A personalised Christmas book with their photo

How it works

Tell us about them

Their name, their age, one thing you love.

Read it before you pay

The whole story and the cover. Change any line.

We make the book

A person checks every page. Hardcover, to your door.

Will it arrive before Christmas?

Yes, if you order by Monday 30 November. We make the book in up to 3 days, then the post takes up to 10 business days. Order today and it arrives by Monday 19 October. You see that arrival date on the price screen before you pay, so you are never ordering on hope.

The post time holds in practice: 29 of the first 30 delivered orders arrived within 10business days of reaching the printer. We don’t sell express shipping, because the order-by date is set so the standard post lands in time.

Arrival is the thing this category gets wrong at Christmas. About two thirds of Hooray Heroes’ low-star Trustpilot reviews are late or missing parcels, most of them paid-express Christmas orders, and a Dinkleboo reviewer’s advice on Trustpilot is to order at least six weeks before you need the books. The fix is the same everywhere: order in October or November, and allow each service its stated delivery plus a week for the December post.

Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday. What each service says it takes:

Can the whole family be in one Christmas book?

Yes. Up to 6 people go in the pictures, each drawn from their own photo. 3 people are included in the price, and each person after that is $15. Pets go in too: 5 of 36 paid orders put in a pet, usually the family dog. Anyone without a photo can stay in the words, named but not drawn.

The story is your Christmas, not a stock one. When you order, we ask what Christmas looks like at your place and what the child’s favourite part is. Prawns on the deck, the same tinsel tree every year, a carrot left out for the reindeer and a 5am check on it: whatever you tell us is what the book is about. One buyer with a big family wrote to us that being able to fit everyone in is rare. Several books in one family works too: one buyer wrote in July asking whether to order sooner rather than later, because the children’s great-grandmother wanted to make them a book of her own.

Among the template books: I See Me’s Night Before Christmas takes a family photo and up to six children’s names ($54.99), and Dinkleboo’s Christmas books can add a parent or two, with one title taking up to two siblings. Neither draws each person from their own photo; a Paperlake book does, into one painted scene across the spread.

Buying for a baby’s first Christmas? That book has its own page: a baby’s first Christmas book.

Christmas books compared

Prices in Australian dollars, checked October 2026. We publish this list and put ourselves first; how we compare is written down. What $99buys with us: a full painted scene across every spread, drawn from your photos in one style; a story written for one child, read in full before you pay; and a person who checks every page before it prints. Not happy with it? Send us a photo and we’ll reprint it. No questions asked.

We publish this guide and include ourselves alongside four other services. How we compare is on the methodology page.