There are two kinds of bad family holiday photos. There are the intentionally bad. Like the ones where everybody wears the same ridiculous holiday sweater and sits earnestly around the fire with their dog. (Those are supposed to be jokes, right?)
And there are the unintentionally bad family holiday photos. The outtakes from your attempt to get the perfect family shot to pair with your ten page holiday newsletter. Except the baby starts crying and your toddler refuses to look at the camera and no matter how much you put on your best smile, you fail to hide the true misery that lurks behind your dark vacant eyes.
Or maybe the photographer captured the exact moment everyone had enough with photo-taking and the result was a group of people who looked like the holiday cheer had been sucked out of them by a Christmas demon.
I want to see those photos. The outtakes you would never use as your holiday card.
The ones where all of your children are on perfect behavior except for one child, dead center, who is screaming his head off.
I want to see the photos where you had no idea there was anything wrong with them until you looked at them after the fact.
I want to see the family photo where you almost dropped your child on his head.
The one where all three kids forgot the meaning of "JOY" at once.
Or the one where everyone just wanted to get the fuck out of Disneyland.
I want to see the photo where your twins thought they were being kidnapped by Santa.
The one where you duct taped your baby to the window so she wouldn't feel left out.
The one where you forced your goth teenager and his friends to hang out with the Mall Santa.
I want to see the photo where your elderly OBGYN confused your baby's feet for his head.
The one where you pretended to cry because it was the only way to salvage the shoot.
And the one where you lost your mind and made everyone in your family hold a cucumber.
Wait. WTF? I have no idea what's happening in the photo above. Somehow the best part is the older sister who was obviously thinking, "Fine mom, I'll hold your stupid cucumber, but I will only half-heartedly hold it while I text my friends."
Anyway, I'm sure you've got a photo somewhere that you would never put on your holiday card. I'm betting you have more of those photos than the good ones. Or maybe you're the kind of family that would use a photo gone wrong as your holiday card? In which case, can we be friends???
That's the photo Anna from My Life and Kids used for her holiday card last year. Hey, at least the whole family was together!
Post those awful holiday outtakes on the Mommy Shorts facebook page or tag them #mommyshorts_worstfamilyphoto and @mommyshorts on instagram.
Depending on the amount and quality of submissions (If I must, I'll show up at your house and search your hard drive while you sleep), I'll post the best of the worst on Dec 20th. Then we can all vote for a winner by Christmas.
The winner will get an illustrated custom family portrait from My Little Buffalo. That way, you can have your family drawn like they are all willingly participating in your holiday card, when obviously that is far from the truth.
Aren't they adorable? You send your photos (one of the whole family or individual pics of the people you want in the portrait) and My Little Buffalo sends you back a digital file for a 5X7 or 8X11 custom portrait. Then you can use them for holiday cards, stationary, or just frame it to hang on your wall.
You can even use it again next year and save yourself the trouble of trying to get your kids to sit still in their reindeer pajamas AGAIN. Who can sit still in reindeer pajamas, anyway?
The top ten finalists all get their very own copy of "Awkward Family Holiday Photos".
Then you can peruse hundreds of horrible photos and think, "Gee. My family isn't nearly as unphotogenic as I previously believed."
PLUS! One lucky person picked from the comment section below will win the entire Awkward Family Photos set inlcuding the original Awkward Family Photos, Awkward Family Holiday Photos and Awkward Family Pet Photos.
What's an awkward family pet photo? I'm so glad you asked!
Just leave a comment below to enter. And don't forget to upload your worst family photo pics to the Mommy Shorts Facebook Page or tag them @mommmyshorts and #mommyshorts_worstfamilyphoto on instagram.
Good Luck!
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Photos found on Awkward Family Photos, Imgur, Daily Mail, David Mixner, Team Jimmy Joe, Print Co, Buzzfeed and Tastefully Offensive.
We’re taking family pictures this weekend for a Christmas card. I hope all goes well, but then again I kinda don’t just so I can have a good picture to submit.
Crying from laughing…this was great!!
I’m waiting for the proofs to our terrible picture! Can’t wait lol
Great idea! Looking forward to the submissions. ๐
So funny. So so funny.
I’m also taking pictures of the kids for the holiday card this weekend. Wish me luck for a winner. Between a whiney 7yo brat and a stubborn, anti-photo-taking 3 yo, i’m sure I’ll get a good batch.
I love the Awkward Family Photos – pick me ๐
I love funny photo contests–and I REALLY love Awkward Family Photos! Proud to have been following them since day 1! or maybe 25. But from the beginning, anyway! ๐
These were hilarious – much needed laughs!
It seems like this is THE weekend for photos. Let’s see what we get! I’ll also scan the last few years.
We’re taking our photos for our card tomorrow. Hopefully everyone cooperates! Otherwise, maybe I’ll have something to enter in the contest. ๐
Always get a not so great pic of the family… EVERY. Time. Will upload my favorite now.
The duct tapped baby pic is priceless!!! I wish I had thought of that!!
I am speechless over the pet photos. They just got more horrifying as I scrolled until the chicken – Really a CHICKEN photo – this is a joke right RIGHT????
I need those books! Lol
Oh wow. These are hilarious!
This was awesome. I was actually laughing and snorting. And yes, at my last family photo session there were lots of mommy and daddy smiling and kiddo losing her crap in the middle. But none hold a candle to these!
Loving these photos!
My two favourites are (1) second baby photo, where the baby totally has a “Save yourself ….” look on his face directed at the camera. (2) the Santa holding the screaming kids – while the older sister is cupping her ear, “pretending” to listen to her Mom say “could you help calm your sibings down and show them Santa is nice?” but secretly thinking “fuck no, I look so much better by comparison I shall get All The Gifts”.
I have one for you!
Baby duct taped to the windoe is just plain awesome!
ALL those photos are hilarious, especially the ones with the newborns!
You don’t really even need a caption for this one. http://statigr.am/viewer.php#/detail/595156671492609557_9315340
I know we have a family photo where our dog and cat are being the fussy kids…maybe I can find that somewhere…
I absolutely adore Awkward Family Photos! I’d love to have the books!!
Outstandingly hilarious! !!!
Hilarious! I just love your blog. I’ll see if I have any holiday pics that might be bad enough to share.
Love your blog (especially the videos) and Awkward Family Photos!
Can’t wait to see the finalists for this contest!!!
Love this!
I’m totally going to have to look through our photos, I’m sure we’ve got a few!
Can’t wait to see the entries!
Love Awkward Family Photos!
Awesome. My family photos aren’t so bad after all!
OH I am so sad that our iPod is so ancient we can’t actually upload pics to Instagram…..I would share on FB but then my inlaws (who somehow manage to keep up on all my FB postings) would see the picture (of me!) that they took and sent out on their Christmas cards last year. It was awful.
So fun! Can’t wait to see them all!!
I don’t feel so bad now about my photoshoot gone awry yesterday! hopin they are better than these! so funny!!
The chicken is creepy… ๐
LOL loved the duct taped kid! Hilarious!
The guy in the last photo did something bad to that chicken. I’m sure of it.
Oh my, too funny! I’m still wondering how people actually end up with pictures where all of their kids are clean, happy, and still at the same time!
The cucumbers… I’m still laughing. What?
I love the baby duct taped to the window. So much WTFery in these pictures.
I’m wondering if the cucumber holding had something to do with the Christmas pickle?
This perfectly captures the tedious of all those family gatherings around the holidays…(hubby, his cousin, and their daughters first Christmases)
Just posted my pic on Facebook- boogers and all.
Last year’s Santa picture was worse than this years…
Hoping my pic makes the next round of pics and then into the top 10!
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