Christmas Card Photo Ideas – Cute & Creative Family Poses

Discover amazing Christmas Card Photo Ideas to use for inspiration!

If you’re anything like me, the Christmas music and decorations you see in stores well before Thanksgiving does two things:

1. It puts me in a good mood because I love Christmas.
2. Stresses me out because all I can think about is my TO-DO LIST!

First thing on my list is usually Christmas gift shopping, although I have historically proven to be a poor planner and run around like crazy the day before Christmas trying to find the last few gifts on my list!

Second thing on my list is our family’s Christmas card. The frugal girl in me cringes at the thought of spending hard-earned money mailing something that will only be viewed a handful of times (at most), then thrown away by most.

But the self-conscious side of me who begins receiving cards in early December…she sees that first card and starts freaking out about being the only one who won’t be mailing a Christmas card!

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will always feel the peer pressure of sending Christmas cards. And now that PHOTO cards are all the rage, make that peer-pressured into sending one with a nice photo of the family on the cover.

Last year, I completely failed at Christmas cards. I literally waited until the week before Christmas, couldn’t figure out where to get them printed online without paying a ton in rush shipping charges, and ended up designing a SUPER UGLY layout on PicMonkey using RANDOM PHOTOS of the family from throughout the year and uploading it to CVS Photo for same-day printing. It was a MESSY ORDEAL to say the least. My chiropractor still has our card displayed on her bulletin board, and I cringe every time I see it! It really is THAT bad. LOL

This year I’m getting my act together and getting photos taken in November, then uploaded/printed by the first week of December like a sane person. That will give me time to personally address each card and envelope (something I enjoy doing) before mailing them out.

I’m not into spending a ton of money on photos, so I’d like to come up with something cute to do on our own and perhaps get my sister to take the photos when she’s in town next week.

Creative & Cute Christmas Card Photo Ideas

Seeing as I like to share my lengthy research sessions with others so no one else has to recreate the wheel, I’d like to share some of the super cute Christmas card photo ideas I found online.

My first two ideas came from the LollyJane blog.

The first is a card layout that would just be of our kids. I’m sure trying to tie up the three of them (ages 5, 3, and 1), would be a huge ordeal but end up super cute!

The sparkling light effect was achieved using the bokeh effect. I’d use my Canon Rebel for this.

The second pose would be just as tricky, but for a different reason. Instead of tying our kids up with Christmas lights, my husband and I would have to be tied up, unable to grab them when they try to do something crazy. I think I like this idea a bit better for its humor.

My next two pose idea for Christmas cards come from the Harvard Homemaker blog.

The first is a simple yet super cute idea for a Christmas card photo – make a festive holiday banner and have the family hold it in an outdoor setting. I love this idea because you could really take this photo any time of year and use it for Christmas cards.

The next one is perhaps the one I like best so far (and the easiest picture to take). Dress the kids up in holiday-themed nightgowns and take a picture of them looking out the window. All it would require is morning light. Unless I find one I like better, I think we’ll us this idea.

Beautiful Christmas Card Poses with Kids

I thought this pose from Pinterest was exceptionally sweet. I could probably get my kids to cooperate for this one.

This picture of a girl blowing glitter out of her hand might take a little bit more technical know-how than I’m capable of, but I bet I could learn the technique within the next week or so, right?!  It would be an adorable photo.  I’d have to give my oldest the glitter and have the others stand in the shot.  Hmmm…maybe this isn’t such a hot idea.

Here’s a photo where the kids are in order from oldest to youngest. It’s simple and something I could easily do myself. I’ll have lots of opportunities to capture a shot like this over the next couple weeks. I even have a velvety red blanket to use and an evergreen in our side yard that could make a very similar background.

Greeting Card Pictures – Entire Family or Kids Only?

Now that I have some Christmas card pose ideas in mind, I need to figure out if we’re going to fit the entire family in the shot or just go with the kids. We did the kids alone one year only to learn from my husband’s co-worker that apparently we broke the golden rule of Christmas cards – the entire family has to be in it.

Pretty sure he made that up, but of course now I’m always thinking of it as I’m preparing our cards!

If we don’t do the matching outfit one, then I also need to figure out what we’ll wear. I hear coordinating colors are IN now and matchy-matchy looks are OUT. Is that right?

Which one of these photos do you think would be easiest to take myself for our Christmas cards?

If you are going the DIY route as well, are you taking your own photos or getting them done professionally?

I’d love to see or hear about your card inspiration!