Christmas at Jiggy Wrigglers

Happy New Year everyone!

It's been quite some time since my last blog post. I've not been absent for any particular reason. Sometimes, life simply gets a bit busy and priorities shift. I have two young children, the eldest of whom started school in September, so life gets into a certain routine, and it becomes tricky to find the time to blog as much as I would like.

Still, I am here now and ready to share some of what I've been up to recently.

Since we're on the 12th day after Christmas, and everyone's Christmas trees and decorations are coming down today (or are they? Do you like to keep your decorations up for a while longer?), I thought I would start with some of 2025's gorgeous babies and toddlers.

2025 was my 5th year working with Tafflyn from Jiggy Wrigglers New Forest, and I am very sorry to say that it was our last year together as Tafflyn is selling on her franchise to focus on her health and family. I definitely speak for everyone who has ever attended one of your Jiggy Wrigglers sessions when I say that it has been an absolute joy to be a part of your Jiggys journey, and I wish you nothing but good things for the year ahead!

For 2025's baby sessions, we had 4 days of photos, totalling 8 sessions. We only made the mistake once of doing the photos on the same week as the Christmas parties, which turned out to be very hectic indeed! So, as usual, we picked a week at the start of December, and just made sure everyone remembered to wear their Christmas jumpers! It's so much less stressful to take photos when there isn't a huge party going on in the same room at the same time! Plus, it gets everyone into the Christmas mood, and gives everyone plenty of time to order their photos in time to use them as Christmas cards and gifts if they so wish.

In the end, I sent out 87 individual photo galleries. That's a lot! You may only have your little one in front of the camera for a few minutes, but it takes a huge amount of work behind the scenes, both before and after the Jiggys session, to get those photos to you!

I start planning my backdrop several weeks before the first session. I have 3 different Christmas backdrops that I rotate each year, and it was the turn of the snowy trees. I like to have different accessories each year, just in case anyone has had photos with this backdrop 3 years before. I don't want the photos to look exactly the same!

This year, I found these lovely shades of blue paper fans, and a nicely frosted, real mini Christmas tree (which went to live with my Nan after the photos were finished). The blue accessories gave a lovely icy feel to the images. And of course, I couldn't not include my very much loved, but starting to look slightly worse for wear reindeer, who has been in every Christmas Jiggys session for the last 5 years! Some things should never change!

I pack my car up to the limit and spend around 45 minutes on the morning of each session, setting everything up. Then it's all systems go for the next couple of hours, when I am taking photos almost continuously, making sure I capture the best photos possible of every child (not always an easy task when they are not in the mood to be photographed!).

After the session, I pack everything up, and head home to start work on editing the images. This is the bit that takes the most time, and it usually involves me sitting in my pyjamas, drinking tea like it's going out of fashion, and occasionally moving when my watch tells me I haven't stood up for 3 hours. Time moves in strange ways when editing. It goes very fast and makes you feel like you haven't achieved anything much at all!

I try to get the galleries out as soon as possible, so that everyone has plenty of time to view their photos, decide if they want to purchase and then have time to order prints, etc.

I always love the actual photo taking. I always find the editing mildly stressful. And then I enjoy it when it's all done and my phone just keeps pinging to let me know someone loves their photos enough to purchase one. That gives a great sense of satisfaction.

I hope everyone had a wonderful festive period, and happy new year to everyone. May your 2026 be filled with happiness and health.