What to wear for Christmas family photos
Twelve looks that photograph beautifully, and the colours we’d leave at home.
At some point in October, someone in your house lays three outfits on a bed and asks which one. The four-year-old has opinions.
We understand why it matters. These are photographs you will keep for the rest of your life, and the clothes are the one part of the day you can actually plan. So this is everything we know about what to wear for Christmas family photos, learned from photographing a hundred families last Christmas in three rooms we designed and built ourselves in Dubai.
The short version: pick a palette, not a uniform. Choose fabrics that do something in warm light. Leave the neon at home. Put everyone in one outfit, and then let them get on with it.
The long version is below. The pieces that make a Christmas photograph feel warm, the colours that quietly spoil one without anybody noticing until the gallery arrives, and twelve looks that show how it all comes together. Unless a caption says otherwise, every family on this page was photographed by us last season, in The Forest, The Tree or The Kitchen.
The pieces that photograph beautifully
Before colours, fabric. Warm light is generous to some materials and indifferent to others, and it is the fabric, more than the outfit, that makes a photograph feel like Christmas rather than an ordinary Tuesday. These are the pieces we are always glad to see come through the door.
Knitwear. Cable, rib, a chunky cardigan. Knits have texture, and texture is what makes a photograph feel warm instead of flat. They are forgiving too: a good jumper looks the same after twenty minutes on the floor as it did in the car.
Velvet. The Christmas fabric, and for good reason. Velvet goes dark in its folds and catches the light on its edges, so a plain dress in deep green or burgundy looks rich without a single sequin.
Tulle and a little sparkle. On children, tulle, fine glitter and small beads catch the tree lights and photograph beautifully. One sparkling thing per person is plenty.
Tartan and check. The quickest way to make a family look like a family. One check per photograph works best. Two different checks side by side start to argue.
Fair isle. The patterned jumper that looks like Christmas without trying. It is at its best on a dark ground with a cream pattern, and it belongs in a kitchen with flour on the counter.
A good white shirt. For boys, and for fathers who would rather not wear a jumper. White cotton bounces light back up onto the face, which is exactly where you want it.
Pyjamas, the matching kind. Christmas morning, photographed. Choose a set in tartan, cream or a soft check, and make sure it fits: pyjamas bought two sizes up to grow into look exactly like that.
Socks. For the cosier looks, we would rather see thick socks or bare feet than shoes. It is a small thing, and it makes a sitting-down photograph feel like home.
Ribbons and bows. A velvet ribbon in a child’s hair does more than any hat. Burgundy, deep green or black, tied just before you leave the house.
Something for the dog. A bandana or a small bow, never a costume. The dog will steal the photograph either way.
The best colours for Christmas family photos
Some colours work in warm light and some quietly fight it. Our rooms are built around warm light, deep green and brass, and the colours that look best in them are the ones that sit comfortably alongside. Deep green, ivory, beige, soft grey, black, burgundy and brass will never let you down. They flatter almost every skin tone, and they look as right on a toddler as on a grandparent.
Wear these
Leave these at home
The colours on the right do more damage than they look like they would. Bright and neon colours bounce their own colour back onto skin, so a neon top throws a green or orange cast up onto the chin and cheeks of whoever is wearing it. It is difficult to correct later without the whole photograph looking edited. Deep, muted tones stay where they are put.
One note on blue. The blue we would leave at home is the bright, saturated kind. A deep navy knit, like the fair isle jumpers further down this page, behaves more like a dark neutral.
Look 01
Deep green velvet
If you choose one colour for Christmas photographs, choose this one. Deep green sits against a lit tree without disappearing into it, suits almost every skin tone, and looks as right on a baby as it does on her grandmother.
In velvet it does something else as well. The folds go dark and the edges catch the light, so a simple dress looks considered without any embellishment at all. A cream lace collar is about as much decoration as green velvet ever needs: it brings a little light up to the face, and the velvet does the rest.
Look 02
Cream, head to toe
Ivory and oatmeal are the quietest colours in a Christmas photograph, and often the most beautiful. They take on the warmth of whatever light is around them, so in a room full of tree lights a cream jumper turns faintly gold.
If you worry that cream will vanish against snow, it doesn’t. The texture of a knit keeps it separate, and faces become the warmest thing in the frame. Two children in soft cream sets, a knitted bear and a lot of snow: it is very hard to get this one wrong.
Look 03
Burgundy and brass
Burgundy is deep green’s warmer relation, and it is at its best beside brass and gold. A burgundy dress with a matching bow, reaching up into a tree full of gold baubles, is the whole Christmas palette in a single frame.
If burgundy feels like a lot for a whole family, give it to one person and dress everyone else in cream or black around them. It is also, usefully, a colour that forgives chocolate.
Look 04
A white shirt and a velvet bow tie
The easiest way to dress a small boy for Christmas. A crisp white shirt throws light back up onto his face, and a velvet bow tie in burgundy makes it festive without turning it into a costume.
It is also the answer for the child who hates dressing up. One shirt and one bow, nothing that scratches, and if he insists on rolling up his sleeves, let him. He will be happier, and so will the photographs. A present on the table helps too.
Look 05
Fair isle, matched on purpose
Matching is not a crime. A mother and daughter in the same navy fair isle jumper, both with their hands in the dough, works precisely because it is so obviously deliberate.
If you are going to match, match properly: the same jumper, not two that are nearly the same. And choose a pattern on a dark ground with a cream motif, which keeps faces the brightest thing in the frame and lets the pattern read as texture rather than noise.
Look 06
Coordinated, not identical
For most families, this is the answer. Choose two or three colours that sit well together, then dress each person from within them. Here the boys wear fair isle in navy and red, and their father wears a plain cream knit that ties the whole picture together without competing with it.
Nobody matches, and everybody obviously belongs to the same family. The trick is to decide the palette first and then dress each person, not the other way round. Start with the child who is hardest to dress, and build everyone else around them.
Look 07
Tartan pyjamas for everyone
There is a reason matching Christmas pyjamas became a tradition. They make a family look like a family instantly, nobody has to think about shoes, and everyone is comfortable enough to stop thinking about the camera.
Red tartan is the classic, and it is one of the few reds we are always pleased to see, because a woven check is broken up by darker lines rather than sitting there as a flat block of colour. Add a kitchen and a bag of flour, and something slightly chaotic happens. That is the photograph.
Look 08
Tulle, for the one who twirls
Every family seems to have one. For her, a cream tulle dress with a full skirt, because tulle moves, and movement is what makes a photograph feel alive rather than arranged.
She will spin, the skirt will lift, and for a few seconds she will forget there is a camera in the room. Keep the colour soft, ivory or champagne, and don’t worry about keeping it pristine. Tulle photographs beautifully even slightly crushed, and a little crushed is how you know it was worn properly.
Look 09
Cream and oatmeal, for the grown-ups
Parents often ask what they should wear so as not to compete with the children. This. Soft cable knits in cream or oatmeal, jeans or easy grey trousers, socks rather than shoes. It is the grown-up version of Look 02, and it lets the children be the colour in the photograph.
It also suits the parent who would rather not be photographed at all, because it looks like the clothes you would actually wear on Christmas morning. That is the point. You are usually the one taking the photographs. This time you will be in them, and you should look like yourself.
Look 10
Sequins for mum, ivory knit for the baby
A baby’s first Christmas deserves a little ceremony, and the easiest way to give it one is to let the grown-up doing the holding dress up. A deep green sequin dress catches every light in the room, while the baby, in soft ivory knit and a bobble hat, stays the calmest thing in the frame.
Babies look best in simple, soft layers they can’t pull at, in ivory, oatmeal or white. Leave the novelty outfits for the family group chat.
Look 11
Cream pyjamas, and a small white dog
If tartan feels like too much, cream pyjamas are the softer version of the same idea. They read as Christmas morning without a single print, they sit beautifully in front of a lit tree, and they make every child look slightly more angelic than they were ten minutes earlier.
They are also very good at accommodating a small white dog, which will end up in the middle of the photograph whatever you had planned.
Look 12
The dog, dressed
Last, and certainly not least. Your first pet comes free with every session, and we would much rather they were dressed like the rest of the family than in a costume. A bandana is ideal: this one picks up the fair isle of his owner’s pyjamas in red, it stays on, and it doesn’t stop the dog doing what dogs do best at Christmas, which is sitting as close to the family as they are allowed and grinning.
One practical note. A dog that is used to its bandana will ignore it, while one that has never worn one will spend the session trying to eat it, so try it at home first.
What we’d leave at home
Big logos and slogans, which pull the eye straight off a face. Anything neon. Head-to-toe prints on everyone at once, which turns a family photograph into wallpaper. Brand-new shoes that pinch, because a child who is thinking about her feet is not thinking about her brother. And costumes, unless your child genuinely lives in one.
And the second outfit. We know. It feels like insurance. But changing a small child in the middle of a session takes about fifteen minutes of a thirty-minute booking, and the half that comes after the change is never as good as the half before it. One outfit each, chosen well, is the single biggest thing you can do for your own gallery.
Let’s sum up
Pick a palette before you pick an outfit. Deep green, ivory, burgundy, black and brass will carry any family; bright blue, yellow and anything neon will work against you. Choose fabrics that do something in warm light: velvet, knit, tulle, a good check. Dress the hardest child first and build everyone else around them. Then bring one outfit each, and stop thinking about it.
The best photographs from last Christmas weren’t the ones where everyone was dressed exactly right. They were the ones where everyone was comfortable enough to forget what they had on.
Questions families ask about what to wear
Only if you want to. Coordinating works better for most families: choose two or three colours that sit well together and dress each person from within them. If you do match, match properly, with the same jumper or the same pyjamas, rather than pieces that are nearly the same.
We ask for one outfit each. Changing a small child mid-session takes about fifteen minutes of a thirty-minute booking, and the half after the change is never as good as the half before. One outfit, chosen well, gives you a better gallery.
Deep, muted tones: deep green, ivory, beige, soft grey, black, burgundy and brass. Bright and neon colours bounce their own colour onto skin, so faces pick up a cast that is difficult to correct later.
For the cosier looks, thick socks or bare feet. Children are happier and the photographs feel more like home. For dressier looks, simple shoes that already fit well. Never a brand-new pair on the day.
Yes, within reason. A bandana or a small bow works best, ideally one the dog has worn before. Your first pet comes free with every session.
Everything else, from booking to the snow, is on our questions page.
The Setup Collective builds three Christmas rooms in Dubai each season, The Forest, The Tree and The Kitchen, then photographs families in them. Candidly: nobody gets told to tuck their chin in. Who we are
