It’s that time of year again, and mothers everywhere are scouring Pinterest for the latest trendy family photo ideas. Now, let me just clarify that I have nothing for you if that’s what you’re looking for. You see, today I attempted to clean my family up and dress them in coordinating colors so that I too could have a nice shiny Christmas card to send to all my extended family members.
Needless to say, I was really excited about the prospect of sending out our family Christmas card when I woke up this morning. It was going to be perfect. We would all be smiling and happy, and I’d get lots of likes and comments when I posted it to Facebook later on this evening.
At least, that was the plan. The funny thing about plans is that they never seem to work out like I want them to.
I am never, ever doing family photos again. It was crash and burn from the start; my kids were up at 6 AM and resisted all of my attempts to shower and dress myself or them. My two year old was dead set against wearing pants, and my nine month old was absolutely not going to play quietly in his playpen while mom tried to apply make-up. Dad was somewhere downstairs attempting to be helpful by doing the dishes, which was nice, but ended up causing us to be twenty minutes late to my sister-in-law’s house (she kindly offered up her pretty brick fireplace as a backdrop and took the pictures with her camera).
Sound familiar? I really hope it does. Surely, I’m not the only one to suffer through this every year…
Once there, neither child wanted to sit still, smile, or look anything that remotely resembled happy. My two year old cried every time we asked her to put down the stuffed animal she had found in the box of Christmas decorations. My nine month old tried to crawl away every time I set him down. Every attempt at a decent picture was foiled by the mischievous genius of two very small children who probably had no idea that they were ruining mom’s shot at pretending to have the perfect, polished family that everyone else seems to have via the Christmas cards she sees in the mail every single year.
So, after the most exhausting, frustrating morning I’ve had this holiday season, I’ve decided that I am never going to try to orchestrate the perfect family photo again. What’s the point? Why is it that we as mothers feel the need to send out a Christmas card that looks perfect? No matter how much we might like other people to think that our lives are picture-perfect, we don’t have it all together, and we aren’t perfect.
At least, I’m not. So I’m going to stop pretending to be. I’ll still get our family’s picture taken, but it will be on the fly, when we are all having fun. When we are genuinely happy, not just putting on a fake smile for the camera for the sake of more likes on Facebook or Instagram. Sure, I’ll still put our pictures up on social media, but no one will ever even think to pin them on Pinterest because…
No, my family does not dress in coordinating colors or outfits or get conveniently tangled in Christmas lights. No, my children will never sit next to each other and smile in unison like perfect little angels. And no, my family absolutely does not wander around Christmas tree farms with beatific smiles on our faces like automatons.
And that’s just fine with me.
As a photographer this makes me sad to read and also why families hire professionals to do it. Yes, sometimes it’s a lot of work, but the end result of a professional photographer is well worth it!
This made me laugh. I’m sorry for your struggle, but I can totally relate. It’s crazy the amount of stress that can be created in trying to get a “joyous” Christmas photo. We were trying to get a nice posed photo of our kiddos who wouldn’t sit still and my favorite was actually one not posed while we were taking a break and they were just interacting with eachother.
I agree with Michelle. Doing it on your own never works. Besides, a pro knows how to get beautiful candid shots, because nobody wants a phony posed photo anyway. Until the kids are older and more cooperative.
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