There’s something magical about the holidays – and even more magical when the painted portraits hanging in your home suddenly come to life. Christmas Living Portraits Decoration Collection brings that enchantment to your holiday celebrations with Santa, Mrs. Claus, and a cheerful elf who spring from their frames to share stories, jokes, and festive cheer.
Whether you’re hosting a holiday party or creating an unforgettable Christmas decoration display at your home, these charming characters offer countless ways to add wonder to your Christmas décor. But before we explore display options, there’s something important to know about how this decoration is formatted.
Christmas Living Portraits comes in two distinct formats that determine which characters appear in your display. The vertical orientation features solo Santa portraits – perfect for narrower spaces, single displays, or when you want Santa to be the star. This includes all displays optimized for the Decorating Disc XL.
The horizontal orientation features all three characters together – Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the cheerful elf. Santa’s still the star, but the horizontal versions afford the opportunity for Mrs. Claus and the elf to react and engage – even tell a few jokes. Unlike the Halloween-themed UnLiving Portraits Decoration Collection, where each character has individual vertical versions that can appear to interact with the other individual characters, the Christmas Living Portraits trio appears together in the same digital video file.
Oh! And before we get to the Christmas goodies, don’t forget to make sure to have a speaker available – people will want to hear what Santa has to say! Weatherproof speakers like the AtmoSonic Wireless Bluetooth Speaker (now at $15 off!) are always a good option. Now, onto some decoration ideas that we are certain will keep the entire neighborhood hanging around all evening. (Better have extra hot apple cider ready!)
Frame It and They Will Come
TVs and tablets are one of the most popular ways to display Christmas Living Portraits, especially with physical frames – and for good reason. This technique transforms your screen into what appears to be an authentic painted portrait, creating genuine surprise when the characters suddenly spring to life.
For tablets, this is wonderfully simple. Pick up an inexpensive frame from a craft store that fits around your tablet screen. Place the framed tablet on a mantel, bookshelf, or side table among your other holiday decorations and family photos. When guests notice what appears to be a traditional painted portrait of Santa suddenly reciting ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, the reaction is priceless. The smaller scale of a tablet makes the effect feel intimate and personal.
For TVs, the impact is even more dramatic. A framed television mounted on the wall becomes a showstopping centerpiece at holiday parties. You can build a custom frame using materials from a hardware store, or repurpose an existing large frame. The key is selecting a frame that conceals the edges of the screen, making it look like a genuine portrait hanging on your wall. We’ve even seen some clever decorators create an entire false wall, mounting the TV behind it. Either way, when Santa and his companions come to life in this large format, it creates a magical moment that guests will talk about long after the holidays.
Christmas Living Portraits includes both framed and unframed versions of each scene. The unframed versions are specifically designed for decorators who want to add their own physical frames, while the framed versions include elegant digital frames for other display methods. The choice is yours.
Walls: Your Holiday Gallery
Wall projection offers flexibility whether you want to keep things simple or get creative. The straightforward approach is to project directly onto any wall or surface – the decoration includes digital frames and even a festive “wallpaper” background, instantly creating the appearance of portraits hanging in your home. Select the trio mode to display all three characters interacting, or choose solo Santa for a single focal point.
For those who want to elevate the effect, try hanging an empty frame on your wall and projecting the unframed version into it. This technique makes the moving portrait even more convincing, especially if you paint the area inside the frame white for optimal projection while leaving the surrounding wall a different color. The contrast makes it appear that you have an actual framed portrait that just won’t sit still!
Some decorators take this even further by creating a full gallery wall with three empty frames at precisely the spot where the projector displays Christmas Living Portraits. Imagine Santa telling jokes or mischievously moving mistletoe about – it creates a dynamic holiday display that draws people in.
Windows into Christmas Magic
It is also easy to transform your windows into magical displays using Window Projection Material. The window-optimized versions of Christmas Living Portraits include festive backgrounds that make it appear your home contains an enchanted gallery. From outside, passersby will see what looks like traditional holiday portraits – until the characters begin moving and interacting. Then, of course, it’s not so traditional!
Vertical windows work perfectly for solo Santa displays, while larger horizontal windows are ideal for showcasing the trio. This is an excellent option for homes visible from the street, as it creates holiday appeal that encourages visitors to stick around and watch the show! And that spreads holiday cheer throughout the neighborhood.
Decorating Disc XL: Ornaments and Spheres
The Decorating Disc XL opens up creative possibilities that are perfect for Christmas. This 43-inch circular projection surface is optimized for solo Santa displays and can be used in several festive ways. The simplest approach is hanging the disc in a window or from your porch ceiling, creating a circular “window” into Santa’s world. But the real magic happens when you get creative with spheres and other objects.
Try projecting onto a translucent beach ball or exercise ball to create a three-dimensional Santa snow globe effect. The curved surface gives the portrait depth and dimension. Inflatable snow globes work particularly well – you can find these at party supply stores, and when you project Santa onto them, it truly looks like he’s appearing inside a magical Christmas sphere.
Another option is to hang the Decorating Disc XL from a tree branch. If it is an evergreen tree, even better! When you project Christmas Living Portraits onto it, the disc becomes a giant animated Christmas ornament. Position it where it catches the eye – perhaps near your front walkway or in a prominent spot in your yard. The circular format combined with the tree placement creates a unique effect you won’t see in other holiday displays.
Christmas Living Portraits offers something special for the holiday season – from intimate tablet displays on the mantel to three-dimensional ornaments, this jolly new decoration is certain to add wonder and enchantment to your holiday celebrations.
How will you bring these holiday portraits to life this Christmas season? We’d love to see your creative displays! Send us your photos and videos using our simple online submission form and share the Christmas magic!
