Super Cute Holiday Photo Garland DIY Gift Idea

Create an original and unique holiday photo garland DIY this Christmas using photos of your kids! It’s a beautiful (and simple) way to show off your beautiful family.

This darling photo banner DIY is a super cute Christmas decoration and makes a great gift idea for family members!

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Originally posted December 2015.

Make a Holiday Photo Garland DIY This Year

I live for crafts that are easy, and can be used as a decoration and a gift idea.

Photo gifts are always a great idea, especially at the holidays! And this photo banner is such a fun way to dress up your space for the holidays. 

I gave these to the grandmothers a few years ago and it’s so much fun to see them hanging in their homes every holiday. 

Garlands, in general, are a simple way to decorate, no matter what time of year.

So turning one into a personalized gift, with photos of your kids, is such a great sentimental gift idea.

How to Make a Holiday Photo Banner DIY

The best part about this DIY photo garland is that you can easily make several of them at once!

Just grab your supplies, print out your photos and string them together! 

And all of this can be done while watching Hallmark movies. If you’re into that kind of thing. And I totally am.

Supplies:

• Photos of your kids
• Hole punch
• String
• Scissors

How to Take Photos of Your Kids for the Garland

To make the photos perfect for the DIY holiday garland, I put a little bit of thought into them. The result is perfectly festive photos of the kids that all your family members will love! 

If you can, try to use natural lighting. It is so flattering on the face and will mean you have to do less editing. 

Turn off overhead lights which tend to cast a yellowish glow. And if you can at all help it, DON’T USE THE FLASH!

Using a flash will add more shadows on the backdrop and make everything look stark. 

Create a photo backdrop

I used red and white striped wrapping paper and taped it to a wall in our house. I love stripes and thought it would work well. 

You can also invest in a more expensive vinyl background but I discovered the wrapping paper works really well. . 

A holiday pattern would also be really cute but you can also just find a plain white wall to shoot in front of. 

Just remember, a fun background will make for a really fun photo banner.

Dress the Kids

I picked up plain, long sleeve green and white T-shirts for the boys to wear. I wanted something plain so the letters would show up really well. 

If you are looking for something more formal, you could try a polo shirt or even a plain button-up shirt. 

Especially if you use a busy background, you’ll want the shirts to be basic. 

Use a Tripod

I set my camera up on a tripod to keep the photos consistent.

If you don’t have a big fancy camera, your phone will work fine. This is the tripod I use with my phone. 

I framed the photo making sure that you couldn’t see the edges of the paper backdrop.

The photo garland looks the best when it feels organized. 

Since the kids are different heights, I just had to move the tripod up or down a little, but everything stayed in focus and still with the tripod. 

Encourage the Fun!

Let the kids go to town with cute smiles and funny faces.

Ask them to do silly poses, serious poses, and anything that brings out their personality!

One child gave a good face for the camera. The other barely allowed me to photograph him. Isn’t that always the way?

If you don’t have the time or energy to do a photoshoot, you can use any photos you may already have of your kids.

Edit the Photos

Even if you aren’t a professional photographer, it’s easy to make photos look their best.

Use a program (on your phone or desktop) to make a few small tweaks.

If you have a Mac, you can edit right in Photos. Or use a free editing app on your phone (I like Snapsneed). 

Many of the programs use sliders so it’s easy to make changes and see what you are changing as you are doing it.

Lighten the Photos

First, add a little brightness (just don’t go too far or it will wash everything out).

Then bring up the shadows. This will help to make everything look more even depending on where your light source was. 

Do what your eyes like best. If all else fails, you can always reset and leave them as they started.

Plan the Banner Layout

Figure out what you want the holiday photo banner to say first.

Make a note of how many letters are in the words and think about how you will hang the banner.

Next, look at your photos and plan out the order you want to use. I have two kids so I alternated them. 

Add the Lettering

Adding the wording is really easy to do with a free program like Canva or PicMonkey.

Most of the programs work with layers so you will use the photos as the bottom layer and then add a letter as a layer above.

You’ll work one photo at a time and save it as it’s own file when it’s done. 

If you’re too nervous to try your hand at editing, you can ask your kids to take pictures holding up each letter in “Happy Holidays”. 

Or you can use stick-on letters to create the wording. 

Print the Photos

Most people can now print photos right on their home computers. I like to find a place that can print photos with a matte finish like Shutterfly.

I like the weight of the photo paper they use. It will also help to make the photo banner reusable year after year. 

Put the Holiday Photo Banner Together

Punch Holes in the Photos

I used a simple hole puncher to make holes in the top two corners of each photo.

String the Photos

I like to layout the photos on the ground or table so I can see how they will look next to each other. 

Then I start with the last photo first, and put the end of the string through the first hole and back out the second hole, so the majority of the string will end up behind the photo. (See image above).

This lets the photos be the star of the holiday garland and not be covered by the extra string.

It sounds so much more difficult than it really is! The DIY photo garland for holiday is ready to be displayed and gifted! 

I love this because the kid’s personalities really come through in these photos.

Using the holiday colors makes it festive and perfect for the holiday season. 

Hang it our Wrap it Up

You’re going to want one of these for yourself so make sure you print several copies of each of the photos. 

If you’re wrapping it up as a gift, carefully string the photos making sure to leave some slack in the string so you can accordion fold the photos together.

Then put it in a gift bag or box and add whatever festive touches you want. 

Make a Bunch at Once!

The part of this cute DIY holiday gift and decoration idea that takes the longest is the photoshoot and editing!

Once that is done, it’s quick and easy to string the garlands.

Print out several sets of the photos and you’re almost done with multiple gifts! 

More Ways to Customize the DIY Holiday Garland for Gifts

There really are so many ways to customize the photo garland and make it perfect for your family or your home decor. 

If you keep to a specific color scheme, you can make sure to take the photos to match.

You can change up the message in photo editing and make each recipient’s gift different. 

Kids can even help put these together with you. Boy, do I love easy crafts.

This fun idea would totally work for a birthday garland too. And how awesome would this be for a teacher’s birthday using pics of the kids in the class?!

It’s also perfect for a baby shower, bridal shower, anniversary, or retirement. It’s super versatile and sentimental.

More Holiday Craft Ideas

The holidays are the perfect time to sit inside and make fun crafts. Here are some of my favorites. 

• DIY Snowflake Balloons for the Holidays
• Homemade Christmas Ornaments
• Stupid Easy Knotted Yarn Garland

Pin This Holiday Photo Banner DIY for Later

This cute holiday photo garland DIY is a fun decoration and holiday gift idea for close friends and family.