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Taking a great photo for the family photo Christmas card looks like it must be easy. But as any parent who has attempted this holiday ritual may tell you, it’s not as simple as it looks. What you want is a unique, gorgeous photo Christmas card. And what you normally get is fidgety, uncooperative kids that blink just as you’re taking the picture. But don’t give up and throw in the Santa hat just yet. Here are 6 easy, smart solutions to those top challenges.

Challenge 1: You want a festive holiday background for your family photo Christmas cards, but don’t want to decorate your house with strands of lights and tinsel in November.

Solution: Use the Mall. Department stores and buying goods malls are embellishing for the season earlier and earlier, some times right after Halloween. These holiday backdrops are perfective for family photo Christmas cards. Gather the kids in front of the twinkling lights and a few camera clicks later, you’ll have a great shot.

Challenge 2: Your toddlers won’t sit still long sufficient to take the photo.

Solution: Bring in the props. Get out the oversized teddy bear or other toy that fascinates them. Try posing them with the dog or cat. Give them something simple to do, like ring a Christmas bell or kiss their sister on the cheek. Use trial and error until you find the item or action that interests them long sufficient for you to take a few pictures.

Challenge 3: Your teenage kids don’t feel like posing for a family photo.

Solution: Don’t make them pose. Instead, make action the focal point of your photo Christmas cards, highlighting things that your teenagers love to do. Take photos of them showing off their abilities. Whether they are in the swimming pool, a canoe, sinking a basketball, riding a horse, baking holiday cookies, playing with the dog, or enjoying another activity, your holiday cards will offer a glimpse into your family’s interests and personality.

Challenge 4: You’d like to send photo Christmas cards that are witty and fun, just like your family.

Solution: Create your own holiday story picture, by setting up a scene. Here’s a lot of ideas. The kids may discover Mommy kissing Santa Claus (Daddy in disguise). Put the young kids in a bubble bath with Santa hats and bubble beards. Capture a snapshot of each family fellow member grabbing a slice of pizza with the message “pizza on earth”. Photograph an empty plate of cookies and finished glass of milk in front of “guilty” looking kids with the caption “sorry Santa!”

Those after Halloween costume sales may come in handy when attempting to set up a whimsical photo. How when it comes to posing your little angels with angel wings you picked up at discount? Other possiblenesses could be your kids dressed as cats (Meowy Christmas), super heroes (have a super Christmas), a baby in a pea-pod costume (“peas on earth”) or a lion and a lamb costume for two children.

Challenge 5: You’d like a pretty photo Christmas card that doesn’t look like the same, tired, group family photo you send out each year.

Solution: Change the emplacement of your photo shoot. If you’re within driving distance to a beach, there are a lot of distinctive photo opportunities. Pose the kids on a sleigh on a sand dune. Write Merry Christmas on the sand, and have everyone sit behind the inscription. Build a sand snowman with a straw hat, sunglasses, and seashell nose.

Autumn provides a lot of outstanding future prospects or potentials for photo Christmas cards. Try taking photos of the kids playing in a pile of leaves, in a pumpkin patch or on a hay ride. Make lovely scenery your backdrop and it may formulate atmosphere that elevates your photo Christmas card to a new level.

Challenge 6: When you struggle to take a family group photo, someone always blinks their eyes, turns their head or doesn’t smile. It seems closely totally unlikely to get one perfective shot where everyone looks good.

Solution: Choose a card company that offers photo Christmas card designs that comprise multiple photos of your family. The latest trend in holiday photo cards is to include assorted of your photos on one card in a unique, holiday layout. This has become frequent because it is much posing no difficulty to take great, person photos of your family members than one worthy of acceptance or satisfactory group picture.

Whatever queer challenge you face when composing your photo Christmas cards, there is an easy solution. Try these originative approaches and soon you’ll be hearing from your friends, relatives, coworkers and neighbors how much they loved this year’s family holiday photo card.

Load, raise, and haul four new vehicles along an imaginative highway with the Car Carrier from Melissa & Doug. This quality, all-wood truck makes it easy to load four brightly colored cars onto a long ramp that folds into a two-level carrier, permitting your child to deliver the vehicles wherever they may need to go! Car Carrier

Smart Christmas Shopping Plan Photo

Smart Christmas Shopping Plan Photo

Smart Christmas Shopping Plan Picture

Most helpful customer reviews

96 of 102 people found the following review helpful.
Blue Car Tested Positive for Lead Paint
By Amazon
I bought this for my 2-year old son who LOVES playing with it, but I don’t let him use the blue car after it tested positive for lead paint.

Here is the background: A local non-profit was having a free toy testing event for lead. I brought in some older toys and, on a whim, I grabbed all the cars associated with this product. I was shocked to find out that the blue car tested positive for lead (63 ppm using a x-ray fluorescence machine). I called the 800 number for “Melissa and Doug.” They assured me that all their products meet or exceed current regulations and that they do consistent testing for all their paints. They also said that they test using a “leachability” test which is a more accurate test than the x-ray fluorescence. They said they would send me the test results of that particular paint batch so I could review the results, but I was never sent anything. In the end, I am really dissappointed that a company promoting safe, non-toxic toys would allow any lead in their paint at all – and now I am reluctant to buy anything from this company again.

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful.
big hit with 2 y.o.
By charleston mom
We recently gave this to a friend’s little boy for his 2nd birthday – he and all the other boys at the party played with it constantly! It says ages 3+ on the package, but the only small parts are the wheels, which seem well-attached. My 3 year old son liked the toy too, but the 2 year old boys spent far more time playing with it. The top rack slides down so the cars can all drive off the car carrier. I was impressed at how well-made the toy is and I came on today to buy another one to put away as a Christmas gift for my 1.5 year old.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
Melissa & Doug Car Carrier
By Sandra M. Hensley
My grandsons love this toy – one is 3 years and the other is 2. I’m ordering another so they don’t have to share. They love moving the carrier rack up and down and driving the cars off. They ‘drive’ the truck off around the furniture legs and come back for the cars to load them back up. This toy encourages language development as we talk about where the truck is going and where the cars will be parked, what color car should go where, etc. Great for imaginative play.

See all 87 customer reviews…