What Great Holiday Lenses Have in Common

Some great holiday lenses talk about one holiday. Some talk about one aspect of one holiday. Some even talk about just a single best Christmas gift. Make no mistake about it, this is what all great holiday lenses have in common.

There isn't a holiday we haven't yet made complex, so even if you're only linking together Columbus Day crafts for 3rd grade art teachers, it deserves a lens all its own. After all, putting all those coloring pages, recipes, classroom decorations, ship hat patterns, and homemade skit videos on one lens can get pretty hefty! Not to mention, when these niches share lenses, you have fewer lenses for backlinks, tagging, and SEO. So break it down.

[Photo above is a Creative Commons license from zacharmstrong.]

There's a recipe of sorts to picking your holiday lens niche topic, and that's to pick your holiday, and one or two defining features about that holiday that you can create a targeted lens about.

What do I mean?

beeobrien chose Halloween, recipes, and eyeballs, to create this winning lens: Dress Up Your Food for Halloween - Lots of Eyeball Recipes.

missbat chose Halloween, costumes, and Hairspray.

What about this great one on Thanksgiving, dinner, and vegetarianism?

Or Christmas and Advent calendars?
... Christmas, gift wrap, and crafts?
... Christmas, family, and letter writing?
... Thanksgiving, dessert, and cupcakes?
... New Years, Chinese astrology, and the ox?

And, as much we pick on fruitcake, this gem from JaguarJulie is enough to make it the gold-standard of holiday treats: Christmas Fruitcake -- A Delicious Recipe for a Holiday Tradition.

[Photo above is a Creative Commons license "picked" just for you from inhisgrace.]

A picture is worth 1000 words, and the savviest lensmasters are using this to their advantage by posting LOTS of pics. Be it your own photo of Aunt Marge spinning the dreidel, Creative Commons licensed photos on Flickr, or images from another resource, photos add texture, color, and a reason to stop scrolling down down down through text text text.

[This one's mine.]