Maybe I surround myself with weirdos, but many of my family and friends do not like having their picture taken. This can make photographing people a bit of a chore, especially if your attempting to snap a decent picture for your photo Christmas cards. Ask my mother to sit down and smile for a Christmas morning pose in her robe and she’ll tell you to wait while she puts on her face. Ask my brother to smile and he’ll give you the same blank stare that you are used to seeing on a driver’s license – or maybe a celebrity mug shot! And my friend Sabrina…the great majority of photos snapped of that woman consist of the top of her head and a napkin, glass, or other object to block out the rest of her face.

But I digress. In this age of digital photography and photo-editing, people do not have to be afraid of their yellow teeth or under-eye circles. It’s as easy as snapping the shutter button, inserting the SD card into your card reader, and opening Photoshop on your computer. You can whiten teeth, get rid of red eye, and even airbrush out the unsightly pimple that crept onto your chin overnight! Sure, it used to be that the only photographs that looked good were the ones in magazines, but if you have a savvy computer friend (or anyone under the age of thirteen) in your household, you have the power to make your digital photo Christmas cards really stand out.

So the next time you whip out your camera, only to be met with eye rolls, sighs, and the sight of your Uncle Tony fleeing the scene, let the subjects of your photos know that you’ve got it covered. They may ask to see proof, but it will be worth it to never have to photograph a “talk to the hand” pose again!

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?

Every year, without fail, I receive tons of photo Christmas cards from my family, my friends, and even my stockbroker. Unlike the other beautiful greeting cards that I receive, display all over my house, and then throw away in January, I just can’t bring myself to throw away the holiday photo cards.

These holiday cards, most of which are created with digital photos from Christmas scenes past and present, contain images of people I know and love. How could I possibly throw them away? It would be too devastating, like somehow throwing them away. I just can’t do it. So instead, I add them to my picture box and one day I will gather them and finally make that memory scrapbook I have been promising myself I’d make for years.

It’s amazing how over the years the people depicted in the holiday photo cards have grown. They started as babies or as young families and over time have grown into young adults, ever expanding families, and yes – even old families. I would really love to make photo albums for each family and arrange the pictures chronologically so they too can be reminded of how time flies and also of how old they are!

Seems everyone has gotten on the sending Christmas photo cards bandwagon, myself included. While I started sending Christmas photo cards way before some of my friends and family did, mine is now just another photo card amongst the sea of them that I get every year. My brother also found himself in this position and decided to break away from the pack. I always like to complain that my brother got all the creative genes, leaving none for me. He did send out his usual Christmas cards with a photo of his lovely boys, but for a select few close family and friends, he decided to do something a little extra. Along with the photo Christmas cards, he sent each of us a drum. Yes, you read it correctly, a drum (as in the Little Drummer Boy).

Now I should say that when my brother gets an idea, he does like to go all out. I found out later that he spent many days locked away in his office during Christmastime making these drums much to my sister-in-law’s frustration. It was a beautiful, functioning drum and it had the Christmas card photo of the boys on the barrel of it! What a great idea! He also had the forethought of making it a miniature drum that could be hung as an ornament on our Christmas tree. So I will now always have my little drummer boys (nephews) on my Christmas tree, year after year, and my brother can continue to call himself the creative one.

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!

I got the shock of my life when my grandpa sent out photo Christmas cards for the holidays. You could have knocked me over with a feather! I didn’t even know he knew what a digital photo was.

It seems that unbeknownst to me, grandma bought him a digital camera for his birthday in an effort to, “get him out of her hair with a hobby.” Little did she know that she would create a monster. He never went anywhere again without his camera by his side.

I discovered he had a proclivity for the “candid” shot. He later sent a picture of me asleep on the couch at his house. That was fine, but he happened to catch me with my mouth wide open and my eldest son holding a worm over it. Hilarious, Pop.

But getting back to the holiday photo cards he sent out, I had to take the bull by the horns and explain that after a certain age, couples in bathing suits in Florida are no longer considered photogenic. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with on his next foray into the digital photo world.

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.

Wow! The Digital Age is here, and now you can take photos, download them, and create digital photo Christmas cards within minutes. I could never have imagined that type of technology would advance so quickly. Not to age myself but I remember loading the camera with film, and waiting to finish the roll (regretting buying a roll with so many pictures on it). It took months to be able to finish one roll and then take it to the store to be developed. Then there was the waiting while the store sent your film out to be developed in a lab before it was ready for you to pick up.

Digital photography is great…I get to see my grandchildren the same day the photo is taken! Last night my grandson hit his head and got a goose bump. My daughter took a digital photo and emailed it to me so “doctor” grandma could decide what to do. Happily he was fine, and this process only took minutes. My daughter loves all of her digital gadgets. When I visit her I watch her take digital photos, plug her camera into the computer and voila…instant family photos. Family photos are great, but I find myself appreciating them several years after the original photos were taken. Years later you remember how you hated the way you looked…and now you wish you could look that good again.

One of my sisters works for a photographer (and of course that makes her an expert!). During the holidays she tries to color coordinate us for the annual family photo, which often gets used in our photo Christmas cards. I have a large family – nine brothers and sisters – and to get us all to look like the model family is near impossible. She will position us so that we match the person standing next to us. If she only knew now much we dread this, but no one has the heart (or the guts) to tell her that we would all rather just eat. But all in all, she was right and it is worth the effort to do it the “right way” for lasting memories.

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.