genuine smiles.

• Think about the reaction your holiday card will get when it’s opened. Would you like the receiver to feel something and smile at your unique approach this year? (Example: Have you seen our Clarence the Snowman ornaments? We took something mundane and put a fun twist to his attire so that everyone who hangs him on their tree this year will smile and feel connected in a unique way.)

• Look online for inspiration to discover fun, new ideas. Think about details like lighting, indoors and out, unexpected props to get a more creative, or putting a spin on the “expected” (blur out the Christmas tree lights, let it “snow” flower petals, or ski across a cactus-studded desert).

As an avid photographer of our family and travels over the years, I love looking through photos when my kids were still young. And I now wish I had used some of the "less than perfect" photos that showed their personalities and the way they interacted with each other. My goal was the perfect staged photo but I see so much more in the candid shots now than I ever did before.

Visit some of our other blog posts for ideas and photos that may inspire you to take that perfectly imperfect holiday photo this year.

And be sure to shop all our photo insert note cards for your holiday cards:

• Holiday design photo insert note cards
• Solid colors photo insert note cards

Other posts to check out:

• 6 fun photo card ideas
• Holiday card ideas that they will want to frame
• How to pick the best card color for your photo
• 5 Fun Christmas Card ideas for 2020