Why you need Christmas photos!

Its that time of year when we see the end of the year approaching. Everything is covered in pretty lights, the malls are stripped bare of all the fun stuff from last minute shoppers, and we take note of all the truly great things in our lives.

Yes, I'm talking about the holidays. That fun time of year when we get to gather with our friends and family, share a gift or two, and merry in their company.

But what if you don't get to see your friends or family. What if they moved away, and seeing them in person just isn't possible?

Enter, the Christmas card! These paper products that have been overly marketed for years and may even seem tacky. But they aren’t all bad, in fact, they present some wonderful opportunities as we reach the end of the year!

Holiday cards are a chance to round up the family and have some fun by taking some photos together! Whether its hiring a photographer for a holiday photo session, using a tripod, or even just taking photos with Santa at the mall.

Using a photo on your cards can be fun because we not only get a cute Christmas picture, but because its freezing a moment that we can reflect on later. Having photos taken for the holidays can be a celebration of our trials, our accomplishments, and our growth.

You can look back on each holiday card, and literally see you and your loved ones change through the years. The baby becoming a toddler, the grayer hairs coming in, or that random boyfriend who showed up that one year. If you’ve kept all the cards through the years you could even create a book of them and flip through the years gone by!

Sending Christmas cards with your photo on it is actually one of my favorite parts of the whole taking photos thing! We get to send something personal to our friends and family. Holiday cards offer something physical that others can receive as a small gift and hold in their hands as they open the envelope. Sending these personalized cards is a reminder to our loved ones that they are in our thoughts, even if we haven’t been able to see them in a while.

Christmas photos don't need to end with matching flannel. Spice it up and get in the holiday mood with that ironic holiday shirt from the store, or with ugly sweaters with the dinosaurs in Santa hats and just get silly.

So put that generic Christmas greeting card back on the shelf at the store, and start some new traditions this year. Pull out all the stops and bribe the family with some candy canes and hot cocoa. Because your Christmas card photo is going to be great!