Scrapping Holidays

[SusanZennario]

Does anyone else have a problem with scrapping the holidays? I've noticed it a lot lately and its really starting to bug me! I really DISLIKE scrapping holidays...ANY holiday! Christmas is a huge holiday and like most of you I'm sure, I end up with a ton of pictures. When it comes time to scrap Christmas I either end up with a dozen layouts that just get the pictures slapped on the page and call it done, or as with this year, I did a layout using the March Ad inspiration and got 90% of Christmas morning onto one page. Now its not that the page is awful or anything, but I have such a bigger vision in my head than what comes out on paper. And its that way with EVERY holiday! I LOVE the holidays....I decorate for every one! St. Pats, Valentines Day, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July....all of them! But when it comes to scrapping them, I hate it! I don't know if its because the kids are getting older and the holidays aren't much more than just another day (except Christmas of course). This past Valentines Day my kids asked me NOT to buy them candy this year, but could they just have $10 each? Huh? How am I gonna use all the cute Valentine stuff I bought and got from my secret sister this year? For St. Pat's I always leave bags of chocolate coins for the kids....but the past two years I FORGOT to take pictures of it! Thanksgiving....well its just usually me and the two kids. My oldest son goes to his father's for dinner and then to his girlfriends. At 21 the days of mom ranking #1 are gone!! John (my bf) is EXPECTED at his mom's and for the past two years I have opted to stay away....his family is the one you see in the dictionary next to Disfunctional and Mean and we aren't married so I feel no obligation to put my kids though that. So I make the dinner with all the trimmings and at some point, me and my teenagers sit down. In 15 minutes its over. There's no big family gathering, no guys playing football, no game playing after dinner. Its just another Thursday but dinner comes with leftovers for the week. Yes, we take time to reflect on what we are thankful for, but being just the three of us for so long, its just really no big deal. I'm jealous of those of you with big families that have traditions and look forward to the holidays. Especially now that my mom is gone, they seem to have lost even more spark.

I guess I'm really just venting here but I can't help but wonder if anyone else has a problem scrapping the holidays...any holiday. I'm so much more happy scrapping the little every day, no big deal sort of photos!

[carrie123]

I have a hard time with holidays too. Seems like I take a ton of pictures...but really how many do you need of the kids opening presents? they all start to look the same, or they turn out blurry cuz they are tearing through things so quickly.

[averys_mom]

I only really scrap 4 holidays. Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter and Halloween. Dh usually has to work on Thanksgiving and I'm too busy cooking to bother with pictures. I'd say I struggle most with scrapping Christmas. My pictures never come out as good as I'd like them to and I always take too many!

[SarahA]

I know what you mean! I've never scrapped a single Easter picture, but have them all printed for the past 3 years! For Christmas last year, I decided to scrap just the Christmas card picture, then put the rest in that little 4x4 album I did at the November crop. Of course, it's March and that's still not done, but at least the book is already made! I think they're hard because it's such a big event and you feel like it needs to be the perfect page to capture the day, which is intimidating!

[Art_Teacher]

Christmas is one of my favorite things to scrap! I try to focus on family traditions, on the people that I celebrate with, and on the beauty of the season. I also scrap Easter and Thanksgiving which are big family holidays for us, but not so much any other holidays. I occasionally scrap the neighbor boys when they come trick-or-treating, but we don't do much for Halloween.


I think one reason I love scrapping Christmas is all the beautiful designs out there for me to use.

[beachlover]

IDK... sometimes I think I take too many pics during Christmas. We have traditions and go all out with the decorating and cookies, etc. I love it all, but it also wears me out . I think the only saving grace with Christmas is the numerous gorgeous products here at the shoppe for LO's... There are not as many things to chose from with other holidays, and I suppose that makes it less exciting to scrap or even want to photograph those moments...

[Ayla]

I don't often scrap holidays, mostly because I'd rather be involved in wht's going on than stuck behind the camera. I get a few shots, then the camera gets put aside. I don't do Valentine's day....I have no SO and I think it's silly to have my kids be my Valentine. Another problem with holidays comes out of trying to do something creative!

[PurpleGoddess]

Yeah, I hear you. Its discouraging when the kids are big enough to be going their own ways. But if holiday scrapping is hard, then put it aside until something comes to you. Maybe focus on the preparation stuff for the holiday. That always lasts longer than the holiday itself. Take pics of the baking process, gift wrapping, something secret that can be shared on Christmas. Do NOT stress yourself. Your mojo will go away. You say you like the everyday stuff where you can be creative and try new things. So go with that for now.
And you know what? When your kids get just a bit older and have kids of their own, then you get to take pics of the grandkids. Little kids love having their picture taken and just lookiing at those cute little faces makes my creative juices run.

So for now, maybe just put the holday pics in an albumn so you can at least look at them and wait until a little time goes by. If you take the pressure off yourself and give yourself permisstion to NOT scrap a holiday, then you might find yourself wanting to scrap them again. This is supposed to be fun for you not a chore. I heard someone proudly brag that they scrapped 20,000 picrures...that sounds lovely...but my first thought was why? don't you have a real life? that may sound a bit like herasy here but in 5 years will it really matter if you scrap 1 great Christmas pic or 7 so-so pics? You will still have the pics. And the memories...Don't let the memories become a Drudge report of how hard it was. Savor the good times. Time changes family dynamics. Traditions change. So make new ones. How about movie tickets for St Patrick's Day instead of candy? Or a gift card to a music store? Unfortunately kids grow up. We can't keep them little forever. So do something for you. Maybe go digital...Hugs, Diane

[Mommybruno]

Yeah, scrapping holidays can be challenging. I always scrap our Christmas tree, but really...they all look pretty much the same. I try to find an interesting focus for a layout, something to mix things up. One year I did a layout just about Xander's role at Christmas. Or I'll focus on a particular gift or family event or something.


Then again, sometimes I just ignore scrapping holidays altogether. LOL!

[evilqueen]

The only holiday I like to scrap is Halloween. I guess I like the skulls and crossbones better than Christmas trees and reindeers.

[deerewife]

I tend to avoid Christmas and birthdays. The other holidays get done, but not those two events. It has to do with too many pictures, too many events etc. I have scrapped Emily's first Christmas and I think it ended up being over 10 pages worth with all the different places and stuff.

[scrapscot]

My problem with the holidays is that even though I'm a grandmother, my grandchildren are mostly elsewhere... Three in North Carolina, one who's adopted by the paternal grandparents and is now 18..so no, not likely to see her and then 4 of the 5 stepchildren seldom make it over Christmas day, so no fun taking pics AFTER Christmas. The other holidays are a moot point!


I end up taking pics of our little Thanksgiving dinner (just me and Barb) or Christmas Dinner; last year I photographed our hotdogs and beans for 4th of July. But it's really just no fun scrapping holidays without kids.

[AlwaysHappy]

What you can do and what I'm thinking of doing is.... Scrap a page or two with just a limited amount of your favorite photos and then make a little envelope or pocket on the page and just put the left over photos in that. If someone wants to look at all of the photos, then they will be available. I'm seriously thinking of doing this myself. The envlope or pocket could be made to look really cute.

[SusanZennario]

Yeah, I hear you. Its discouraging when the kids are big enough to be going their own ways. But if holiday scrapping is hard, then put it aside until something comes to you. Maybe focus on the preparation stuff for the holiday. That always lasts longer than the holiday itself. Take pics of the baking process, gift wrapping, something secret that can be shared on Christmas. Do NOT stress yourself. Your mojo will go away. You say you like the everyday stuff where you can be creative and try new things. So go with that for now.
And you know what? When your kids get just a bit older and have kids of their own, then you get to take pics of the grandkids. Little kids love having their picture taken and just lookiing at those cute little faces makes my creative juices run.

So for now, maybe just put the holday pics in an albumn so you can at least look at them and wait until a little time goes by. If you take the pressure off yourself and give yourself permisstion to NOT scrap a holiday, then you might find yourself wanting to scrap them again. This is supposed to be fun for you not a chore. I heard someone proudly brag that they scrapped 20,000 picrures...that sounds lovely...but my first thought was why? don't you have a real life? that may sound a bit like herasy here but in 5 years will it really matter if you scrap 1 great Christmas pic or 7 so-so pics? You will still have the pics. And the memories...Don't let the memories become a Drudge report of how hard it was. Savor the good times. Time changes family dynamics. Traditions change. So make new ones. How about movie tickets for St Patrick's Day instead of candy? Or a gift card to a music store? Unfortunately kids grow up. We can't keep them little forever. So do something for you. Maybe go digital...Hugs, Diane

Ya know, you really were spot on with this...except that last part! I tried to be biscraptual but gave up before I could figure it out! But I did scrap pages of Candy Apples, pumpkin carving, Gingerbread House and then another of Gingy People and even the TSO concert we went to and LOVED doing them! Its the ACTUAL day...forget Thanksgiving....there's nothing to scrap or photograph with just me and two kids eating dinner fast so they can continue with whatever it is they were doing before dinner....but Christmas Day is what intimidates me so from here on out I will just go with what feels right and not feel like I have to scrap all 30 pictures. And ya know what irks me....I'm not in a single Christmas picture this year. John never picked up the camera and pointed it at me. I only realized that this morning when I was looking through them. But then again, when my oldest came home from his Dads where he was Christmas Eve, it was almost dinner on Christmas Day and I never took any pictures of him opening anything. By that time I was in full blown clean up and cooking mode! So shame on me too!

[PezKat]

Well it's different for me since we don't have kids; I never have Valentine's, St. Patrick's, or Halloween pics to scrap anyway. So it's usually just Thanksgiving and Christmas. (Though one year I took photos of the handful of trick-or-treaters we got just so I could do a HW page!) But I'd say don't pressure yourself to scrap everything (ever, not just for holidays, lol!). What I do for Christmas is usually one 2-page spread in the regular family album (or 4 single pages max), then everything else goes in the Christmas album, along w/our letter if we write one and all the photos we receive from family & friends. I used to try to use the same theme throughout which made it a lot easier - like to repeat a border, use the same color scheme, etc., which also made a nice distinction between the different years. But the last batch I did I mixed them all up which was fun too since I have accumulated so many different kinds of Christmas scrappy stuff!