Holiday Photo Calendars

Tips for Making Your Own Family Calendar for Christmas & Hanukkah

Oct 12, 2007

Spice Up Your Calendar with Family Photos, Maxime Perron Caissy, Stock Xchange

Planning to make a family picture calendar this year? Here are some tips for making your own calendar, and some creative theme ideas.

Personalized holiday photo calendars have become a popular Hanukkah and Christmas gift. The concept is simple-- for each of the twelve months, you include a picture of family members. These printable calendars can be created online at any photo site, or if you want someone to do it for you, you can bring pictures to a photography shop. Usually the calendars are inexpensive-- in the $15-$25 range--and you can make as many copies as you want. This is a great way to create a personalized holiday gift, even if you're not good at crafts.

Sound like a good idea? Here are some tips to keep in mind when creating a holiday calendar:

Be sure to include everybody. Leaving out a family member is a surefire way to hurt someone's feelings and exacerbate family politics! This includes stepfamily members, unmarried and gay life partners, and anybody else who will be hurt if they aren't included.
Include people equally. Four pictures of one kid and only one of the other? Think this will cause trouble?
Include lots of children's pictures. That's what relatives really want to see.
Include pictures of deceased relatives. This is something that will bring a tear or two to people's eyes, especially if the relative passed away recently.
Use flattering pictures. People are pretty sensitive about this, especially women! Take the time to locate the nicest pictures you can.
Avoid embarrassing pictures. That picture of your brother's drunken New Year's antics is pretty funny, but it's not calendar material. And leave out the baby-in-the-bathtub pictures of your grown kids. Use common sense.
Ask people about which pictures you can use (or not use). Since people are sensitive about how they look in pictures, you can avoid hurt feelings by asking everyone which pictures of themselves (and their young children) they do or do not want to be used. You can also ask people to suggest or supply you with photographs of themselves.
Don't include lots of pictures of yourself. People usually do this not because they're arrogant, but because they have pictures of themselves around the house and have fewer pictures of other relatives. Do your homework and get pictures of everybody. Sure, you can include some photos of yourself, but don't overdo it.
Get names and dates correct. Do not misspell your son-in-law's name, and if you use a wedding photo and list the wedding date, make sure it's correct.
Do not include pictures of family members' exes. Bad idea.

So should your photo calendar have a theme? It doesn't have to, but here are some creative themes you can use in your holiday photo calendar.

The grandkid calendar. If there are a whole bunch of grandchildren--or even just a few--this is the kind of gift that grandparents love. Don't forget to include stepgrandkids.
Month-by-month theme. Valentine photos in February, Halloween photos in October, and so forth. Yes, this has the potential to be kind of cheesy, but hey, it's a family calendar.
Family events theme. Your sister's March wedding in March, your daughter's June graduation in June, and so forth.
Birthday theme. Include pictures of people in their birthday month. Of course, this can be messy if three family members have birthdays in April, but photo calendars often let you include multiple small pictures for each month.
Then-and-now theme. In January, include your grown son's baby photo and a picture of him now-- and so forth throughout the calendar.
Funny pictures. Find pictures of people doing silly things. Not embarrassing things, mind you, but silly things. Use common sense. Old pictures of your mother with her 1960s bouffant hairdo and your uncle with his 1970s Afro work well here.

Have fun with your family calendar! It's an easy way to make a personalized gift. And since the holidays fall at the end of the year, everyone needs a calendar, right?