Forget Summer. The Busiest Week of the Year for Holiday Photos Is Christmas.

Picture peak season for holiday photos, and you probably picture July. Long evenings, golden light, crowded viewpoints. Our photographers know a different peak. It comes when the days are shortest, the coats come out, and the Christmas lights go on.

In 2024, the busiest week of the year for Smiler photoshoots was the week between Christmas and New Year. In 2025, only Easter week matched it. In neither year did a summer week come close. But the rush is not everywhere: it belongs to the big city-break destinations, led by Paris. Beach and summer destinations barely notice Christmas at all.

At a glance: two full years (2024–2025), all Smiler cities and booking channels, cancelled, unpaid and test bookings excluded, local date of each shoot. Figures are shares and multiples of an average day; absolute volumes are not disclosed. Full methodology and limitations at the end.

Key findings

• The week between Christmas and New Year was the busiest week of 2024. In 2025, only Easter week matched it. No summer week came close in either year.

• On 30 December, Smiler photographers worked 2.4 times as many shoots as on an average day. An average summer day reaches 1.2 times.

• 30 December was the busiest single day of 2025. In 2024, only Easter Saturday was busier than New Year’s Eve.

• The Christmas rush belongs to city-break destinations. In Edinburgh, London, Paris and Amsterdam, the holiday week runs at 1.7 to 4.5 times each city’s own average day. In Santorini, Barcelona and Seville, it is at or below an ordinary day.

• Strasbourg runs on its own calendar. Half of its 2025 photoshoots took place in December, and early December is as busy as Christmas week.

• The first three weeks of December are quieter than an average day. After 6 January comes the quietest stretch of the year.

• In December, one in five Paris photoshoots is booked for dusk or after dark. In June, almost none are.

• Travellers from Brazil, Italy, the Philippines and India are the most likely to spend Christmas on a trip with a photographer.

Photo: Smiler, Prague

The 30 December rush

Rank the days of each year by the number of photoshoots, and the holidays fill the top of the list. Only Easter, which moves every year, gets in the way.

Photoshoots on the day vs. the average day of the same year, all cities.

Single days jump around. Weeks don’t. Take any seven days in a row, and the week between Christmas and New Year comes out on top: 1.7 times an average week, in both 2024 and 2025. Easter week reaches 1.5 times in 2024 and 1.7 times in 2025. The best summer week stays below 1.5 times. And the seven days around New Year 2024/25, from 27 December to 2 January, were the busiest week of the whole two years, at 2.2 times an average week.

A slow start, then a sprint

You might expect the Christmas season to build all through Advent. It doesn’t.

Late November and the first three weeks of December are actually quieter than an average day. Then, from 22 December, bookings jump, and they keep climbing until they peak on 30 December.

After New Year, the drop is sharp. From 7 January to the end of the month, photographers see about half of their usual daily bookings. It is the quietest stretch of the whole year.

All cities, 2024–2025.

Photo: Smiler, Edinburgh

Christmas cities and summer cities

The all-city average hides two very different worlds. To compare cities fairly, we measured each one against its own average day.

The Christmas cities are the big city breaks. Edinburgh, home of Hogmanay, runs at 4.5 times its average in the holiday week. London runs at 2.6 times, Paris at 2.1 times and Amsterdam at 1.7 times. In all of them, the holiday week is busier than an average summer day.

Strasbourg is the exception. The self-styled Capital of Christmas doesn’t wait for the holidays. Half of its 2025 photoshoots took place in December, and the first week of the month was as busy as Christmas week. Its season follows the Christmas market, not the school holidays.

The summer cities barely notice. Rome and Venice get a small bump. Barcelona and Seville stay at an ordinary level. Santorini, built for summer, has less than 1 % of its photoshoots in December.

Cities with at least 20 photoshoots in the holiday weeks of 2024 and 2025. Strasbourg is described separately because its peak falls earlier in December.

Photo: Smiler, Edinburgh

In Paris, Christmas beats summer

Paris is Smiler’s largest city, so its pattern is the most reliable. And it is striking.

On 30 December, Paris sees 3.4 times as many photoshoots as on an average day, and on New Year’s Eve 2.8 times. Christmas Day is 1.7 times busier than an average day in July. Bastille Day, 14 July, doesn’t even reach the July average.

Valentine’s Day does live up to its reputation: it is the third-busiest date of the year in Paris, at 2.4 times the average. Only 30 and 31 December beat it.

The Christmas crowd is also more international. Americans make up 25 % of Paris photoshoots in the holiday week, against 29 % across the year.

Photo: Smiler, Paris

Who leaves home for Christmas?

Some nationalities are far more likely than others to spend the holidays on a trip with a photographer. If photoshoots were spread evenly through the year, 2.2 % would fall in the last eight days of December. Brazilian travellers book 7.6 % of theirs then, more than three times as many. For Americans and Britons, the share is close to an even spread.

Indian travellers are also the most loyal to one city: almost two-thirds of their Smiler photoshoots take place in Paris.

Lights, not golden hour

Summer shoots chase the soft evening light. December shoots chase the lights.

In Paris, 20 % of December photoshoots start within 45 minutes of sunset or later, when the streets are lit up. In June, almost none do.

The good news for anyone who hates early alarms: hardly anyone gets up for sunrise. Across the year, only 5 % of photoshoots start around sunrise, and fewer than 1 in 300 start before 7 am. The typical December shoot in Paris starts around noon, about five hours before a 16:56 sunset.

Advent is also a weekend affair. Between 1 and 23 December, 36 % of Paris photoshoots fall on a Saturday or Sunday, against 32 % across the year.

Photo: Smiler, New York City

How to get your Christmas photos and skip the rush

• Book early for 27–31 December. It is the most requested week of the year, and 30 December is the single busiest day.

• Go before 22 December in the capitals. In Paris, London and Amsterdam, the first three weeks of December are quieter than an average day, and the Christmas lights are already up.

• In Strasbourg, think market season. The city is busy all through December, so book ahead whatever date you choose.

• Time it for the switch-on. Paris sunsets come just before 5 pm in December. Start an hour before, and you get daylight and illuminations in one session.

“The week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve is when many families are finally off work and travelling together, and it is the trip they want to remember. We see the same pattern in our bookings every year. Our photographers in Paris and Strasbourg plan their own holidays around it.”

Tomáš Dekan, CEO of Smiler

Local numbers at a glance

• Paris: 30 December runs at 3.4 times the city’s average day, and New Year’s Eve at 2.8 times. Christmas Day is 1.7 times busier than an average day in July.

• Strasbourg: half of the city’s 2025 photoshoots took place in December. Early December is as busy as Christmas week.

• Edinburgh: the holiday week runs at 4.5 times the city’s average day, the strongest Christmas peak of any Smiler city.

• London: the holiday week runs at 2.6 times the city’s average day, and twice an average summer day.

• Amsterdam: the holiday week runs at 1.7 times the city’s average day.

• Rome and Venice: a small holiday bump, 1.4 and 1.5 times the average day. Their busiest season is spring and summer.

• Barcelona, Seville, Santorini: the holiday week is at or below an ordinary day.

Photo: Smiler, London

What this data does not show

• It shows when Smiler customers book photoshoots, not how many tourists visit each city. Cities where Smiler has more photographers carry more weight in the all-city figures.

• It does not show why people travel at Christmas. Our CEO’s comment is an interpretation, not a finding.

• Smaller cities have fewer photoshoots, so their figures can move more from year to year than those for Paris. Cities with fewer than 20 photoshoots in the holiday weeks, like Sydney, are not shown separately.

Methodology

This report is based on photoshoots booked through Smiler and its partner channels that took place between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025, excluding cancelled, unpaid, and test bookings. All dates and times are the local date and time of the shoot in its city. All-city daily figures divide the number of photoshoots on a day by the average day of the same year, then average the two years. City figures compare each city with its own average day, or its own average day in June to August; cities are shown only with at least 20 photoshoots in the two holiday weeks. Nationality is the customer’s country, which is known for 96 % of bookings; only countries with at least 300 photoshoots are shown. Sunset times come from daily sun data for each city and cover December 2025 and June 2026. Absolute booking volumes are not disclosed. The last eight days of December held 3.7 % of photoshoots in 2024 and 3.6 % in 2025, against 2.2 % for an even spread.