A Unique Gift your Family will Treasure!

Gift giving can be amazing if you have an amazing idea, but lots of times we end up walking around the store or perusing the internet for some kind of clever inspiration. Big Sigh here! I do NOT love this struggle of trying to find the perfect gift! Worst of all, sometimes we simply end up getting something less than stellar, because we don’t want to be empty handed. It’s a challenge! Especially for those loved ones that are established and have everything they could ever need! I have a better idea for you! Here is a gift you can give once a year that is meaningful and a showstopper!

A photo calendar! It is the gift that keeps on giving! It goes on the wall, it’s looked at everyday and it has useful and wonderful information such as the birthdays and anniversaries of family members including a picture of their face! 🙂 You make it once and can gift it to parents & siblings! It emphasizes some of the most important aspects in life: family and good memories! Plus, if you make it an annual thing, you have taken out some of the guess work of gifting, because you have an awesome reoccurring gift! Hooray!

You can create these calendars any variety of places including Shutterfly, Snapfish, Walgreens and etc., but hands down the most beautiful product for the best price is through Costco! No doubt! (No commission here peeps, just the honest hard earned truth!) The Costco printed calendars are vibrantly beautiful on thick glossy paper. There are two sizes, one 8.5×11, but we love the bigger size 11.5 x 14.

I have been making a yearly calendar for 10 years and there is some work involved, no doubt, mostly because both sides of my family have numerous people! And when I say numerous, I actually mean 65 plus on each side of the family! I create the calendar for the Grandparents, and all the siblings get one too!

These are the things I wish I would have been told in the beginning when I was first starting out creating these calendars. Perhaps some of these ideas might help you with this happy project!

Collect pictures from family before October or at least start. There will always be people who are quick and supportive and then there will also be people who complain and drag their feet. I think that is just people. I send out a group text and remind everyone it is time to send in the pictures. I direct them to the certain email address for sending, but google photos, and dropbox also work well! (texted pictures are too small and thus pixelate)
When you are with your loved ones, take pictures! It’s much easier to get pictures off your phone or camera, than from others!
Up close, clear photos are THE best. ALWAYS. If it doesn’t look good on your phone or your computer, it’s not going to look good printed.
Files downloaded from Facebook can work for slots on the monthly grid for birthdays but often become pixelated when used for the top half of the calendar. Pixelated photos are a disappointment of fuzziness!
Download ALL THE pictures into a clearly labeled file on your desktop and then upload all the photos into a file on Costco also clearly labeled.
Costco’s website slows down dramatically during the day. If you can work on this late at night, you will have the best speeds available.
There are templates on Costco that allow you to drag and drop the pictures—Easiest version by far!
You can go more elaborate by creating a custom collage on Photoshop or another editing program. Make sure to save the file 1/2 inch smaller than the calendar. I.E. I save the Photoshop Elements file as a JPG that is 11 x 13.5, then I can adjust the size a little bit bigger as needed without cutting off anyone’s head in the photos.
I LOVE making a layout on Project Life (free app) It is a 12×12 collage so then I transfer the file from Project Life into Photoshop and create a 11 x 13.5 file and add a few digital embellishments (scrapbooking anyone?) to make it look cute. This is definitely more time consuming, but ends up adorable. Costco’s templates are just fine– if you don’t wish to get pulled into a lengthy process.
Costco’s calendar only allows one picture per date, so if you have cousins or anyone with the same birthday, you can add someone on the date next to it and write in with text the actual birthday. To kids this matters! 🙂 To some adults this is also important! 🙂
As of this year 2021, Costco no longer has a photo center in person, so there will be a shipping charge (which everyone else has anyway too!) However as of this article, the large colorful calendar is only $20 compared to other places that vary from $25 to $50 per calendar of lesser quality.
Order your calendar no later than the second week of December. It takes 10 days for printing and shipping, but beautifully they ship it right to the home!
Get an amazing playlist ready to go or an audiobook to play to keep yourself engaged during the dragging and dropping portion!

Truly this is an awesome gift, that after the year passes, makes a darling little snapshot of time! We have all the calendars we have made and the kids love to look through them just like a scrapbook! Grandma, Grandpa most of the siblings, not to mention cousins look forward to the new calendar every year! It can be a labor of love, but I would much rather give a meaningful gift that is appreciated than another random fuzzy blanket. 🙂

Good Luck! We hope you make something amazing!

Do you have a gift idea you love? Share it with all of us! Do you make a family calendar? Where do you print it and what are your best ways for collecting the pictures from everyone?

Happy gift giving and family loving season!!

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