Holiday photos

[Gardenarian]

A lot of my friends send/give family photos as holiday cards, or enclose a photo. How do you feel about getting these? Do you enjoy them? Do you keep them? Do they become another thing that you don't want but feel guilty throwing away?

I'm thinking about doing a holiday photo but want some pre-feedback (there has got to be a better word for that!)

Thanks!!

[razz]

I rather like seeing the updated family photos to keep track of family and how they change over the years since we rarely see each other. I do keep them in a family album.
This year I am making a photo card of our 40 inch high "choir kids" that DH made 41 years ago. We have displayed them under the floodlights for 40 years except for one year that we were away too long for Christmas. I took the camera's storage stick into the Kodak kiosk and was able to make prints with Merry Christmas written on top for 19 cents apiece and that, with the choir kids history, is what I sending to family/friends this year in an envelope in lieu of regular cards.

[iris lily]

Look, you--
You had BETTER NOT have children who are related to me and NOT send a photo at least every few years!!! Got that!??? ha ha. I even want to see your kids if they are not related to me. Humor me, I don't have grandchildren.

But what I do with it is up to me. I keep a few, toss a few...

And this is for children I don't see regularly. I don't see any of my relatives regularly, actually.

[fidgiegirl]

I like them, but only if all the family is in. It bugs me when it's only the kids, especially if we've never met the kids!!

I used to keep them but now they go in the trash when the holiday is done.

[Rosemary]

I also prefer actual family pics with my friends in them instead of just their kids.
I keep some, toss some.

Here's what we do: every year I use PowerPoint to make a photo collage of our year, with a general greeting somewhere on the page. Like a letter-sized photo greeting card that I send out electronically after converting to PDF. I print a few on photo paper to mail to relatives who don't have email, but every year that has become a smaller number, and this year I think it will be limited to my elderly grandmother. I still send individual holiday notes/letters to some friends and family, but doing the electronic greeting has really reduced my workload this time of year!

[Stella]

I like them. Photos are good. I'm not as excited about Christmas cards without photos.

[Tradd]

I only get 1-2, but they go on my fridge (close friends)!

[goldensmom]

Do the photo. Photos and Christmas letters, love them both, keep all the photos, read then toss the letters. I keep the photos together in an album so I can look at them and see how the kids (and sometimes the adults) have grown and changed over the years.

[JaneV2.0]

I see pictures of friends throughout the year, so personally I prefer Christmas cards that are little works of art, whether photography, illustration, or handmade treasures. A clever cartoon is always appreciated. And yes, I've received pictures of people I've never met and couldn't care less about seeing. :devil: People's pets, of course, are another matter entirely!

[Spartana]

I like them, but only if all the family is in. It bugs me when it's only the kids, especially if we've never met the kids!!



Me too - I want to see the people/person I am friends with in a photo not just their kids. Although I send out Christmas photo-cards of my dogs but not of me. Guess that's even worse. I also throw the photo out afterwards and feel no guilt at all doing that. Here's a christmas photo card I sent out one year of my pups!

http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=584&d=1322855577

[leslieann]

I love the photos, especially ones that were taken by the family doing something together. We made a silly tacky one a few years back, three of us with santa hats plus the dog who was jumping around, and we were laughing and used the camera on a timer. I took it to WalMart and got prints with a tacky Christmas border and it was great fun. Even now it is great fun to see them on my relatives' refrigerators. I really like getting the photos, and in fact, have asked my (adult) children for photos of them and families for my only gift for the past several years.

Do the photos...people can pitch if they don't like them.

[Mighty Frugal]

I guess I'm the odd man out but I don't really care for Holiday photo cards. The one where the photo is the Xmas card. I am always propping them up on a 'real' Xmas card and then they fall over. At least make them like a card so I can display them;)

I usually just throw them out. For pics inside 'real' cards, I look at it, leave it somewhere-on a bookshelf, etc..and then a few months later, throw it out. I have too many of my own pics-I don't need someone else's as well!

I do this for all baby pics I get too..and grad photos....and wedding photos..sshhhh don't tell my family and friends!

[Spartana]

I guess I'm the odd man out but I don't really care for Holiday photo cards. The one where the photo is the Xmas card. I am always propping them up on a 'real' Xmas card and then they fall over. At least make them like a card so I can display them;)



They make regular cards that have a slot in the front (face) of the card surrounded by a decrotive border to insert your photo into, and it opens up with a saying inside i.e. Merry Christmas" or whatever like a regular card where you can add your message and sign your name. I use these. I just make some copies of the photo I want to use (usually standard 5 x 3's or something like that), slip them into the photo slot on the card. You can buy a box of them at the store just like you would a regular box of holiday cards.

[Greg44]

...okay you probably know I have a pretty warped sense of humor. One year we got a photo of a friend's new born...you know the type they take at the hospital...while they are still sporting their cone head. Not something I want to see in my Christmas card. My dw and I play this silly game of hiding strange things in unusual places - so when you least expect it - out pops - in this case - cone head baby photo. Then who ever receives it - then quietly hides it for the other one to find.

So now instead of just tossing those strange holiday photos -- play the hiding games. It really does become a real hoot.

We become very creative in our stashing...:laff:

[herbgeek]

I love getting these and watching my friends kids grow over the years. One of the few things I'm sentimental about: I keep all of these and every now and then go back and look at them. And I'm someone not that into kids, go figure.

[JaneV2.0]

Greg44, my family used to do something like that with gift-giving occasions and a Veg-o-Matic.

Love the conehead visual!

[peggy]

I like getting the family photo card. Helps me to recognize the kids when we all meet up at a funeral or something! This year i am making photo post cards for the Christmas cards, of our front yard. Actually I think it's the picture I have to represent me here, but with season's greetings on it.

[Tradd]

...okay you probably know I have a pretty warped sense of humor. One year we got a photo of a friend's new born...you know the type they take at the hospital...while they are still sporting their cone head. Not something I want to see in my Christmas card. My dw and I play this silly game of hiding strange things in unusual places - so when you least expect it - out pops - in this case - cone head baby photo. Then who ever receives it - then quietly hides it for the other one to find.

So now instead of just tossing those strange holiday photos -- play the hiding games. It really does become a real hoot.

We become very creative in our stashing...:laff:

Greg, you mean the "alien baby" lool? :D

[goldensmom]

...okay you probably know I have a pretty warped sense of humor. One year we got a photo of a friend's new born...you know the type they take at the hospital...while they are still sporting their cone head. Not something I want to see in my Christmas card. My dw and I play this silly game of hiding strange things in unusual places - so when you least expect it - out pops - in this case - cone head baby photo. Then who ever receives it - then quietly hides it for the other one to find.

So now instead of just tossing those strange holiday photos -- play the hiding games. It really does become a real hoot.

We become very creative in our stashing...:laff:

Greg44, I think this post belongs in the 'fun things to do for free' thread!! I don't find it warped at all, we do the same thing with stuffed animals and yard ornaments (pelicans, yard butts, attired gooses, gnomes) but it includes friends and co-workers. One never knows what might be in their yard when the return from work or a vacation.

[JaneV2.0]

What handsome pups, Spartana! And the setting is perfect--a holiday image I'd appreciate.

[Square Peg]

I don't like getting pics of just kids either. I love pet ones though, because I am a huge animal lover.
I only save the ones of family members (and then only sometimes) and I jsut store them in the Christmas decorations box.

[iris lily]

I like pet photos pretty much. That's often what I send out in cards.

There was one woman I know who had grown children. So, she took her dog to the photo studeo annually and had his photo taken, just the dog. Dogs don't change over a ten year period. Each year, the dog looked just the same. It was always the same portrait. That was funny in an unintended way.

[Simpler at Fifty]

We like getting the family or kids Christmas card photos. That is the only time we 'see' the great nephews and nieces. I love them more when there is a Christmas letter with the photo. Our dog writes our letter and we get a lot of positive comments.

[Simplemind]

Hmmmm, I'm usually the one taking the pictures so I'm not in them. I like it that way. I do enjoy seeing pictures of my friends children as they grow through the years.

[fidgiegirl]

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/cache/2011/12/wow-e1321933668742/702933029.jpg

Read the backstory (http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2011/11/21/behind-the-awkwardness-nutcrackers/)

I think it's amazing how genuinely happy the teens look!

[Greg44]

Fidigirl - l love this website -- many more "awkward" family photos on this site...you just got to say, "what in the world were these people thinking?" A real hoot!

[domestic goddess]

Christmas letters, photos, I love them all! DD and her in-laws share a lot of photos, as it is a very large family and growing all the time! My family was not so large, but it is a good way to keep up. I like to see the older generation in pics, too. Maybe it is to reassure myself that I'm not the only one who is aging!

[Gardenarian]

Great feedback guys! We are going to have a neighbor take a picture of all of us (including dogs) and maybe we'll wear some silly outfits too. Thanks!!

[razz]

Love the nutcracker look in the link!