Red Truck with Christmas Tree: Christmas Cards

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Family Christmas pictures around a red vintage jeep with a tree on top was my dream I never realized until it came true recently. I’ve always loved the vintage Red Truck with Christmas tree images that are often seen in decor during the holidays, and LOVE them! I have a few around my house…so making this a reality was so exciting for me.

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

I’ve got a fun story behind the red jeep family pictures…wanna hear? Altogether we had:

–637 pictures taken

–294 was the narrowed down first look

–35 was the chosen favorites

–7 made it to the card

For a good laugh (or maybe it’s just me?) watch the behind the scenes RAW video footage!

Red Truck with Christmas Tree: Christmas Cards

Come along and see my top favorites from our family pictures photo shoot!

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

When I spied this red vintage jeep at our elementary school, my jaw dropped and I had to find out whose it was. Much to my joy, it was owned by a friend, and I braved asking to use it for a shoot, and they were delighted to share! My heart soared that I would have my very own Red Truck with Christmas Tree pictures of my family!

Planning out family pictures

It was the week before Thanksgiving, and I had planned to just use our Unicorns and their Lucky Charms pictures on our card. We also took some in the mountains in Utah in July, and I was going to give my family a break this year…haha!  I do like to send cards with NEW images that haven’t been out on the internet or social media yet, but I was going to concede with myself. Until that red truck came into my life.

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

I knew that if I was going to take pictures with that red truck, I was going to have to do it soon, to get cards ordered and out in a decent amount of time before Christmas. I had reached out to a handful of my photographer friends to take them, but timing was bad, and it was too tricky to coordinate. I had to decide what day would work best for my family, and figured I could always pull out my tripod like I had done so many times before. (See this post: How to take your own family pictures).

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

(I love the brother hug above, these boys truly are the best of friends, and it makes my heart soar on the daily to watch them). Ok, I couldn’t resist a close up…

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

That’s what I planned to do, until the hour before when I realized that what I as really hoping for was some fun candid images, and that was hard to do with a tripod. While I was away from home, I texted my teenage boys and asked them to see if one of their teen friends could help us (I had asked 2 of my closest friends and they were tied up, I didn’t want to hassle with asking anyone else!)

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

The jeep was at a location a good 20 minutes away. They told me the keys were hidden, and we headed out there. The light would be going soon, and I didn’t want to miss our window. Well, once out to the spot I had visited the week before to grab the jeep, it wasn’t there! I texted my friend (it’s her husbands jeep) and she said…”Oh, I’m sorry for the mix-up, the Jeep is at our home” which is down the street from where I live. Yikes! Turn around…head back towards home.

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

So our family…all dressed to the nines ready for red jeep pictures, had to drive back towards our home, and I had to re-think where we would take the pictures…agh! My mind was stressing, and my husband actually suggested the location that we ended up losing. Because of the light going away, we had to re scramble quickly.

Our boys were having a grand old time cracking jokes with their friend, it was just me stressing…the light!

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

On location: taking family pictures

It was overcast, and I just had to be ok with that, but in the end, I think it worked out best because I didn’t have to think about where the light was coming from, and we could park the red truck with christmas tree wherever, and that was great because we didn’t have a lot of options!

The Jeep Wagoneer didn’t have power steering, and I asked my oldest Tyler to come in with me and be my navigator/help me with the vintage buttons while my husband followed behind me in the van with the rest of the crew. I thought it was so fun, and my son was nervous, it felt odd riding inside, so different from the modern cars we are used to.

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

Joseph was an excellent photographer. I think because he wasn’t my friend or photographer buddy, it was easier for me to instruct him in all things, and he was great at listening! I basically set us all up, set up the focus with the camera, told him not to move his feet and to just “snap 100 pictures” in each setting. He did that well! I orchestrated some candid moments (throwing presents, walking, etc.) and he simply followed instructions.

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

It worked out perfectly!!!

As with all family pictures, we have a compromise…I try not to be crazy mom and they try not to be TOO crazy. They’ve realized to just do what they are told and it’s done quicker (but sometimes it takes longer because I try to squeeze more out of them). The light dictated a lot, and we were done after about 20 minutes.

As I mentioned above, we had 637 pictures taken, 294 was the narrowed down first look, 35 was the chosen favorites, 7 made it to the card.

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

Here are those we chose to include on the postcard from our favorites above:

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

Red Truck with Christmas Tree Christmas Card

See that little space on the right in the middle? I mistakenly thought my address labels would fit in there, but NOPE! I had to cut a label and hand write all of my cards this year. And that space for the postage wasn’t big enough either, that’s what I get for eyeballing it.

You may also enjoy our past Christmas card photo shoots:

All of the above pictures I shared were in my top 35 favorites, but I’ve got some sillies, too! I have several of my husband yawning, just the one below (right, middle)

bloopers family pictures

This image is blurry, but I don’t care, it shows my excitement over having taken the red truck with christmas tree pictures!

red truck christmas tree

I had a video going of us the whole time, but I haven’t looked at it yet, hopefully I’ll add it in soon!

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