Instagram Ideas for Christmas

Now is the time, when all the Instagram accounts are full of festive and christmassy content. There are so many different ways to make your Insta festive and sparkly, here are some ideas. 

Backgrounds: 

Use wrapping paper to create sparkly background. You can get them in all the colours (silver, gold, blue, red, green etc.) and with all kinds of patterns on them. Like this you can pick to ones, who add to your theme and the ones you really like. I also like to us the Christmas tree or maybe a wreath for background, sparkly light chains always help too. Adding Christmas decor to your background is also a very simple way to make it unique. Use clothes as a background as well. 

Accessoires: 

This one is simple, any Christmas decor you own can be put onto a photo, whether it's candles, stars, little sparkles, confetti, lights, baubles etc. 

Food/drinks: 

Take pictures of the cookies you bake, of the mulled wine you make or just from you enjoying a hot chocolate in front of a cosy fire. It's christmassy in an instant. 

Outdoors:

There are so many decorations outside, from lights, to trees and all the shops and stores and of course Christmas markets give you plenty of ideas and inspiration. It can be by daylight or when it's dark, there are so many possibilities. 

Stores:

The stores are just bursting from all the Christmas stuff. Take as many pictures as possible and it might give you more ideas. 

Decor:

Take pictures of your own decor at home, at work, at school etc. 

Fashion: 

Show is your Christmas pjs, socks, your outfit for Christmas parties, family dinner and of course all your Christmas jumpers. 

Challanges:

If you don't want to come up with too many things just on your own, join a photo challenge for December. 

Christmas Cards:

Whether it's the ones you receive or the ones you make, to can really add to a picture. 

Advent Calendars:

It can't get more festive with them, trust me!

Christmas DYI:

Show us what you created!!!

There are of course many more ideas!!!

Public vs Private Profile

A few weeks ago there were several articles about a Swiss teacher posing in a bikini on her Instagram. I even think that some other countries talked about her as well.

That’s how I discovered Morena. She is a teacher in Switzerland, but also blogs about body, health and confidence. On her instagram she has a lot of pictures of herself in a bikini or showing her body. Lots of comments then said that a teacher shouldn’t do that and she even got criticised by educational ... in Switzerland. It’s like not showing yourself drunk on Facebook, not that your boss sees it. And yes, for my taste there are a bit too many pictures of her in a bikini, but on the other hand it’s part of her and her blog. She is still a great teacher and that’s the main thing. The parents seem fine with it and her school too, so all is well.

That brings me to the actual topic. Most of my teacher friend and friends from uni have a private Instagram account, because of the reasons I mentioned above. Parents, pupils and maybe the boss shouldn’t see their posts. Mine is not private; everyone can see my pictures from the start. I had it on private for a short time, but with my blog it makes more sense to have it public.

Last year, when I started my YouTube account, I had a parent commenting weird stuff under my videos and some students found my videos as well. I changed them to private and some public again. I just didn’t know what to do. Now I only post my travel videos on there and nothing else. That’s totally ok, because I don’t have time to make videos.

My focus is more on Instagram and to get the engagement I need my profile to be public. I also want people to see my pictures, so it totally makes sense.

I understand why teachers and people with other jobs, keep their profiles private, but it’s not my way. Everyone can see my pictures and what I post is part of my life. I have a big mixture of posts, from books, over landscape, traveling and a picture of me from time to time. I would never post too many photos in a bikini or of me wearing shorts etc., but one once in a while is totally ok.

Some people also have two accounts, that is a solution of course, but that would be too much work for me.

How do you handle this situation? Let me know in the comments. 

Props and backgrounds for blog/Instagram photos

Summer is great for blog photos! The sun is shining and it’s light for a really long time. I started taking pictures of the books I read from the start, always using different props. Preferably some, which have a connection to the books. In the beginning I didn’t care about the lighting, now I do, but I am definitely not a pro at it and in the end I just have to be happy with the actual picture. Now I also take lots of pictures for my blog posts and Instagram and always try to be creative. Props and different backgrounds really help to make photos unique.

Background ideas:

-       Blankets

-       Pillows

-       Clothes

-       Scarfs

-       Books, Notebooks

-       Newspaper

-       Wrapping paper

-       Floors

-       Grass

-       Ground (Street)

-       Walls

-       Paper

-       Tables

-       Trays

-       Plates

-       Tiles

Props:

-       Books, newspapers, magazines, programmes

-       Laptops, phone, iPad, kindle, camera, headphones

-       Glasses, sunglasses

-       Scarfs, socks, bras, bikinis etc.

-       Food

-       Drinks

-       Notebooks, planners

-       Postcards, cards, photos, pictures, posters

-       Jewellery

-       Beauty products

-       Bags

-       Mugs, cups, glasses, bottles

-       Signs, quotes

-       Key chains

-       Flowers, Plants

-       Decor objects (sea shells etc.)

-       Straws, stickers

-       Bookmarks

-       Light chains, light box

-       Magnets

-       Paper clips, scissors, pins etc.

-       Pens, pencils, markers etc.

-       Chalk boards,

-       Boxes, pencil cases

-       Passports, maps, luggage tag

-       Balls, pucks etc.

-       Souvenirs (snow glob etc.)

-       Candles

-       Threads, strings

-       Washy tape

-       Frames, vases, trays

-       Confetti

-       Home ware stuff

So these were some ideas (or a lot), I hope this gives you inspiration :). All my other pictures are taken outside, so obviously exploring and traveling are very important too.