30 Awkward Family Christmas Photos That Still Make People Cringe Years Later

Back when we were kids, our parents loved to take Christmas photos of us dressed up in ridiculous sweaters posing with mall Santas or giant Christmas trees, no matter how much we hated it. Well, at least now we have a bunch of awkward Christmas photos of ourselves that both us and our family can laugh at each holiday season.

#1 The Only Baby Picture I Have. Why?

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#2 The Infamous Christmas Photo Shoot Of 1984. Dad’s Short-Shorts And High Socks Highlighted His Fashion-Forward Attitude And Athleticism; My Sister’s Cheerleading Perfection Revealed Her Vow To Never Look Bad In Any Photo- Ever, And My Single Jazz Hand Stance Complete This Awkward Family Christmas Card From Over 30 Years Ago

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#3 My Uncle, Comforting My Father After Breaking A Toy On Christmas Morning, 1969. That’s Brotherly Love

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#4 Merry Christmas From Your Friendly, Neighborhood Mall Goths, 2005

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#5 We Were Taking Our Family Christmas Photo, And Let’s Just Say The Dogs Weren’t In A Holly Jolly Mood. This Photo Was The Worst Of The Batch, But Now It’s A Conversation Starter. We Keep It Right By The Entrance Of Our Home Here In St. Louis

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#6 My Boss, Who Has 6 Kids, Captured Every Sibling Dynamic Possible In One Photo

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#7 Christmas 2009. We Went To The Mall To Take A Picture With Santa And Seemingly Nothing Went Wrong… My Son Didn’t Cry, The Line Was Manageable But Santa’s Attention Was Focused Elsewhere

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#8 This Is The Photo My Grandmother Sent Out As Her X-Mas Card In The Early 70s

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She didn’t like my dad’s not-smiling face so she cut out one from a different picture, pasted it in place and sent it to the printers. Note the glue on my dad’s face where grandma had attempted to affix the smiling face before it shifted during printing. Still one of the funniest things ever sent to more than 200 friends and family

#9 Being In A Family With Five Children, You Hardly Ever Get A Great Photo With All The Kids. 27 Years Later My Sister Decided We Should Reenact This Photo On The One Day A Year We All Get Together

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#10 We Took The Kids To Take Pictures With Santa. Needless To Say We Were Shocked As We Scrolled Through The Photos And Saw Our Daughter’s Middle Finger Up With Her Head Turned And Smiling

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#11 This Was The Picture That My Family Sent Out As Our Family Christmas Card Back In ’91

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#12 Christmas Was Scary In Yugoslavia

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#13 My Dad On Christmas Morning

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#14 Mom, There’s A Reason There Wasn’t A Line To See This Santa…

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#15 Our Aunt Helen Made These For The Three Of Us And While I Know She Worked Very Hard On Them, I Was Mortified. That’s Me On The Left. I’m Smiling But My Eyes Are Red From Crying Because I Didn’t Want To Wear It. The Compromise Was That I Didn’t Have To Wear The Bonnet. I Don’t Have Much Of A Fashion Sense But Even Then, At A Tender Young Age, I Knew This Was Wrong, Very Wrong

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#16 My Memories Of Meeting Santa Are Fond Ones. I Came Across This Pic, However, And Was Startled By The Look On This Particular Santa’s Face. He Looks A Little Less Interested In What I Want For Christmas, And A Little More Interested In How I’d Taste In A Stew

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#17 This Is A Picture Of My Dad And Uncles Sitting With Santa. My Uncle Tex Is The Youngest Who Was Clearly A Bit Nervous

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#18 The Moment My Mom Realized I Was Going To Be A Handful

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#19 My Dad Built This To Protect The Tree From The Cat

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#20 The Year My Father Got My Mother A Hoover For Christmas, 1984

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#21 Every Romanian Child’s Christmas Summed Up In One Picture

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#22 Our Photographer Sent Us All The Images From Our Holiday Photo Session Including This One And I Love It

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#23 Christmas Morning, And Everybody Except Young Tim (Middle) Gets A New Bike. We As Parents Should Have Anticipated The Reaction

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#24 We Were Trying To Create A Winter Wonderland Scene And Save Money By Shooting Our Own Picture. We Ended Up With Almost 90 Photos That All Looked Like This, So We Just Went With It And This Year I Got Actual Requests To Post This Card

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#25 This Is A Picture Of Me And My Dad At Christmas Time. Dad Was Smoking A Cigarette And Reading

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#26 Just A Good Old Holiday Pic With An Innocent Little 4-Year-Old, A Creepy Santa And A Scantily Dressed Miss Piggy! Even More Disturbing, Why Does The Costume Even Have Those Body Parts Sewn On?!

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#27 This Is The 2006 Christmas Card Photo That We Sent Out, With Our 6-Year-Old English Bulldog, Joan

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#28 My Boyfriend When He Was 3. The Ussr Was A Strange Time

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#29 Our Awkward Family Swim Team Christmas Photo

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#30 My Sister And I Thought It Might Be A Good Idea To Have Our Kids’ Photos Taken As A Christmas Present For My Mom. With Two Hungry, Tired Newborn Babies And A Bored 3 Year Old, It Was Quite Possibly The Worst Day Of Our Lives. This Was The Best Pic We Could Get Of All Three Of Them

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