Real Photos to Remember to Take This Holiday Season
Published 11/15/26
Every year, we try for the holiday card photo. Matching pajamas, everyone looking at the camera, nobody blinking, no one crying (including mom.)
But when you look back on the holidays years from now, the perfect pose probably won’t be the photo you love most. It’ll be the cookie dough on their face, the wrapping paper mountain, and Grandpa asleep in his chair by 3 p.m. It’ll be the real stuff.
So this season, keep taking the posed photos too. Just don’t forget to take these.
1. The cookie mess. Flour on the counter, sprinkles on the floor, and one very lopsided snowman. Get a shot of the cookies, and another of the kitchen afterward.
2. Little hands helping. Stirring the batter, hanging an ornament, or “helping” wrap a present with an entire roll of tape.
3. The tree, before and after. Take one photo when the tree first goes up and another once the kids have decorated it. You know, with every ornament on the same three branches.
4. Their wish list. Snap a photo of the letter to Santa or the list on the fridge, especially if the spelling is creative. Their handwriting and their wishes will change fast.
5. The ornament that matters. The handmade salt dough ornament, the one from Grandma, or the one with their baby picture in it. Photograph it on the tree, and get a close-up too.
6. The way your family does it. Matching pajamas on Christmas Eve, latkes on the stove, the drive to see the lights, the same movie you watch every single year. Whatever makes the holidays feel like yours belongs in a photo.
7. Lights through the car window. Faces pressed to the glass, pointing at the house with the inflatable everything. (Take it while you’re parked, of course.)
8. The kids’ table. It’s loud, it’s sticky, and it’s where all the cousins are. Someday they’ll be at the grown-up table, so get a photo of this one.
9. The family recipe in progress. Grandma’s rolls, Dad’s famous stuffing, Aunt Linda’s Jell-O salad that nobody eats but everybody expects. Capture the hands that make it, and the recipe card if there is one.
10. Grandparents doing their thing. Reading a story, teaching a card game, dozing off in the recliner. These photos become some of the most precious ones you’ll ever have.
11. Before anyone’s awake. The quiet tree, the stockings, the presents waiting. It only looks like that for a few minutes.
12. The hallway wait. Kids lined up in pajamas, bed head and all, waiting for the go-ahead. The anticipation is half the magic.
13. The first reaction. Forget the gift. Focus on their face. Burst mode is your friend here.
14. The wrapping paper aftermath. The living room buried in paper, bows stuck to the dog, someone playing with the box instead of the toy.
15. The quiet after. A kid curled up with a new book. Someone asleep on the couch. The afternoon lull when everyone’s full and happy.
16. Everyone in the frame, including you. Hand your phone to someone else, or set up a timer. Years from now, your kids will want to see you in these photos too.
17. Cousins being cousins. The fort in the basement, the sledding hill, the giggling under the table.
18. The unposed group shot. Take the official family photo, then keep shooting. The moment right after everyone breaks the pose is often the best one.
Keep your phone nearby, not in your hand. You want to capture the moments, not watch them through a screen. Grab a few photos, then put it down and be there.
Turn on the lights, or go to the window. Holiday photos often happen at night or in dim rooms. A lamp nearby or a spot near a window will make a big difference.
Take the wide shot. Step back and get the whole room: the tree, the mess, the people. That’s what you’ll want to remember.
Assign a photographer. Ask a teenager, a cousin, or a grandparent to take photos for an hour. You’ll get a different view of the day, and you might finally be in some of them.
By January, your camera roll will be full of holiday photos, and they’ll start getting buried under screenshots and receipts by February.
Before that happens, pick your favorites and give them somewhere to live. Make a holiday photo book you can pull out every December, or add them to your Kids Yearbook so the holidays sit right alongside the rest of the year.
Because someday you won’t remember exactly what was under the tree. But you’ll remember the flour on their cheeks, the bed head in the hallway, and everyone squeezed together on the couch. Those are the photos that tell the real story.