Celebrate the Holidays With a Brighter Smile

As you head into the holidays, there are a number of photo opportunities, whether you celebrate a white Christmas or you’re a little more Southern in your style. You may be planning to celebrate with your friends, your spouse, your kids, your parents, or your whole entire extended family. Whatever type of celebrating you do, you’ll want your whitest smile and some ideas of great photos to take. Here are 10 to get you started.

1. Christmas cookies – Get photos of you or your assigned cookie baker as you whip up the best treats of the season.
2. Decorating the tree – You’ll definitely want pictures of the decorations going up. And not just the tree! As you put up special items that come out only at holiday time, get a snap of your partner or children putting up the special décor that means it’s time for winter celebrations.
3. Family time – While a lot of candid shots make the season special, take the time to dress in coordinating outfits and get pics of the whole family together.
4. Christmas crowns – If you do poppers as part of your holiday tradition, have everybody put on their tissue crowns and get a picture of the royal family. Go ahead and get snaps of people pulling their poppers as well.
5. Squad goals – Even if you do most of your celebrating with your family, don’t forget to spend time with your closest friends, and to record it with fun snapshots.
6. It’s snowing – So quick, grab the camera, bundle everybody up, and get outside for pictures in the first snow of the year – or the fifth, or anytime it snows. Snowflakes falling can make for some very artistic snaps.
7. Festive props – If you have babies or young children, or even teenagers, you may want to take some photos with special props like a sleigh or a garland of popcorn and cranberries. There are plenty of props to choose from, so go with what has meaning to your family.
8. Santa hats – What would Christmas memories be without at least one photo of the whole family with Santa hats? Get everybody in on it, from the newest member of the family to the grandparents and great-grandparents.
9. Opening the presents – It can be tricky to get good snaps of everyone opening their presents and it might take some advance work to get the lighting right, but the joy on each person’s face as they open just the thing they wanted is priceless and you’ll want to record it for all time.
10. Christmas outfits – Get your family matching Christmas outfits or jammies, and take photos both posed and candid throughout the day. This is a perfect idea for a cozy Christmas at home.