Festive Backdrop Ideas for your Holiday Card

Welcome back to my 5 part series on how you can capture the magic of the holidays! Today I’m sharing some festive backdrop ideas for your holiday card.

Taking pictures for your holiday card can be super stressful. I don’t know if you feel the same way, but every year I feel pressure to one-up myself. Maybe it’s because I’m a photographer and people expect a beautiful picture every year. Whatever the reason, it seems like there’s this fierce competition every year for the best card. It totally shouldn’t be that way, but it IS a good idea to have a little fun with your holiday card. I’ve put together a few ideas for you with tips on how you can create a fun backdrop. All of these are inexpensive and use items that I already owned. Almost everything was purchased from Home Goods!

This first image was taken on one side of my friend’s garage. I loved the peeling paint and rustic look so we used a few things make it festive. The wreath belongs to the family as well as the bowl and the tray that the marshmallows and hot chocolate are on. Everything else was mine. I just grabbed some pillows, a few blankets, glass mason jars for the hot chocolate, the Ho, Ho, Ho sign and the teddy bear from my own home. The star garland is also mine. It’s from Land of Nod. Super easy to create and the kids loved being their pj’s. It helped that it was cold too because they were more than happy to snuggle! Do you have a cool wall or fence that you could use to set up a scene like this? Dig through your holiday decorations and see what you’ve got. Whatever you choose, keep it simple. Don’t go overboard!

This shot of my girls was taken in an extra bedroom in my house with lots of beautiful, natural light. I picked up those old doors from a garage sale and I loved them! I just added the same star garland from above and some white lights. The way to make the lights blur like that is by using a wide aperture. You can read more about that here. I just pushed a bed up to the doors as if it was a headboard and voila! Not sure if you can tell, but my oldest was sick this day! She was such a trooper. DO you have a room in your home that gets a lot of natural light? Could you use create something similar? If you don’t have a pair of old doors, use a few push pins to hang up some white lights or a fun garland. Make sure there is plenty of space between your subject and the background though to get that blur. If I had placed the girls right up against the doors, the lights wouldn’t have that dreamy glow.

These two little stinkers are my niece and nephew. I used the same room with the same bed as above (with a new headboard), the same white lights and just added the poinsettias and a little tree wrapped in burlap. Again, super simple. The are facing two big windows for beautiful, natural light. When you are photographing little ones, it helps to give them something to do with their hands. A toy to hold or a small prop like a teddy bear, candy cane, an ornament or even a stocking. Just make sure it’s something classic and not too trendy. I would have asked my niece to get rid of the doll, but her brother was holding something so she had to too. I’d much rather have them happy and smiling rather than mad or crying. It works here because the doll has matching pajamas!

For this shot, I dragged my own Christmas tree to a field and just added a few fun elements. I left the tree bare because we were outside, but it would also work to have the kids decorate the tree or even put a star on top. Again, simple is best when you are working with props. The wagon is my sister-in-laws. The blanket and pillow are from my home. And that teddy bear comes to almost all of my holiday mini sessions! Do you have an artificial tree? Could you set it up in your yard somewhere? You could wrap a few empty boxes and stick them under the tree or have the kids choose a few of their favorite ornaments to hang up.

This set was created after a 10 minute trip to Home Goods! I had the tee pee, but I purchased the blanket, some new pillows, the sign and the tree I already had. It’s so fun to pull stuff from my basement and create these sets. If you don’t have a tee pee, drag a bench outside. Even a small love seat if you have one.

Whatever you decide, make it fun for the kids. Have some hot chocolate ready or add in some fake snow. Get them involved in creating the set and putting it all together. Let them choose a few items and ask their opinion. The more you involve your kids, the more fun they’ll have!!

If you’d like to learn more tips for photographing your everyday creatively and with intention, come check out my 6 week online e-course called Click & Capture Your Everyday. Click to find out more and how you can sign up!!