Finding The Holiday Spirit Through Photography

The holiday season is tough for many of us. Especially, when you live abroad like I do. The longer that I am away from home the more meaningful the holidays become and the harder it is to muster up that Christmas spirit.

Over the past few years, it has been photography that has allowed me to find the spirit of the holidays, even if it looks the same as it always does outside. It allows me to have a sort of mission during the holidays. That mission being to create images the reflect the christmas world that I either see or want to see.

Seeking Christmas

Living in Korea, it is easy to let the holiday season just slip by. Typically, we only get one day off for Christmas and another off for New Years Day. This means that this year Christmas came in the middle of the week, so it was a work day on Monday, then Christmas and then back to work on the 26th or Boxing Day as we call it in Canada.

It is tough to really get a Christmasy kind of feeling when you are right back to work the next day. However, I set out to find a couple of locations this year and I am not even finished yet. These missions let me experience more of the Christmas season.

Light Up The Night

Believe it or not, Christmas has always been a thing in Korea but not as overdone as it is in the west. This is usually a couples day where they head out for a romantic dinner and to a moving. In recent years, Christmas light festivals have become popular.

Busan has not one but two Christmas Tree festivals and a light festival as well. Where I live in Ulsan, they have huge Christmas trees set up around the city and also a Christmas light festival set up in their grand park.

This gives me an ample opportunity to create a sense Christmas with my lens. It is a great feeling to be a part of these celebrations as people really come out to enjoy the lights.

However this year, the big exception was the area near my apartment. They normally have an entire street set up for Christmas but this year they didn’t set anything up. This was my go to spot for Christmas lights and photos showing a christmas scene. Not to worry, as this year I focussed a bit more on using my tre and other decorations around the house to make some christmas shots and cinemagraphs.

Deck The Halls

With the growing popularity of Christmas decorations here, it was great to be able to decorate but also pick items to use as props too. Korea has a number of cheap stores carrying affordable ornaments that are great for stock shots of this festive time of year.

Finally, documenting the “big day” is something that I a getting more pleasure out of. The reason being is that you can make collections of images or slideshows from previous years. This is something that you phone can do automatically and should not be overlooked.


The bottom line here is that the holidays can be tough if you have lost that festive spirit. Using your camera to create memories or even create the Christmas that you want is a great way to overcome that blue Christmas feeling.

Whether you are far from home or just down the street, it is easy to fall out of that festive feeling. Using your camera is a great way to get your jingle bells back on for the holidays.

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Jason Teale 

Photographer, educator, podcaster

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Photographing Korea and the world beyond!