I’ve almost completed my Project 365 for the year and I love sharing the images I’ve taken with my family as gifts over the holiday season. Here is a list of some of our family’s favorite photo Christmas gifts to give and receive. (These are also great for any time of year too).
Photo Books
Some of the easiest photo albums I’ve ever made are through a company called Chatbooks! If you’re not into spending hours designing the perfect pages with embellishments and detailed paragraphs, I highly recommend Chatbooks albums. You can download their app from the app store and easily put together a quick album of your favorite images from your phone’s camera roll in a matter of minutes. You can also use images from your Instagram or Facebook feed as well.
Ornaments
I love photo ornaments! They are such a fantastic way to commemorate special moments through the year. We have a variety of styles including Hallmark photo ornaments and ornaments created through online labs like Snapfish, Mpix, or Shutterfly. It’s such a special way for our entire family to relive amazing memories each year as we decorate our tree together.
Puzzles
We are HUGE puzzle lovers. And we have been gifted several unique jigsaw puzzles featuring our own photos. My kids get super excited to put these together and see their own faces in puzzle format. One of my kids even saves certain pieces of faces till the end to have the satisfaction of putting in that last piece. Again, Snapfish and Shutterly are great ways to print these.
Digital Frames
Digital frames, like the Skylight frame, are a great way to share photos with loved ones all through the year. This was something my sister’s family and mine gifted to my mom several years ago and we keep her frame up-to-date with the last pictures of our family. It’s super easy! All we have to do is email our images to her unique frame email address and they appear on her frame in seconds. It’s a great way for our family, that lives 1,000 miles away, to keep her updated on what we’ve been up to.
Prints
Why not just simply give the gift of photo prints? How many of us actually print our pictures anymore? I love giving my family updated pictures of my kids each year. Especially their school photos. Or an updated family photo if we’ve had one taken. I keep a log of which sizes my family prefers to display in their homes so I can refer back to it yearly. You could even print a bunch of 4x6s from your collection from the year and place them inside a beautiful photo box! Artifact Uprising is another great company that has amazing print sets that make gifting super easy.
No matter which way you choose to use your photos as gifts, I know your loved ones will cherish their gifts forever. And if you don’t feel like you’ve got a lot of images you can use to make amazing gifts, consider one of my Year In The Life session subscription services for your new year. It’s an investment you won’t regret!
