We are happy to have a place for all our friends and family to observe the Christmas Cards we have created since 2011. We hope you enjoy looking through the last few years and the evolution that allows us to bring smiles to those we love!
A tradition our family enjoys is making Christmas cards for our friends and family that are a bit outside the traditional photographic cards. This tradition began in 2011 when my wife and I moved to Newport Beach, California and while thinking about a holiday card to send to our friends and family we decided to create a photo that signaled the times in which we were living. We were completely out of our element living in Newport Beach where the citizens drove luxurious supercars, wore the highest end fashions, and sailed on yachts that the villains of James Bond would envy. So began our joy of pretending we were ultra wealthy and living that sweet life.
As time progressed our cards have taken on a story and life of their own. Every year we look to thrill our friends and family with laughter and enjoyment which is the best gift we can give.
Creating the cards is a task all its own. Each image is carefully crafted using compositing multiple images that I take with professional cameras and lighting. I spend countless hours working in Photoshop while also enjoying Christmas music and perhaps a little bourbon. We print them in large quantities, paste each photo to cards, stamp and mail them out. Is it total overkill for what it ends up being? 100% yes! However, it is the only gift we can give each and every one of the people we know and love, a lot of thought and well wishes for those we love goes into each project.
Additionally we try and tie in with current themes when we have the opportunity, whether it was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’s 50th anniversary, the renewal of the Star Wars movies, or a play on reality TV. Sometimes we are just thinking how funny it would be if we portrayed ourselves in a priceless classical painting or as a famous cartoon rock band from the 80’s. Please enjoy our creations from the original to the current year… And of course have a Very Merry Christmas!
2011
2012 - The second year… after we had a baby. Pure Chaos!
2013 - We had this toy advent calendar and decided to put ourselves in it. Manger Beagles!
2013 - Inside, basically the back panel of the box recreated to be our inside message.
2014 - Marked the 50th Anniversary of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Made with a set of Rudolph toys.
2015 - The most technically challenging! Images taken from toys and lighting effects done in Photoshop. About 125 layers in Photoshop total for a 2 gigabyte file. Our daughter Isla only needed one photo to nail her part, painted green in Photoshop
2015 - Inside, imagined from the Star Wars - The Force Awakens opening credits, background milky way stars image shot in Hawaii
2016 - This one is my favorite, based on classical paintings. the background, and each person was shot separately. The birds were each photographed at the San Diego Zoo. Dogs were perfectly still, as if I were actually painting them
2016 - Inside, classical message for all
2017 - Back into the Reality TV style, the tigers took forever to change to white in photoshop
2018 - As a kid I read X-Men comic books, so when I heard of X-Men creator Stan Lee’s passing I had to pay tribute with an X-Men / X-Mas card
2018 - To continue the comic book theme we built our own story. So many images went into this along with countless hours of Photoshop work.
2019 - With my wife Jen’s name so closely resembling “Jem” and our desire to have a rock band card the only fitting solution would be “Jen and the Holly Grams”. Costumes are real, coloring and face paint makeup done in Photoshop. Keytar built from scrap wood and painted to add a Rad touch.
2019 - Inside, The drama is real. Printing this was super difficult, the neon colors fell outside the printing process at the print shop so I had to adjust it until it was within their profile. All in all came out with full color-matching Awesomeness
2020 - Our take on the iconic family on the beach wearing khakis and white shirts, however we added an alien invasion. When COVID 19 hit we were constantly saying “what’s the worst thing that can happen next?". Well, an alien invasion would take it up a notch. The best part was the spaceships were subtle enough that some of our friends and family did not get it at first!
2020 - Inside, a little sarcasm never hurts. 2020 was a difficult year but we tried to make the best of it… “just having fun playing on the beach, never mind the incoming alien warships”. We also often joked that 2020 aged us hence the older ages next to our names !
2021 - Postponed Olympics - also introduced our new baby!
2022 inside, The kids are such good sports!!