What does reaching an age of reason have to do with taking photos of your kids for photo Christmas cards? Well, when your children are very young, you can jolly them and then maybe bribe them to sit still and smile. Once they are old enough to understand and believe your threats, you can blackmail them into looking their best.

Keep in mind that you have to first lay your groundwork by building up your “rep” as an adult who does not make idle threats. So, do not bandy about parental threatening phrases unless you are committed to carrying through.

You also have to give some thought to your threats so you can craft them to suit the specific child. For example, somewhere during the “tween” and teen years, many youngsters go through a sullen phase. Getting this child to show up for the family holiday photo is near to impossible and getting them to smile is usually too much to hope for.

A good threat for your daughter may be, “If we can’t get a decent, smiling photo of you, I’m going to use that baby picture of you in the saggy diaper!” Be aware, however, that this threat may leave your male child totally unmoved. For that child, you may need to threaten to personally and thoroughly clean out his bedroom and throw out all of his much-loved “junk.”

Have a bit of faith in your parental wiliness and hang on to your patience until that wonderful age when they stride off to college, confident that they already know more than their parents. They will become condescendingly sweet to the old folks for a while and you can snag some fabulous digital photo cards to one day show your grandchildren, with whom you will snicker over their parents’ weird hair styles, poses, and clothing choices!

Be careful! Be very very careful when sending digital photo cards. This is an observation I made after receiving a digital holiday card from a good friend of mine. Let’s call her Mary so I don’t get in trouble. Mary has two children. Her daughter, Cindy, is an adorable eight year old who is polite and pleasant to be around. Nicky, her six year old brother, has his moments, but basically is an even tempered little guy who has a wonderful toothy grin.

I have always believed Mary when she told me that her little “angels” are just about as close to perfect as possible. Mary tells me (and anyone else who will listen) about them all the time. In fact, since I am fairly certain she won’t see this, I have to say she tells us about them until we could scream.

Well, when I got one of the digital photo holiday cards she sent out this year, I said to myself, “Dr. Freud, time to roll out the couch!” I saw mom and dad back to back in western outfits and arms crossed. Then, to my utter astonishment, the two “angels” were sitting in chairs, tied up and gagged. Underneath the picture was the greeting, “Have a Happy Holiday and a Peaceful New Year!”

I wonder if Mary realizes how grateful those of us who suffered the bragging abuse of the past sat with broad smiles and hopes of relaxed crowing rights in future conversations with her. Yes, it is the 21st Century and the wonder of things like digital photo holiday cards has made enthusiasts of us all. Never truer are the words, “One picture is worth 1,000 words.”

The loss of a family member or friend is an emotionally wrenching experience. We all know that. We search for words and gestures to help soothe this grieving period. Using digital photo cards to create a memorial keepsake can be an aid in healing the acute initial response to such a loss.

Start the process by selecting the loved one’s photo for the front of the photo greeting card. Deciding on which photo to use is also a way of giving yourself time and permission to look back over years of personal memories at your own pace. For the text inside the photo card, you may choose to write a brief biography, a description of the deceased’s personality traits, a favorite poem or verse or scripture or simply a heartfelt expression of how this dear person will be missed.

There is no prescribed time frame for sending out such a memorial, but anywhere within the first year following the death would be understandable. You should allow yourself all the time you need, so that the preparation process can have a palliative effect for you. The sharing of these memorial keepsake photo cards, with others who knew and loved your loved one, can be a kind and gentle comfort to all.

Every now and then, inspiration strikes and when it does, you can get the cleverest digital photo cards.  In this case, I came across a photo I had taken about fifteen years ago at my nephew’s pre-school graduation ceremony.  I remember taking pictures of him then as he looked so adorable, dressed in an oversized graduation gown T-shirt, tasseled construction paper mortarboard, and solemn facial expression. I thought how amazing it is that he’s about to graduate from college and how quickly those years have flown by.  Suddenly, I rushed to the phone to call my sister.

In our family, no happy occasion passes by without a party.  My sister was planning a really large house-and-yard party to celebrate her “baby’s” special event (not to mention the end of parental tuition contributions!).  I told her my brilliant idea, which she loved, and we put our heads together to create a memory.

First, we had invitation photo cards made, with that adorable preschool graduation photo on the front of the cards and all the party info inside.  Using that digital photo as inspiration, we took full advantage of 21 years of taking pictures of our little man as he was growing up.  We had several “gems” blown up to poster size and used all these sweet, mischievous, funny, heroic, athletic, adorable photos as party decorations.  Not only were they festive, but they also proved to be guaranteed conversation pieces.  In fact, a whole lot of us were taking pictures that day to continue the trend.

The icing on the cake, so to speak, was taking pictures for the photo cards to be sent by the graduate as thank you cards.  The digital photo features the young man, dressed in his real cap and gown and a great big grin, standing next to a blow-up of the picture used for his photo card invitations.  I bet that would make a great photo card invitation for his retirement party some day!

Christmas photo cards have been out there for a fairly long time now.  Parents everywhere have been enthusiastically sending out bright and shiny images of their beloved progeny on their annual Christmas photo cards.  I have fond memories (now that it’s long over) of trying to keep two small children and one shaggy dog to stay still and all look at the camera at the same time.

There was my four-year-old son sitting in a child-size red rocking chair in front of the fireplace; such a warm holiday photo card, right?  He had one hand valiantly holding the back of his giggling baby sister’s dress to keep her from crawling away, and the other hand holding onto our dog’s beribboned collar to keep her in place, all while smiling at the camera.  The next year, I got oh-so-clever for our Christmas photo cards: put the tree up early and gift-wrapped three big open boxes.  You guessed it: two held a child each and the third held the dog (with a facial expression conveying, “Huh?!”)  My poor son had a bad cold so I put a little concealer under his dark-rimmed eyes and he wound up looking like a vampire child.  (Amazingly, he grew up to be normal, despite these travails.)

Outside of the holiday season, I’ve seen some “Christmas” photo cards put to brilliant use.  A friend who couldn’t get it together in time for holiday mailing sent out digital photo Christmas cards with an inside message saying, “Yes, I’m late!  Happy Valentine’s Day!”  A cousin sent a thank you message on a photo card, with our family’s group photo from his son’s wedding on the front.  It was such a nice remembrance of this “family reunion” that I set it atop my piano for daily viewing.  A business associate opened up a beautiful new facility in a new location and announced it by sending a photo card that pictured himself, like a “proud Papa,” standing in front of the new headquarters.  Inside the photo card, his message said, “Thanks for your business and welcome to our new home!”

So, as I set out to illustrate, Christmas photo cards aren’t just for holiday sending anymore!