This year I offered to cover Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for a couple local birth photographers, so we did our family Christmas a few days early on the 23rd! When your kids are little and can't tell time or dates is a good time to do this 😉 I REALLY didn't want to miss out on our Christmas stuff if I got called to a birth, so this was a really great alternative for us. This was also the first year I bought the whole family matching jammies! 

For Christmas morning, I set up my camera on a table and had it automatically take images every 10 seconds using an intervalometer. I was inspired by a few photographers who had done it last year and it was such an easy way to capture the morning while still being present (well, once I figured out how to set it up on my camera...haha). Part way through I grabbed the camera and got a bit more creative when the kids opened their gift from my dad (their Papa), and we FaceTimed with him while they opened it (half my family is out of town this month, but we will do another little celebration when they're home in a few days!). Here are some of the highlights of our Christmas Morning 🙌

PS my 4 year old rubbed his head on the carpet this week 'to see what would happen', in case you're wondering what happened to it 😂

We buy some gifts for the kids, and don't do much for the adults (we mostly buy things we actually need). I hate the consumerism of Christmas and we try to really focus on the deeper meaning. Growing up we'd actually travel a lot at Christmas so we could escape it. BUT with kids, it's hard to get around it, especially with my daughter whose love language is gifts! Most of my 2 year old's gifts were secondhand (the trampoline and ride-on tractor). My in-laws sent money for gifts for the kids, so they got a couple new things. I got them some essentials like clothes, books, colouring stuff and a board game that we could do together as a family and 1 other toy for each of the older kids. My dad bought the kids a big ride on tractor for the back yard (I always wanted one of those as a child but now I'm past the weight limit 🙄)

After our Christmas Morning fun, we put our littlest down for a nap and started prepping for our Christmas Dinner. We invited a friends' family for Christmas dinner as well, so there was 12 of us including my mom, and we had a ton of fun!

Alyssa Kellert is newborn, birth, documentary family photographer + film maker as well as a birth doula, and is located in Greater Vancouver, BC Canada. Head over to her Facebook page to see more of her most recent work at facebook.com/alyssakellert, or follow her on Instagram @alyssakellertphoto. You are welcome to email at info@alyssakellert.com or use the contact page on this site for more information!