Documenting the magic of the holidays with photographs is a great way to keep the memories alive long after the season ends. Whether you’re planning to send out Christmas cards with some family pics, or you just want to make sure to document your kids at this stage in their lives, it’s easy to take professional-looking, dynamic pictures even if you don’t have a fancy camera. The portrait mode setting on your phone and a couple of these TikTok Christmas photo ideas should be enough to produce some truly epic shots this holiday season.
And don’t forget to include yourself in some of the photos as well. It’s so easy to get lost in taking pictures of everybody else, and then you’ll look back and wish you were in more of the memories. They invented the self-timer for a reason!
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Matching Jammies
One of the easiest ways to get a cute, cohesive picture is to all wear matching pajamas. That’s what @domesticallyblissful on TikTok did when she had just six days before the holidays to get their family Christmas card out. Some cute pajamas, a little bit of Christmas decor in the background, and you’re golden.
DIY Backdrop
No need to go to a fancy studio for your family Christmas pics. You can create a perfect backdrop using just wrapping paper. As TikToker @brekaye6 showed, just tape the end of a roll midway up the wall and unroll the paper down and onto the floor. Then pose everybody in front of the makeshift backdrop for some festive photos.
Family Tree
Create a sort of Christmas “tree” shape by stacking family members on top of each other for the photo. This is easiest to do when lying on the ground. And if you have some photo editing skills, you can take separate photos of everybody and stack them in a photo editing program like TikToker @girlwithacellphone did.
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Wreath Prop
TikToker @lyssijphotography recommended using a wreath as a framing prop when taking holiday photos. You can either hold the wreath in front of the camera lens yourself or let the child hold it, but either way it’ll make for fun and festive snapshots.
Box Collage
On TikTok, @esquaredphotography created a kind of Brady Bunch–style family photo grid for the holidays. To replicate it, you need a large box (@esquaredphotography got one from a furniture store), a couple of decorations, and then pose all the family members in the box one at a time.
After that, you can edit the photos into one larger grid photo to make it look like the kids are whispering to, looking at, or pointing to the people in the box next to them or below them, etc.
TV Background
Don’t want to set up a whole holiday scene for your family photos? You can copy @jdthecameraguy, who simply found a festive-themed photo to put on his TV. YouTube has a ton of holiday screensaver-type videos that you can use for this. Then use portrait mode and lower the exposure on your phone to perfectly blur the background and make it look like the TV background is actually just your holiday scenery.
Wrapping Paper Cutout
On TikTok, @lizzymae_33 taped a sheet of wrapping paper in a doorway and cut holes in the center of the paper for her family to stick their heads through. It gave the pictures a festive touch without a ton of effort or expense required. Don’t forget to have the family pets take their turn in the photos!
Piles of Decor
A fun way to spruce up a holiday photo is to take it from an above angle while the person is lying down with Christmas decorations surrounding them. Seen here is an example of a bunch of Christmas ornaments around the person’s head. You can also do a pile of present bows like @_briannemartin did on TikTok.
Tree Time
Giving your children a task makes for great candid photos. Have them pretend to (or actually) hang ornaments on the tree and capture their little moments of wonder. And the tree lights add an extra sense of magic to the pictures. If your child is too young to hang ornaments, you can hold them near the tree. They’re likely to reach our toward it naturally. Those photos turn out very cute too, as TikToker @chey.powers showed.
Gingerbread Kid
For a fun themed photo, you can take inspiration from @chantellemorgan66 on TikTok. She took a roll of brown wrapping paper and sprinkled some flour on it. She then placed some baking utensils like a rolling pin and cookie cutters on the surface. The finishing touch was dressing her child in a gingerbread cookie outfit before snapping the adorable pics.
Festive Glow
Another fun photo concept is to place your phone (with its flashlight on) inside a Christmas book and then have the family gather around it. In the photos, it will look like the book is giving off a magical glow. See @jen_rydelek‘s TikTok video for the full tutorial.
Cocoa Bath
Parents can turn their sinks into a hot cocoa bath perfect for a holiday photo shoot with @citygirlgonefarm‘s TikTok tutorial. After filling the sink with water, cocoa powder, and marshmallows, she put her baby (who was wearing a Santa hat) in for a few cute shots.
Cookie Outfit
TikToker @maddie_burch took a sweet (literally!) photo of her baby using a fun dessert hack. She bit the head off a snowman cookie and held the cookie close to the lens above her baby. By lining the cookie up with her child, she was able to make it look like her baby was “wearing” the cookie as its outfit. Too cute.
String Lights
TikToker @ourlovinglola recommended wrapping some string lights around the photo subject and then taking the end of the lights to hold all the way up to the camera lens while taking holiday photos. The end result is some seriously glow-tastic pictures that look so professional.
Fun Beverage
Giving a kid a prop will likely result in more dynamic photos because they’ll be interacting with the item. For the holidays, TikToker @_briannemartin recommended using a festive-looking mug. You probably won’t want to add any liquid (lest the child spill it), so fill the cup with some paper towels to take up space and add a dash of whipped cream on top.
