December is always such a busy month filled with Christmas parties, school concerts, sleigh rides, and visits with family.  There are so many precious memories created and, as a mom of small children, I want those memories preserved in a photo book.

In the scrapbooking world, recording December memories each day is a popular concept which I have tried, but gave up after the first week each time.  With all the festivities going on, I kept forgetting to take photos and when I did, I had no time to sit down and document each days special moment.  The last thing I needed at this joyous time of year was something else to stress about!

I still wanted to make photo books of our Christmas memories, but had to think of a way that worked better for me.  In 2011 I made our first holiday photo book that focused on 25 fun things we like to do at Christmas time.  For example:  decorating the house and tree, making Christmas crafts with the kids, going for walks to see the neighbourhood lights, baking, writing letters to Santa, etc. It was fun to look through this book again and see how small the kids were and how many of these traditions we continue to do each year.

Last year I put together another Christmas book in honour of our Elf, Arthur.  The kids were so fascinated by him and said the cutest things when they found him, that I had to preserve those memories and quotes.  Initially it was going to be the 25 days of Arthur, but I only had pictures from 18 days.  It ended up being a smaller book with 12 of the best photos with our elf.  In ten years time, no one is going to care that I didn’t get all 25 pictures!  If you want to read more about this photo book, visit here for the post from last year.

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There are so many great ways to document those memorable December days.  In the future I would love to do a book just about the tree ornaments and the history or stories behind them.  I would also like to make another one similar to the Christmas 2011 book when the kids are a bit older just to see what activities have become yearly traditions for our family.

I decided not to make a December photo book for this holiday season, but I am thinking about making one for the winter days of January or February.  Christmas isn’t the only time of year to preserve memories, it could be done for any month.  Discovering and documenting the joy of winter would help make those cold months more bearable instead of just wishing it were spring.

How do you document your holiday season?  I would love to have some inspiration for next year!

Leah