Shapes, photos, and a year.

Custom ornaments are Christmas pieces made for one person or one household: a shape, a name, a year, a photo. What separates a good one from a souvenir is mostly restraint. You should be able to read it from a step away, and still want it on the tree next year.

FLOOP is not selling ornaments. Use this as a way to decide what to order, paint, or ask someone else to make.

Pick the shape before the mark

Round faces are the easiest to read and the easiest to pack. An arch or a frame gives a photo a natural border. A bell or a figure is charming and leaves little room for letters, so keep the words to a single name.

If you are ordering a set, keep one shape. Four rounds with four names look like a family. Four different characters look like four gifts that happen to share a branch.

Leave a margin. Letters that run into the edge disappear behind the ribbon and the lights, and the edge is exactly where the ribbon goes.

One mark, not three

A name, a year, or a photo. Two can work together on a flat frame, usually a name with the year underneath. All three on a curve turns into noise.

The name is the gift when the person will see it every year. The year matters more when the event is the point, a wedding or a first Christmas. A photo is the gift when the face is the point. Crop until the face fills the circle. A full-body shot becomes a speck at ornament size.

Ask to see the lettering before anything is fired, printed, or cut. Ornament type is small, and one wrong letter is the whole object. A maker who sends a proof without being asked is usually one who has done this before.

What to leave off

A paragraph of sentiment belongs on the card, where it has room. Clip art next to a real photo turns the piece into a flyer. Skip materials you would be afraid to store, thin glass in a box of heavier ornaments, an unsealed print in a damp attic.

A set for a whole household is a different problem. The two formats, and who gets a name, are in personalized family ornaments.

If the point of the gift is a name that stays in the room after January, look at personalized baby gifts instead of another ball for the tree. For a baby’s first December specifically, the shorter brief is a first Christmas ornament.