If you send Christmas cards with a picture of your family what do you do to save money? Do you take your own picture with a digital camera and print them on cards? Do you find a great deal with a professional photographer?

I make my own cards and I also take my own family pictures and get them printed at Walgreens.

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January 2009 Coupon Savings so Far:$101.30

I have done both this year I am not even sending Christmas cards

We just had my sister-in-law take some pictures. She isn't a "photographer" but she has a nice camera and likes to take pictures. If you looked around maybe you could find someone looking to build their portfolio that would do it for cheap.

If you go to a studio, always always use a coupon, and don't let them sell you those extra things they print and try to get you to buy afterwards.

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It's not what you make; it's what you spend.

Colleges with photography programs sre excellent places to find people looking for subjects! We have done this twice now and will do it again. Both times we got a free CD with excellent quality pics, very creative, some custom enhancements, black and white and all that. Free! In exchange some of our pics (with no identifying info) are on their personal website as examples of their work.

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Aja

Every year I take the kids to get their pic with Santa at the mall. I just buy the cheapest package that comes with the photo CD. Then I download it at home, and put the picture onto our family Christmas letter, which I also print at home.

I am using a pic that DH and I took in front of the Christmas tree last year with our digital camera. We are printing out the pics and putting them on cards. We don't have kiddos so not much changes...(DH and I don't ever age LOL ). This will probably be the last year we can do this.

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I just had the kids picture made at Portrait Innovations. I will print a Christmas letter or make handmade cards instead of buying them and stick wallet sized photos in them. Their standards package is $9.95 and comes with 32 wallet sized prints!

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We set up our camera on a rock during a camping trip this summer, and snapped a picture of our family and dog. DH loved it because of the beautiful setting and really wanted to use it as our card this year.

I ordered photo cards from Costco, 50 for $14.99, and chose a style into which I was able to insert three photos from that camping trip. They turned out very nicely.

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It's all about being creative. I have used a bunch of old Christmas cards and disposable foils to create new cards. I used our family pic with Fred and the kids to design the front page. And a collague shot of diff pic to make the inner page bright and modern.