To add to the fun, we usually shoot these photos in November in Minnesota, and the weather can be anywhere from 10 degrees to 70 degrees; we just never know!
2007: A Hillbilly Christmas
Our first experimental Christmas card started with me, Amy (my wife), Shelly (mother-in-law), Curt (brother-in-law), Tracy (sister-in-law), and Tilly the dog. Though most of these photos are taken in cold weather, this first one was an exception. It was taken in the middle of summer on a 90-plus-degree day. I actually got heat exhaustion from wearing a coonskin hat. It was rough, like the unsanded wood on this hillbilly cabin in the woods.
2008: World’s Worst Mariachi Band
My wife’s not impressed at all with my choice of dinner music. But who can blame her? This one is one of my favorites. Tracy created the band costumes using a bead curtain and hot glue, and we visited multiple thrift stores to find the props, including my shirt.
2009: All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!
With matching red smudgy dirty sweaters we set fire to my grill and put some blackout to look like our teeth are missing as we dressed up and took the shot in our dirty backyard!
2010: Hope your Christmas is as Spaced Out as ours!
2011: What Christmas? Cool man
2012: Xmas Noir
2012 marked the 1st year we took the family picture with the smallest addition to the family, Charli (she is wrapped in the blanket). Me, my wife and mother-in-law poked our heads around the corner at the illegal gin joint discovered in the basement.
This marks Charli’s first family Christmas card photoshoot; at 12 years now, she’s always known us to do them. But with a growing family, how will everyone fit in?
2013: Grrr! Angry Birds
2014: Put that in your Pipe
We didn’t get a chance to meet up every year. So our solution was to Brady Bunch it with everyone taking a photo with the same corncob pipe, Frosty the Snowman hat, and “button” nose. This year, we introduced Evalyn to our growing family, who was not very happy to be placed in the hat.
2015: RUN!
2016: The Creepy Hand of Santa
Simple, yet effective concept and shoot. Hardest part? Keeping the kids focused on the camera and not the presents and cookies. Believe it or not most people missed the ‘extra’ hand, did you?
2017: Made Out Like Bandits
Poor Grandma Shelly can’t keep up with the Stripey Shirt Gang as we escape the law with bags full of cold hard cash! With the family as big as it is now, Tracy has to scope out more and more locations to ensure that everyone fits in the shot and with our theme.
2018: Running of the Bulls
Well, this shot was painful! JK, but some people thought our Photoshop skills were top-notch getting all these bulls and shadows in the picture. Another freezing November shoot, and we get to wear white short sleeve t-shirts. This was one of the more challenging photoshoots to organize so that everybody could be seen and still have room for the imaginary bulls. Josh was even in mid-flight (BTW that bush had thorns, as Josh found out a bit too late). Behind the scenes, Amy is the mastermind. She color corrects, performs some expert Photoshop work, and determines the overall card design in order to get the cards ready for print and mailed out to our ever-growing list of recipients.
2019: Act your Age
We got tired of the kids telling us to act our age all the time. So we swapped. We decided to let them take calls, book appointments, and make all the rules just for us to break them and stay up way too late. I don’t know where Tracy managed to find 6 Christmas-themed adult onesies, but I’m glad she did. Trying to cram all 11 of us in the shot meant Josh got to hang upside down and channel his inner Spiderman.
2020: Battle of the Bands!
Not everyone got this one! LOL. Often times we need to plan around busy schedules and shoot on aSunday afternoonor early in the morning. Then when you add a pandemic to the mix, we have to get even more creative. So for this year we all got individual photos shoots and we put together a Battle of the Bands music poster. Shelly was Ozzy Osbourne (we were impressed with the resemblance), Amy and I parodied ZZ Top, Curt and Dawn were Sonny and Cher, Tracy and Josh were Simon and Garfunkle, and the Kids were the Beach Boys.
2022: Disco Inferno!
You know what they say about disco. Dis go ‘dere and dis go ‘dere! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to book Studio 54 for the shot. So we got the next best thing, a small basement room. Tracy’s tries to get the theme to us earlier in the year so we can help find the costumes. This year, we even found some while on vacation!
We really need to thank Tracy for sparking the ideas, planning, tracking the outfits, and taking the shots, Shelly for scheduling the day and time, and Amy for working her Photoshop magic to prepare the cards for print.
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Monika Pašukonytė
Gabija Saveiskyte
Denis Krotovas
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