I love receiving vacation photos on Christmas cards. My friends and associates travel much more than I will ever be able to. Photo Christmas cards with digital prints of some exotic locale, featuring the families of the people I know make me feel as though they had brought me along. It may be freezing cold outside, but the warmth of the tropics seeps through these pictures into my living room.

Of course, another reason I love these digital photo cards at Christmas is that it’s like the gift that keeps on giving. The photos are promptly put on my refrigerator at home, or on my desk and wall at work. Sometimes when it gets particularly hectic, it helps me when I look at the photos, especially the kids and pets.

Here's an idea - send vacation photo Christmas cards featuring a picture from your last trip.

Your pictures do not have to be of people. If you have a talent for photography, you can use shots of scenery or events that you saw while on vacation. The roaring ocean, a simple shell, a native dance, or a glorious sunset will make your one-of-a-kind vacation photo the card most treasured by its recipients.

Someone remarked that it would be a great idea to have one made for our company to send to clients, vendors, and employees. I have proposed just that to my superiors, and they are considering choosing a digital photo from our company picnic for this year’s Christmas cards.

So whether it’s for business or pleasure, hop on to the vacation digital photo train and put your skills to work.

Vacation photos frequently have fabulous backgrounds, built-in so to speak, making them a rich and unique source of that perfect shot for your photo Christmas cards. Your photos may include the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls in the background. Perhaps you’re standing by a huge redwood tree, or toes-in-sand with the ocean surf behind you. Maybe you were captured, screaming on the downhill side of a roller coaster ride! How about under a Broadway marquee or a-sail on the Hudson with the Statue of Liberty off your shoulder?

Whether you’re using your photos to send holiday greetings or using them as invitations, announcements, or thank you cards, you might not need to go crazy trying to devise a new display shot. Digital photos make the whole process that much simpler. You can easily scan your already-available vacation photos until you find “the one.” These days you can even cleverly crop your digital vacation photos to eliminate that stranger whose loud clothing accidentally appeared off to the side of your familial group. Better yet, if you thought to ask that stranger to snap the picture so no one is left out by standing behind the camera!

One of the really nice attributes of vacation photos is that everyone tends to look genuinely happy, at-ease, and naturally well-rested. Honeymoon shots make excellent first Christmas photo cards, not to mention distinctive thank-you-for-the-wedding-present cards!

Give it some thought. Which would you rather have people see – frozen smiles from a studio shot or mischievous grins from the backyard kiddies’ pool during your economically-challenged vacation?

I came up with a great idea this past holiday season. Normally when my family sends out holiday cards, we’ll use a card with a wreath or a snowman or maybe a nice winter scene. But this year, we did something different – we sent out photo Christmas cards using a digital photo from a recent family vacation. I used ChristmasCardsDirect.com to create the cards, and they came out great!

My family spent a week down the Jersey shore this past August and we had some great digital photos from our family vacation that were taking up space on my computer’s hard drive. Normally, people would get dressed up in Christmas garb months ahead of time and pose for a picture (I guess). But we had these beautiful photos from our vacation that would be perfect. The ChristmasCardsDirect.com site made it very easy to pick a design, upload the specific picture we wanted to use, edit the picture, and send it on through for printing. In two weeks time, we had our photo Christmas cards in our hands, ready to be mailed out to relatives and friends.

There are probably other companies which can digitally print photo Christmas cards but since ChristmasCardsDirect.com did such a terrific job, I know I will use them again without a second thought.

Ahh vacation! How we look forward to some relaxing time off from the day to day hustle and bustle. We spend time dreaming of the laying on the beach in the Bahamas, watching the sunset in Hawaii or sailing in the Cayman Islands. We plan and plan, and then the day comes and what!?! It’s over already!?! Thank goodness for vacation photos. Taking vacation photos with your digital camera while travelling is the best way to preserve the memories of those days when you didn’t have a care in the world except for what time lunch was being served. Vacation photos are also great options to consider for your holiday photo cards.

Digital cameras are one of the best things invented, especially for people who travel. You can fit so many pictures on a single memory card, and there is no need to worry about changing film or bringing extra film canisters. You are always ready for every photo opportunity that occurs while travelling. What if you ran into Oprah or Britney Spears while sunning on a beach in Cancun? What if Brad and Angelina decide to have dinner in your favorite vacation spot in the Hamptons, and they sit right next to your table?!? These are definitely photo ops, to say the least, but I am dreaming again. My vacation photos consist of family and friends doing vacation things like visiting museums in New York City, looking for bargains at street fairs in Point Pleasant, renting bicycles in Cape May, and taking long walks on the beach in Cape Cod.

I don’t like to be too structured while on vacation but I always make sure I take a few digital photos that would make great holiday photo cards. Holiday photo cards are so popular now and I can see why. Sites like ChristmasCardsDirect are so easy to use, and their cards are real cards…not just something that looks like a photo. These photo cards have your digital photo on the front of the card, and they open like a real card. On the inside, there is a greeting and the cards can be personalized…how cool is that?!? You have to check out the foil lined envelope that comes with the card too!

So make your friends green with envy this holiday season and use your fantastic digital vacation photos as your photo holiday cards. It’s one way to keep memories alive.

Pop quiz time! What do you think most people forget about when they are picking out pictures for their digital photo Christmas cards? Give up? It’s vacation photos! People often scramble to find the perfect shot of the kids and family or even just themselves to fill that blank spot on their Christmas cards. I’ve heard of nightmare stories where moms and dads make their kids pose for hours in front of the Christmas tree until the best shot has been taken (those poor kids!).

The best photo, however, could be right under your nose and it was taken months prior to Christmas. Just because it’s cold and snowy in December doesn’t mean your holiday photo cards have to be winter-themed. Some of the most natural, fun and beautiful shots are the ones taken while you’re on vacation! Those pictures are also a great way to show your loved ones where you’ve traveled since you last spoke or wrote to them. So next time you are looking for the “it” shot to send in your photo Christmas cards, remember to go into the memory-filled vacation and trip pictures taken prior to the Holidays!

I remember going on some great family vacations when I was younger. No matter what the circumstances were, we always seemed to set aside some time in the summer to go on a trip. Whether we drove to the beach or flew to an amusement park, we always had a great time.

The only part I used to hate about those summer trips were all the vacation photos. For some reason my parents were obsessed with taking pictures of me and my brothers. I never quite understood why. Maybe they were looking for a good shot for our photo Christmas cards. Or perhaps that was just their way of enjoying themselves. Regardless, it’s tough to put a genuine smile on your face when you were staring into the hot summer sun. As a child, all you wanted to do is build a sand castle, eat an ice cream cone, or go on the next exciting ride; lining up for yet another boring picture and being asked to “smile naturally” was not on the top of the list.

As the years passed by, we all grew to have a finer appreciation for those dreaded vacation photos. Every so often an album pops up and we get a good laugh at each other. As we flip though the pages I start to understand why my parents took so many of those pictures. It wasn’t about the faces we were making or the beautiful scenery. It was about reliving the moment and sharing the memories years later.

Design #B27DW

Where are the vacation photos and fun shots from your trip last summer? Are they still on the memory card in your digital camera? Maybe you uploaded them to your computer so your friends can see them. But it’s not very likely that you printed them. Me neither.

Now you can print your favorite vacation photo as Christmas photo cards with ChristmasCardsDirect. While you share the fun and the memories with your family and friends, your photos will get to see the light of day!

My family had a memorable trip to the beach and a national park this year and we took hundreds of vacation photos. We are now deciding which frame goes best with three people in hiking gear near a waterfall, giggling because we were taking a self-timing picture and weren’t sure when the camera would go off. Maybe design #B27DW Kaleidoscope Photo Christmas Card, or maybe we can put three pictures in one frame with design #B08DW Sugar & Spice Photo Card. Or maybe no frame at all and we’ll do a full bleed design with A00DW (Full Photo Holiday Photo Card).

Design #B08DW

The process is so easy. First, you add photos to a list in the site’s photo cards module. You’ll see a thumbnail of each photo. Then you drag and drop the photo onto the card design. Don’t like a photo? Just click “Undo” and then drag and drop a different photo. Next you select the greeting and imprint for the inside of the card and the return address for the envelope. And the best part is you get to see what your card looks like at each step.

I’m having fun designing our family photo Christmas cards and I know our friends and families will enjoy our personalized message. Give it a try and use some of your digital photos in a unique photo Christmas card!

Here’s a little story of how my photo holiday cards from last year came to be from a vacation I recently took in Italy…

It seems like just yesterday that my family and I traveled to beautiful Italy to celebrate my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. Up until that time I was not what anyone would call a picture taker; I always left the photography to others.  However, I realized that I may never have another chance to visit Rome, Venice, or my Grandparents home town so I needed to make sure I had a camera to memorialize the wonderful memories we were going to make.

We started our vacation off snapping pictures of the eight of us dining in a vineyard just outside of Rome.  Our journey took us from one amazing photographic place to the next – from Florence and the “David” to Pisa’s Leaning Tower to our hotel built into the side of a mountain in Assisi to canals of Venice.  I have the most amazing photos of us visiting my Dad’s cousins in Positano (he hadn’t seen them in over 30 years).  And, our cousins owned a hotel that was famous (scenes from “Under the Tuscan Sun” were shot there), so we were anxious to take pictures not only of the family we hadn’t seen but of the famous balcony from the movie and the original frescoes in the hotel.  That first Christmas after our trip I decided to use that amazing picture from Positano as my photo Holiday cards so everyone could once again enjoy our once in a lifetime vacation in Italy.