Sending personalized Christmas cards to loved ones is something that is becoming more and more popular, especially among families with children. Children and grandchildren grow up far too quickly, making it extra important to be able to save beautiful memories at Christmas time. Something nice to look back on, year after year. 

Photographer and SIGMA Nordic ambassador Maria Lindberg has been photographing Christmas cards of her children for many years, and has saved them all. 

"- It's so much fun to look at the cards and see how the children have grown. We remember and recognize different clothes they wore and great ideas we had for each Christmas card. Even at their grandparents' house, there are Christmas cards from each year as memories of the grandchildren growing up. The Christmas cards we give out every year are always very much appreciated", Maria says.

Christmas is a magical time, and in many ways the children's holiday. Make sure to include them in your Christmas photos. Is there anyone else who should be in the photo? The rest of the family? Furry friends and pets? 

Maria arranges an annual Christmas photography session, with the possibility to get beautiful Christmas cards of the whole family. This year, Maria chose the nostalgic Huseby Bruk (in Sweden), where time stands still, for the 2024 Christmas cards. In the little shop, you'll find old-fashioned candies and jars, and you shop over the counter like in the old days, creating a true retro Christmas feeling, perfect for this year's Christmas cards. 

Maria's 5 best tips for beautiful Christmas cards

1. Theme

Choosing a good theme makes it easier to decide on the clothes, location, props and how to pose. Take Maria's theme for this year as an example; Nostalgic Retro Christmas. The Christmas photoshoot takes place in the beautiful old shop at Huseby bruk. With props like old-fashioned candies, old tin cans and the fact that you shop over the counter, creates that old-fashioned, retro Christmas feeling. A cozy and beautiful place. Maria has also chosen Christmasy clothes with a touch of Christmas in the city in the early 20th century. 

2. Planning

Make sure to plan everything well in advance for you to have time to prepare everything from clothes, the timing of the photo shoot, the props and the best location with the best possible conditions. Be there in time to prepare the children for what is going to happen. Create a cozy moment, talking about how much fun they'll be having. This makes for the children to get a postivie feeling and attitude towards the whole experience.

3. Simplicity

Don't make it too difficult and complicated. Stick to the theme and don't add too much stuff. Most of the time, doing that makes the photo look messy and cluttered. When shooting in a beautiful, old shop, I don't add lanterns, a sleigh or Santa. I stick to the theme with the children visiting an old-fashioned shop at Christmas time. That will be enough and will be truly beautiful. 

4. Lighting

Keep in mind that you need good lighting when taking photos. I use a studio flash or a LED light (for photography) in the shop, other than that, daylight works great, especially if you're shooting outside. Or use the light from the window. Have the children close to the window when taking the photos, with their faces facing the window, using the daylight as a source. 

5. One is Enough

Don't try to create a lot of different photos. Rather put your energy into getting ONE good photo. You will take a lot of photos, of course, but choose one to use for the Christmas card. Going into this with this attitude from the start, creates less pressure and stress, and a more fun and relaxed photo shoot that doesn't have to last more than a little while. 

Maria's 3 best tips when including pets in your Christmas card

The last autumnal leaves, were still clinging to their branches with determination, not yet ready to bid the year farewell. Leaves are among my favourite objects to play with when I take photos out in nature. I use them to create colourful bokehs by partially hiding the lens behind them and thus adding a brushstroke of yellow or orange to my photos.

Every step took me closer to the edge of the forest where the fog was densest. The trees were mere silhouettes, wafting in and out of view as the fog was travelling through the woods. Silently they were watching the comings and goings on this December morning.

1. Security

My first advice is to make sure that the animal is comfortable in the environment you're shooting in, with the props you're going to use. If there are going to be children in the photo, it is very important that the animal feels calm around them. If any of this doesn't work, you need to train the animal so that it can be relaxed in the situation, or change your plans to something that suits the animal better. 

2. Safety

Make sure that there is plenty of space for the animal to not feel crowded, or getting stuck in the background, props or other things. Have someone to hold and handle the animal so you can focus on taking photos.

3. Connection

The Christmas card will always turn out the best if the animal and the people have some kind of connection. It could be connection with the camera or connection with each other. If a child and a horse are to be in a photo together, I would like them to look in the same direction or at each other. You can achieve this by asking the child (if he/she is old enough to understand) to look in the same direction as the horse, and you can control the horse's gaze with the help of an assistant who calls the horse's attention with a rustling bag, waving or a snap app. 

The silence that hung in the air was so heavy, that I became very quiet myself, as though not to disturb tree and thicket. I sat down on a lonely stump and warmed my now painfully cold hands on a hot cup of tea. No one was around, I was blissfully alone and for a while the problems of the world couldn't touch me. I could just be.

There was a magic that I couldn't quite grasp. Something wondrous resided in the forest that morning. The kind of magic only nature can conjure up and that makes you realise over and over again, that our existence would be quite bleak if we didn't have the forest, the hills, the mountains or the sea to escape to. I'd like to think that my photos make a wee bit of a difference out there. I want people to stop in their tracks, mull over their way of life and find out in which way they contribute to a healthy environment and how they can do better to protect these precious and fragile eco-systems.

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