One of my favorite things about going home for the holidays is flipping through old family photo albums. My mother was fairly meticulous about compiling family photos and putting them in hardcover albums and captioning each photo, and it’s such a gift to get to flip through those books, laughing at hilarious old haircuts or outfits, thinking fondly (or not so fondly) of certain momentous occasions, and generally basking in the warm glow of nostalgia. I often wish that I had such thick old photo album to browse of my chosen family, too – like, I wonder what Laneia looked like in her winter coat as a small child, or what pose KaeLyn made in front of the Christmas tree when she was 4, or what wacky gift Riese’s aunt bought her one year. But we realized this year – why can’t we have that photo album? It’s 2017! We can do whatever the fuck we want! And so here it is: The Autostraddle Family Photo Album of my, and soon to be your, dreams!

Here’s how this magical gift came into existence. Laneia suggested to me a few weeks ago that, for the holigays, we should compile an Autostraddle Family Photo Album, “for art and nostalgia.” Obviously I was immediately on board, so I sent out a message to the entire Autostraddle team and asked that they send me photos of themselves. We were lenient about the guidelines: they could send more than one photo; the photos should be from before 2014 (we are going for nostalgia here, folks); the photos could include family, chosen or otherwise; and the photos themselves did not necessarily have to scream “HOLIGAYS,” they should merely be a photo that one may find in a family photo album that you may indeed browse during the holigays. I hounded everyone for photos and they were very good natured about it (thank you, team!). Then Sarah worked her graphic design magic and added photo corners to each photo, because we are nothing if not serious about scrapbooking and memory preserving here at Autostraddle dot com. And that’s how this post, this beautiful Autostraddle Family Photo Album, this holigay gift, got born.

Per more traditional family photo albums, this isn’t perfect. Most photos don’t have captions, but a few absolutely do. We tried our best to remember how old we were in each photo, but sometimes we guessed and sometimes we left it blank cause we just didn’t know. We put this whole thing together with so much love, because we love you so much, and this holigay season we want to sit with you on a comfy sofa by a roaring fire, drink hot cocoa, and flip through our family photo album together.

Please feel free to add to our family photo album with your own nostalgic photos (holigay themed or otherwise) in the comments. We love you. Happy holigays, from our weird tiny hilarious adorable unique queer baby human selves to YOU, yes you.

Alaina, age 2.5, Christmas 1993

Alexis, ages 2-10, 1995-2003ish

Alyssa, age 6, 1993

Alyssa, age 13, 2000

Audrey and mom, age 12, Christmas 2003

Cameron and sister Stefani, age 3, 1994

Cameron, age 1.5, 1992

Carly, age 2, 1984

“So, funny story, I can’t find any photos of me with a menorah! They probably exist but I don’t know where. Since we were one of two Jewish families in our town growing up my parents always did a tree too, despite us being 100% Jewish. They didn’t want us to feel left out, which was sweet.”

Carly, age 4, 1986

“My mom obviously wanted to go in more of a decorative tree direction than a traditional tree direction. Same tree every year.”

Carmen, age 3, 1989

Carolyn with brother (left) and cousin (right), age 7, 1995

Casey with family, age 4, 1989

Cee, age 5, 1983

Dufrau with dad, age 2, 1986

Dufrau with little brother, 5, 1989

Erin, age 3, 1989

“I look deranged in this photo that was I think supposed to be a “cute” holiday portrait, which was probably a calculated move on my part because I’ve always hated taking pictures; if you make me do it I’m going to give you nightmares about it! At one point I put my imaginary friend’s name all over this picture because it made me laugh, like was it really Binga or was it… me the whole time.”

Heather, age 5, Christmas Day 1982

“This picture of me and my first Cabbage Patch Doll, Audrey Denise, was taken on Christmas day in 1982, when I was five years old. I also got an Atari 2600 that day — along with the games Berzerk, Centipede, Asteroids, Mission Command and Cookie Monster Munch. It changed my life more than any gift I’ve ever received.”

Heather, age 5, 1982

Heather and sister, age 5, 1982

Jenna with brothers, age 3, 1989

Jenna with brothers and Santa, age 1, 1986

Jenna with brothers and Jamie the dog, age 5, 1990

KaeLyn, age 4, 1987

Kayla with family, age 1.5, 1993

“Of note: the sweaters worn by my brother and dad and my cat-print dress and hat set were all made by my grandmother.”

Kayla with family, age 2, 1994

“We’re wearing our “family sweaters” (in Norwegian culture, families have their own sweater pattern) made by my grandmother.”

Kayla with family, age 7, 1999

Kaylah with sibling Kaleah (and cutie pup Rico), ages 11 and 5, 2002 ​

“Baby Queer Siblings Rocking Velour.”

Laneia, age 4, 1985

“I’m 4 years old, wearing a fur muff + hat set and a wool coat from my grandmother’s antique store, and a pair of shoes that I’d kill for right now. It’s the night of the Christmas parade and my grandparents lived on the parade route, so we saved our spots with chairs on the sidewalk starting at 3:00pm. This was the last time I watched the parade — every year after that I was walking or riding in a float with my dance class, which, I don’t have to tell you, was a very big deal.”

Laneia, age 5, 1986

“I’m 5 years old, sitting with my mom (and an unidentified older lady) at my step-grandparents’ Christmas dinner. They are very proper and live in a 70’s era ranch style house on a farm in west Tennessee (the kitchen’s color scheme is still burnt orange, red and brown, and I LOVE it). Once we were older, we went down to the basement and listened to 8-tracks and played ping-pong while the adults hung out, but not in 1986 obviously. Again, super cute shoes! I still have this Rainbow Brite doll.”

Mey and sister, age 3, 1989

Mey and family, age one month, 1986

Mey and family, age 6, at grandma’s house in 1992

Mey with mom, brother, and sister, age 7, at Old Faithful in Yellowstone in 1993

Mey with Hansen, Yvonne, Somer, and Brittani, age 26, 2013 at Mey’s first A-Camp

Molly, early 90’s

Molly, mid-90’s

Molly, early 90’s

Neesha, age 6 months, 1987

“I’m with my mom, who I affectionately call Connie Sue.”

Raquel, age 8, 1997

“This is me on Christmas vacation in Brazil with my two cousins. It looks weirdly tropical because the holidays in Brazil are HOT due to their being on the other side of the equator making it summer. No idea what year this is, I think I’m like 8? So like 1997? That’s Thiago in the back and Rafael in the middle. I noticed that Thiago never smiled in pictures so I wanted to be the same.”

Reneice, age 11, 2000

“This is at my mom’s wedding that I was not happy about hence the forced protest smile. The other women in the photo are my mom’s friends, and my little cousin Shay is in front.”

Reneice, age 3, 1991

Reneice with brother, age 3, 1991

Riese, age 3, 1984

I got a Mr. Potato Head for Hanukkah! Also as you can tell, I was already committed to queering dresses.

Riese, age 3, 1984

“My Mom is Jewish and we were raised Jewish, but we’d go to Ohio to see my Dad’s family for Christmas (he was raised Quaker). We usually made each other gifts to keep it affordable for everybody. Not gonna lie I love Christmas and kinda just consider it an American holiday.”

Riese, age 5, 1986

“Um this is when my aunt gifted me a life-size doll version of myself and matching t-shirts for us to wear together. Yes I still have it but my Mom keeps threatening to throw it away!”

Riese with family, 1991

“Wow so happy.”

Sarah, age 4, 1991

“Smug over getting this Hawaiian Barbie apparently.”

Sarah, age 3, 1990

“Telling Santa exactly what I want for Christmas.”

Stef with cousins, age 23, Hanukkah 2006

Stef, age 7, 1990

“My aunt owned a party store in Madison, NJ, and every year the town would have a Christmas parade and my very Jewish grandparents would dress up as Santa and Mrs. Claus. They thought it was fucking hilarious.”

Creatrix Tiara with family, age 13, 1998 or 1999

“I’m sitting in the bottom row 3rd from left with a kid upon my lap while surrounded by an assortment of aunts, uncles, cousins, and my parents. I think everyone in my photo is from my dad’s side. My grandmother is behind and to my left. Dad has a billion siblings, I don’t even know if that’s all of them.”

Valerie Anne with brother, age 7, 1994

“This is me and my brother Stephen aka Monkey, who was 3. My mom still makes us pose for Christmas photos together but we’re not nearly as cute.”

Vanesa with brother, age 11, 2000

“We were trying mimosas for the first time on New Year’s Day, and we’d survived Y2K or whatever, and we thought we were such grown ups, and then…LOL. I like mimosas now, and I miss those Oreo pajamas, for the record.”

Yvonne, age 1, 1991

Yvonne, age 7, 1997

If you want to add your own nostalgic photos to the Autostraddle Family Photo Album, please do so in the comments! Here’s how:

Find a photo on the web, right click (on a Mac, control+click), hit “Copy Image URL” and then…
code it in to your comment like so:

<img src=”http://imagelink.jpg”>

If you need to upload the photo you love from your computer, try using imgur. To learn more about posting photos, check out A. E.’s step-by-step guide.

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