You make a photo ornament by uploading a digital photo to a retailer’s design tool, picking a shape and material, adding text, and previewing before you order.
A crooked preview is the difference between a keepsake that hangs on the tree for twenty years and one that gets quietly retired to the storage bin. The build itself takes about ten minutes, and most of that time goes to choosing the photo — not fighting the software.
Walmart’s ornament tool spells out the basic flow: pick a shape and material, upload a favorite digital photo, add custom text like a name or date, then order. Shutterfly runs the same steps but adds a template library and a preview step before checkout. Retailers also sell ready-made customizable ornaments in glass, metal, ceramic, acrylic, wood, and snow globe styles if you’d rather skip the design work entirely.
What You Need Before You Start
You need one digital photo file — not a printed photo and not a screenshot of a photo — plus a credit card and about ten minutes. Walmart’s flow explicitly requires a digital photo, which rules out scanning a print unless you do that yourself first.
Photo quality matters more than anything else you’ll choose. A shot taken at arm’s length in good light prints cleanly at ornament size; a photo blown up from a phone thumbnail will look soft. Crop tight on faces or the single detail you want to remember, because ornament shapes are small and a wide shot shrinks every subject to thumbnail size.
- One strong photo — a clear subject with room to crop
- Text you want printed — a name, a year, a short date
- A shape and material in mind — round, square, heart, or a novelty cut
How to Make a Photo Ornament Step by Step
The five-step process is the same across the major retailers: choose the style, upload the photo, add text, preview, and order. The details below follow what Walmart and Shutterfly both document on their ornament pages.
- Select the ornament shape and material. Shutterfly’s metal ornaments come in named shapes and sizes — Circle at 2.75″ x 2.75″, Square at 3.9″ x 3.9″, Hexagon at 2.6″ x 3″, Oval at 2.375″ x 3″, plus Haven, Monterey, Thump, and Winsome cuts. Each sells individually and includes a red ribbon for hanging.
- Upload your digital photo. Use the original file from your phone or camera, not a version that’s been texted or posted to social media — those get compressed and lose detail.
- Add optional text. A name or date is the standard addition. Keep it short; small ornament surfaces don’t hold long lines well.
- Preview the layout. Check that no face sits under the hanging hole and that no text runs off the edge of the shape. Shutterfly’s flow builds this preview in before you order.
- Order.
When the preview shows the photo centered in the shape with your text fully inside the border, the design is ready to submit.
| Material | Typical Listed Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Plastic | $9.46 | Kids’ trees and budget batches |
| Wood (natural) | $20.78 | Rustic and farmhouse themes |
| Frosted acrylic (Walgreens) | $17.99 | Soft photo glow without glass risk |
| Round glass (Walgreens) | $21.99 | Traditional shiny finish |
| Porcelain round (Walgreens) | $17.99 | Heirloom-style keepsakes |
| Metal shape (Shutterfly) | $25.48 | Bold, high-contrast designs |
| Snow globe (Shutterfly) | From $29.99 | Baby’s first Christmas and kids |
What to Put on Your Photo Ornament
The best photo ornaments mark one specific person or moment, not a whole year at once. Shutterfly’s own examples point to the same conclusion: family portraits, wedding pictures, baby photos, pet pictures, and vacation snapshots each work as a standalone ornament.
Pet ornaments are their own category. Walgreens lists a Paw Print Ornament at $26.99, and Shutterfly’s marketplace shows a Paw Prints and Hearts Frame Custom Pet Photo Ornament at a $15.13 sale price from a $17.80 original. For a new baby, Shutterfly’s template library includes a Baby’s First Christmas design and a My First Christmas White Personalized Baby Photo Metal Ornament listed at $24.31 sale from $28.60.
If you’re comparing finishes before committing, browsing real examples first helps. Our tested roundup of the best photo ornaments to buy walks through which styles actually hold up on a tree.
Photo Ornament Prices and What Changes Them
Prices swing widely by retailer, material, and shape, and the same retailer can list different prices for the same material across product lines. Shutterfly’s ornament marketplace shows both a sale price and an original price on most designs, so the lower number is usually the active one.
Walgreens lists a broad spread in one place: Wood Block Ornaments at $9.99, Snowflake Ornament at $15.99, Round Wood Ornament at $19.99, Round Glass Ornament at $21.99, 2×2 Photo Ornament Cube at $24.99, and Metal Holly Ornament at $29.99. Shutterfly’s starting prices run higher on some lines — Metal Ornament from $24.99, Glass Ornament from $34.99, and Ceramic Ornament from $34.99 — with promo prices shown below each.
Bulk buyers should check the fine print. Shutterfly states there is no quantity pricing for framed ornaments, listed from $30.99, so ordering ten doesn’t lower the per-unit cost the way it might on other products. Walgreens’ ornament pages function as standard e-commerce listings, which means today’s listed price may not hold next week.
The one line worth quoting on cost: current listed prices vary significantly across retailers, so comparing two or three before ordering a set is worth the ten minutes.
Sources
- Walgreens. “Holiday Photo Ornaments” Source for Walgreens ornament styles and listed prices.
- Walmart Photo. “Ornaments” Source for the shape, upload, and custom-text design flow.
- Shutterfly. “Photo Ornaments” Source for ornament types, starting prices, metal shapes and sizes, shipping times, and framed ornament quantity terms.