Have you ever walked into a convenience store and look at one of those photo Christmas cards? You know…the cards where you can place one of your family photos into a slot?  They always seem to have the same happy family posing for the picture.  Traditionally you send these cards with a studio portrait of a family member or your entire family.  Personally, I like to put a little modern spin on the classic idea.

Here are some Christmas photo cards tips to help you get a little more creative this season:

• Ditch the Studio – Those posed shots do look very nice, but they don’t tell a story.  Use a digital camera or a high-res scanner to take candid shots of the person/family.  It’s these small memories we hold on to the tightest.
• Find your “Calling” – Most people don’t carry a camera around at all times, but they carry around cell phones.  Cell phone cameras are becoming a standard feature in phones, and can take high-quality photos.  If the moment strikes you, this is an easy way you can instantly capture it. Now you have a fun picture to share.
• Don’t Forget to De-Digitize – Print out your pictures on high quality photo paper and send them the old fashioned way.  You may be tempted to e-mail them out to friends and family after taking, but e-mailed photos don’t come with that lasting impression.  Think about the smiles they’ll have when they open a beautiful Photo Christmas Card they get in the mail this December.  No matter how high-tech we become, there’s nothing like the feeling of receiving real Christmas cards.

Wow!  Without even trying, this year I’ve got one of the most excellent family photos for my photo Christmas cards!  It started with a Grandparent’s Day gift: tickets for the whole family to go together to the circus – grandparents, parents and children.  Getting there included the usual merry-go-round of logistics planning, and teasing about one another’s directional foibles and timing mishaps.  We arrived in a little swarm of laughter, with every one of us feeling like a young child on holiday.  We started enthusiastically taking pictures of each other: sitting in a row, biting into big puffs of pink cotton candy, digging fists into the popcorn cartons.

Best of all, while we were taking pictures one of my enterprising children enticed a clown to pose with our entire group, while snagging a passerby to take digital photos.  The resulting family photo is a treasure of frozen merriment!  As soon as I saw the digital photos, I knew we just had to send that particular photo far and near as this year’s photo Christmas card.  I’m often writing notes in my holiday cards, to distant relatives and old friends, to update them on the growth and well-being of my children and grandchildren.  This year, I’ll let my family photo Christmas cards say it all for me!