Personal Post: Christmas Portraits of My Two Little Loves!

This year the holiday season feels extra special because we have a baby in the house again! Every year since my son was born has been more and more magical and I truly love watching the holiday season unfold through his eyes, and now we get to do all of those fun holiday traditions with Grayson AND his baby sister, Adelaide.

I was a little late in getting my own children’s holiday photos done (what’s that they say about the cobbler’s children having no shoes? Yeah, same thing for the photographer’s children!) but we finally made it happen and they were so smiley and cheerful. I may have forgotten to plan shoes for my son, and we might have improvised with a super simple wreath for the backdrop, but everything about these portraits leans into my minimalist style of photography and I love the moments we captured of these two for their very first Christmas together.

As I have always believed, this proves that you don’t need much for a great portrait besides beautiful light and connection between the subjects, and not too many props or colors to clutter the background and distract from the people you care about in the photo!

These are some of my favorite sibling portraits of my two little loves this year, and I’m excited to share them on our holiday cards, as prints for the grandparents, and with you on the blog!

We also did a VERY FUN photo series with headshots and holiday ornaments for each child. I absolutely loved this setup, and it was so much fun to create and pull off. Grayson really enjoyed setting it up with me (I love how excited he gets about the photography studio!) and he was eager to see how his portraits turned out. Isn’t this so cute?!

And then Adelaide’s had gold, rose gold, and sparkly pink ornaments. These looked so beautiful with her creamy skin and bright blue eyes, and I loved using a dress and headband from the studio wardrobe!

We’re off to continue celebrating the holiday season and filling each day with a little bit of holiday magic. Thank you for following along on our journey this year and for supporting this small business, and I hope that your family enjoys this beautiful holiday season!

From my family to yours, happy holidays!

Our favorite holiday tradition: our felt stocking Christmas calendar

Today, I want to share something our family does every year during the holidays: a felt stocking Christmas calendar. This was all inspired by a photo a few years ago in Real Simple magazine, created by A Beautiful Mess. Now it’s one of our favorite traditions! 

I made our felt stocking calendar in 2020.  That was the year that everything shut down and we all readjusted our priorities and dug deep into new & old hobbies.  I sewed each stocking and embroidered little details onto them to make each one unique.  I felt like I was tapping into my childhood years of sewing projects for this one, and I spent many November nights at the dining room table working on these little stockings so that we would have them ready in time for December that year.  Making these was very fulfilling and I loved knowing that this was going to become a core childhood memory and a magical holiday tradition for our family.

Starting on December 1, each stocking holds a little treat, trinket, or note with an activity on it.  We do one stocking each day from December 1 through December 24.  I don’t fill them all up at once because I have a four year old who would peek ahead and spoil the surprise, but I do keep a list of what I want to put in them so that I know and can do it quickly without too much effort.  Most of what we do are little holiday activities that do not take much prep or time, and every now and then I will include a treat or a toy.  Tossing in a chocolate or two is a super easy one if I do not have time for an activity that day!  If the items do not fit inside the stockings, I use a clothespin to pin them to the back side of the stocking.

I do this instead of Elf on the Shelf because I wanted to start a tradition that was extra special to our family, and one that would let me make lots of fun holiday memories with our little ones.  Also because the idea of moving an elf into different spots and creating scenes for him every single night for 10-15 years is completely overwhelming to me, but sprinkling fun and traditional holiday activities and joy throughout the month of December is much more fulfilling to me.

Because of this, my four-year old LOVES “Christmastime” and he understands that there is a difference between Christmas Day and Christmastime.  He spends all year looking back through our photo albums and flipping through the pages filled with activities from previous Decembers, and as winter approaches he asks me what I think we’ll find in the stockings this year.  He knows that “Mama does the little stockings but Santa does the big stockings”, and I love that I am able to pass my love of the holiday season on to him – and eventually on to our daughter when she is old enough to understand, too!

‌Here are some of my favorite items and activities that we’ve included in stockings for our countdown to Christmas.

‌Trinkets/Treats:

●      Wooden Christmas cars

●      New hat & mittens

●      Silly holiday glasses from the dollar store

●      Candy cane

●      Hershey kisses

●      Andes mints

●      Tiny snow globe

●      Decorated holiday cookie

Activities:

●      Visit the Christmas tree farm

●      Go watch the holiday trains at Sunnyside Gardens

●      Go to the Victoria Streetwalk

●      Bake Christmas cookies

●      Bring Christmas cookies to a neighbor/friend

●      Make a gingerbread house

●      Go see Christmas lights

●      Have a picnic in front of the Christmas tree

●      Drink hot cocoa in front of the fireplace

●      Hang twinkle lights in their bedroom

●      Make Christmas pancakes

●      Wrap presents

●      Pick out a gift for someone special

●      Visit the library to pick out holiday books

●      Do a Christmas craft/painting

●      Mail holiday cards

●      Have a holiday music dance party

●      Walk through the Christmas aisles at Target

●      Write/Mail a letter to Santa

●      Visit with Santa

●      Paint a holiday project at the ceramics shop in town

●      FaceTime a friend and sing Christmas carols together

●      Make a Christmas ornament and hang it on the tree

●      Watch a Christmas movie together‌

I hope that no matter what your traditions are that you have a beautiful holiday season with your loved ones!! 

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Grayson's 2021 Holiday Portraits

You’d think that as a photographer, I’d spend more time getting my son in the studio for portraits than I actually do. It’s hard to balance motherhood and the business some days, but I’m grateful for the memories I make with Grayson every day. He’s a great little studio helper - and was wonderful with me while I setup all of our holiday minis this year. I made sure to capture his holiday portraits, as impromptu as it was, this year.

I’ll be honest: taking photos of a fiercely independent 3.5 year old is much harder than taking portraits of a baby, but it’s so much fun to spend time with my little guy and capture what he’s loving about the season. Grayson was excited to wear his “fancy Christmas photo clothes” and he got to listen to Frosty the Snowman on repeat on Alexa during our session together. Like many parents, I bribed him with snacks from my snack cart - and it worked! Grayson was all smiles and giggles for me. Although it might have been trickier than years past, I’m so pleased with the portraits I captured of my son this holiday season! I hope they bring a smile to your face, too! :o)

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Save it for later!

Holiday Portraits for the Whole Family plus a 6 Month Milestone Session

When your baby turns 6 months at the same time as our annual holiday portrait event, you combine your family’s holiday portraits with a milestone session at the studio, of course!

I loved seeing this sweet family again, and I can’t even believe how much David has grown since his newborn session!

These three siblings are always so adorable together, and I was so happy to capture this twinkling Christmas portrait for them!

We did a few more casual sibling portraits on the studio bed so that they would have some photos to hang on their walls year-round, and then lots of individual portraits of the baby to focus on all of his new skills and his blossoming personality!

You might not be able to tell from the photo below, but that is what his happy shriek looks like!!

David LOVED sitting on the tiny bed, and we captured the very best smiles from him!

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Inspired by this fun holiday session and milestone portraits? Pin this image or any from the post above!

Merry Christmas from Baby Starr | Grayson's Gingerbread House Smash

A few things I’ve learned as a photographer and now first-time mom this year…

Before having a baby I said that I would have a million photoshoots of Grayson this year. My husband joked throughout the pregnancy that he was putting a limit on how many photos I could take of the baby. One thousand photos… PER DAY. ;o) I remember saving a few ideas last Christmas and thinking I would love to do so many of them next December when our little guy was here.

And then I had a baby. Once I went back to work and started juggling work & a baby, I realized that if I didn’t carve out time for documenting my son’s first year it wouldn’t happen. So I started putting it on the calendar and I am so glad I did! Grayson’s first holiday photo shoot is one of my favorites that I have done with him this year, and I am so excited to share it here on the blog!

Of course it was going to be clean & simple with a very minimalistic look. I adore stripes, and the majority of my closet AND Grayson’s closet is stripes. So Jeff and I picked out this cute red and white striped pajama set for our little guy’s portraits, and I chose a few bottle brush trees for the decor. The gingerbread house was enough to add some color and make it all come together!

Confession: I had never made a gingerbread house before this one! I scoured Pinterest for ideas and found out that they can really get quite intricate. I stayed up late decorating this little house and listening to holiday music with a Christmas candle burning on the counter. It was one of my favorite nights so far this holiday season! Now I think that gingerbread houses are going to have to become a holiday tradition as our son grows and can start adding his own creative confections to the houses!

Grayson loved his little gingerbread house smash — even though there wasn’t much smashing that happened because that icing held everything together like cement! He also loved practicing his new favorite skill — blowing raspberries and making us laugh!

He’s my favorite little elf.

2018 Holiday Sessions

It’s my favorite time of year! The studio has been filled with twinkly lights, Christmas trees, and plaid accents for weeks now, and holiday music has been playing nonstop on the Alexa. Santa gets mentioned at least once every session, a couple of jingle bells have been my go-to trick to get little ones to look at the camera.

That can only mean one thing…

It’s time to share a peek into our 2018 HOLIDAY SESSIONS!

We did sessions in both the Saratoga Springs & Attleboro studios, and so many families joined us for lots of festive portraits. As the years go by I tend to favor simpler backdrops that keep the focus on the family with just a touch of festive cheer. This year we had a bit of a farmhouse touch to our holiday backdrops inspired by some Joanna Gaines decor — boxwood wreaths, plaid throws, a rustic hand painted sign, and a wooden ladder, yes please!

All of the families brought their A-game in CUTENESS! So many Christmas cuddles and lots of adorable smiles!

The More the Merrier! A Peek at our Holiday Sessions | Saratoga Springs and Boston Family Photographer

I love Christmas.  Every year I look forward to the holiday season because it is filled with twinkly lights, delicious aromas, cozy family traditions, and so much festivity everywhere you look. 

That's why our holiday sessions are always some of my favorite sessions of the year here at our studio.  So many families come and visit, and many are families that I have photographed for years, plus there are always a few new families that I'm excited to meet, too!  This year we did holiday portraits with families in Saratoga Springs and in Boston (at our Attleboro studio), and it was so much fun creating a little holiday magic with these babies and children!

Our set-ups were simple & classic this year:

A fluffy red and white bed that was adorable with Christmas pajamas.
And a huge wreath filled with twinkly lights for some family portraits.  

CUTENESS OVERLOAD with these adorable twins!!

We're planning limited edition holiday sessions!

These two gorgeous backdrops just arrived to the studio, and we can't wait to start using them for our holiday sessions!  We're excited to offer two weekends of holiday sessions, one for our New York families and one for our Massachusetts families!  These are the ONLY dates that we will be offering holiday sessions in the studio.

Attleboro, Massachusetts
Saturday, October 29
Sunday, October 30

Saratoga Springs, NY
Saturday, November 5
Sunday, November 6

Here's are sneak peeks of both sets that we'll be offering -- aren't they adorable?!?!

Full details and session reservation details
will be coming your way on
Monday, October 3!

Mark your calendar!

Aglow

I'm working on three different galleries right now, but this is one photo that stopped me in my tracks that I absolutely love.  More details and photos coming soon, but I was thrilled to get to photograph nearly six-month old Genevieve this past weekend for a light-filled holiday shoot.  So many favorite shots to go through, but this one in particular is just calling out to me right now. Love everything about this image!  Her hand-knitted hat that was passed down from her mother, this little toes curled around the lights, her wonder struck expression, the cozy sweater against the soft blanket, and the way the lighting is hitting her just so.  It's magical.

More holiday photos coming soon.  Remember, if you're interested in scheduling a holiday shoot, please contact me to schedule it by November 28th. Holiday photos, New Year's photos.... this one actually looks like a good one for St. Lucia Day!