Ready to take your Christmas photos this year? Get yourself a good digital camera if you haven’t got one yet. A good Christmas photo is important as it will be a reminder of that year; the memories withheld in the image.

It is good practice to keep your camera handy at all time during the Christmas season. You never know when that amazing snap is going to be ready for you. The family all gather together in the festive season, and it is important that we take plenty of photos to place later on in our albums. Toys for Christmas are a must, and they add to the Christmas feel when displayed around the tree. Make sure to take a photo so you will have a forever lasting memory of what gifts where given this year. One of my favorite pics is the one of the dinner table at Christmas day. I just love drooling over the amazing food that is displayed every year on the table, the bottles of good wine and champagne, all sorts of sweets and desserts. That is an image that we should capture as it happens only once a year!

Family Christmas photos are just great. This festive time gives us the opportunity of being together, and members of the family that we haven’t seen for ages (maybe even years!) will come to join us during the season. We might not see them again for a long time, but the photos will remind us of them in a very memorable way.

What about the kids opening the presents? You just have to video them, or at least the photographs, kids just grow up so quickly! Their faces are so candid and full of happiness on Christmas morning, running towards the tree searching for their magic parcel. Back at home, we had Santa “magically” coming in during the day, paying us a “visit”, talking to the kids. Those images will stay in my head forever, that’s for sure, and it is such a shame we never took pictures. It is true that at the time digital cameras were unheard of – probably didn’t even exist – and Super 8 was just too much hassle (and usually to dark for quality filming). Cameras were also expensive, so we ended up with no physical memories of those days.

If you are looking for Christmas photo ideas, why not ask the whole family to get involved in playing a game, so then you don’t have to worry about them waiting for you to get the shot ready, etc. You could take the pics while they play, and the beauty of it is that they will all gather together as they concentrate on the game.

For funny Christmas photos, I would take pictures of my dog wearing a small wreath, or my cat playing with the ribbons and ornaments. I love buying silly little presents, like Santa’s hat in cowboy style that lights up, or joke type of gifts. They are great for taking pictures afterwords.

A good idea is to take christmas card photos; display your cards around the Christmas tree, or a shelf, or above the chimney and take a picture. That way when you place it on the family album, one photo will display all the Christmas cards you received this year.

Here are some of my favorite Christmas photos; courtesy of sxc.hu.