Custom Photo Ornaments in Crystal, Glass and Metal
An ornament is the one decoration in the house people look at closely. It hangs at eye level, it turns slowly, and everyone who walks past the tree ends up studying the picture on it. That is what makes a custom photo ornament different from a bought bauble: the subject is someone the household knows, and the ornament goes back in its box each January to come out again with another year of history attached.
This page gathers the whole range in one place. Every piece starts from a photo you already have, and the material decides how it looks on the tree. Crystal is engraved inside the block, so the picture appears to sit within clear glass. Metal is printed in full colour. Glass carries your photo in full colour on a clear panel that lets tree lights through. The simplest way to choose is in that order: material, then shape, then the picture itself.
Where the ornament hangs matters almost as much as what it is made of. Clear crystal and glass read best toward the outside of the tree with a bulb behind them, where light passes through and lifts the picture. Metal does not pass light, so it reads the same from any angle and suits the inner branches, where a clear piece would disappear among the needles.
Custom Ornaments: Choosing a Material
Custom ornaments in crystal are the heaviest and the most permanent, and because the engraving sits inside the material, nothing on the surface can wear away. They suit a single portrait or a couple, and they come singly or in sets of three and five. The whole crystal range is on the crystal ornaments page.
Glass is the everyday choice for a family tree: light enough for any branch and clear enough to pass light around the picture, with every shape collected under glass photo ornaments. Metal suits a house with small children or a cat that treats the tree as furniture, since it is lighter than glass and does not break. Customized ornaments in glass and metal can be bought singly or as a set you build yourself from any mix of shapes and themes.
Custom Christmas Ornaments by Occasion
Custom christmas ornaments usually mark a moment rather than a season. A baby's first Christmas, a couple's first year married, a family photo from the year everyone was home, a pet that has just joined the household: each has its own designs in the range, with room for a name and a year beside the picture. Christmas photo ornaments with a date on them become a record that reads in order along the branches.
Custom ornaments with picture and year are also the easiest way to give the same moment to several people at once. Personalized photo christmas ornaments ordered together from one photograph match in a way that pieces bought in different years cannot, so it is worth deciding early whether you are starting a set. Picture christmas ornaments for a wedding or an anniversary carry the date as well. If you would rather choose by the person than by the picture, the personalized Christmas ornaments selection is arranged by recipient.
Photo Ornaments and the Picture You Send
Photo ornaments are small, so the photograph matters more than the camera. A close picture with one or two faces filling the frame reads clearly from across a room; a group of eight taken from a distance does not. If your only picture is a wide one, our designers can crop it to the people who matter and will tell you if a file will not hold at the size you choose.
Shape changes the crop. Round and octagon crop evenly, the square takes the least off a phone photograph, and the heart cuts hard at the corners, so it wants one subject. Ornaments with pictures of animals have their own paw and bone shapes, which say what the picture is before anyone looks closely. Size follows the same logic as shape: a single face reads well on a small ornament, while two or three people need the larger sizes to stay recognisable from across a room. Personalized photo ornaments look best when the original was taken outdoors or beside a window, because even light keeps faces clear, and custom ornaments made from photos taken close in will always beat ones cropped from a distance.
Picture Ornaments in Sets, with Names and Dates
Picture ornaments become more useful in numbers. Custom picture ornaments ordered together for a first tree match in a way that four separate purchases over four years never will, and glass and metal sets can be built from any combination of shapes and themes. The quantity discount on glass and metal runs from 10% at two pieces to 50% at fifteen, and Colour Enhancement is available at $1.99 per image on those two materials.
The clear area beside the image takes a name, a year or a short line, and that is where personalized picture ornaments earn their place: a year turns a decoration into a record. Keep the wording short, since a full sentence is unreadable from the two feet an ornament is viewed from. Some families prefer personalized ornaments with picture and no text at all. Picture ornaments for christmas morning are easiest to get right a few weeks ahead, when there is time to choose the photo calmly. Every order ships boxed and ready to hang, with free US delivery in 1-4 days and exact dates shown at checkout.
