Photography gift vouchers: 1 in 6 sells in the 10 days before Christmas

A gift voucher is one of the simplest sales a photography studio can make: no date to fix, no session to prepare right away, and the payment comes in upfront. You just need to be visible at the right moment. To find out when that is, we analysed every gift voucher sold on Fotostudio from 2021 to 2025, across more than 1,200 photography studios.

A quick word on scope: the study covers more than 1,200 studios using Fotostudio, mainly in France, Belgium and Switzerland. The figures don't describe your own market, but the Christmas calendar and the last-minute buying reflex they reveal are useful benchmarks wherever you work.

The takeaway is clear: gift voucher season comes down to a few weeks, with two peaks you can prepare for in advance. Here are the numbers, followed by a practical calendar for Christmas 2026.

1. When do photography gift vouchers sell?

November and December account for 41% of the photography gift vouchers sold over the year. December alone makes up 30% of sales, November 11%. The rest of the year hovers around 5 to 6% a month, with just one other peak in May (8%), driven by Mother's Day in France (late May).

Share of gift vouchers sold each month in 2025 (online and in-person sales)

This pattern hasn't changed since 2021. It's also the same whether the voucher is paid online or sold in person and then recorded by the photographer. In other words, if you only run one gift voucher campaign a year, make it the Christmas one.

What about Belgium, Switzerland or Spain?

Belgian and Swiss studios follow the same calendar as France, with about a quarter of sales in December. Spain is the exception: sales are spread across the whole year, with no peak at Christmas or at Epiphany (Three Kings' Day).

2. Does Black Friday sell gift vouchers?

Yes: on Black Friday, studios sell roughly 3 times more gift vouchers than on the previous Friday. It's the first peak of the Christmas season.

Gift vouchers sold each day, from 15 November to 31 December 2025

On Friday 28 November 2025, sales were 3.5 times higher than on the previous Friday. On 29 November 2024, 2.7 times.

The effect lasts the whole long weekend. In 2025, from Thursday to Monday, sales were 2.6 times higher than the week before. Your clients are looking for a gift on those days, even if you're not running a promotion: you just need to be visible.

3. How late can you sell a gift voucher before Christmas?

Right up to 24 December, and even on the 25th: 23 December is the day the most gift vouchers are sold all year. After Black Friday, sales don't drop off. They climb week after week until Christmas Eve.

• From 15 to 24 December, one voucher in six of the whole year is sold.
• 22, 23 and 24 December alone account for nearly 7% of annual sales.
• On 23 December 2025, 3 to 4 times more vouchers were sold than on a typical early December day.
• And vouchers are bought even on Christmas Day.

A gift voucher is the ultimate last-minute present: it arrives by email within minutes, with no shipping and no stock to run out of. That's exactly what the client shopping on the evening of the 23rd is looking for. Provided they can buy it without waiting for you to reply.

4. What time do clients buy their gift vouchers?

31% of vouchers paid online in November and December are bought before 9am or after 7pm, in other words outside the hours when you're answering messages. Purchases run steadily from 9am to 10pm, with no quiet hour: people buy a gift voucher the moment they think of it, often in the evening.

Gift vouchers paid online by time of purchase, November and December 2024 and 2025 (Paris time)

Today, 62% of gift vouchers sold on Fotostudio are paid online. The rest are sold in person (message, phone, at the studio) and then recorded by the photographer. If your client has to write to you to order, you lose some of those evening sales, or they wait until the next morning, when the urge has passed.

A gift voucher shop with online payment and automatic email delivery of the voucher sells for you in the evening, at the weekend and on 24 December. You can link it straight to your photography website.

5. How much should a photo session gift voucher be?

The median value of a photography gift voucher bought for Christmas is €150 including VAT, slightly less than the rest of the year (€169). At Christmas, people give more often, and a little smaller.

The value varies by country. Over the whole of 2025, the median voucher was worth €160 in France, €196 in Spain and €220 in Belgium.

In practice, offer a voucher around €150 that covers a full session or a mini session, and leave the option of a custom amount for those who want to give more.

6. When are Christmas vouchers redeemed?

A gift voucher bought at Christmas turns into a session about 5 and a half months later, at the median. Half of the Christmas vouchers redeemed are used after mid-May, often as the expiry date approaches (on Fotostudio, a voucher is valid for 6 months by default).

So Christmas vouchers fill your spring and early summer. The gap is getting a little shorter every year, and nearly 3 vouchers in 10 are now redeemed in the first quarter, often a quiet time for studios.

7. Your Christmas 2026 gift voucher campaign calendar

The numbers point to a simple calendar, with two key moments you can't afford to miss: the Black Friday weekend and the last ten days before Christmas.

So you don't forget anything, you can prepare these reminders now and schedule them in advance as newsletters.

FAQ: selling photography gift vouchers at Christmas

Study methodology

• Data: gift vouchers sold from 2021 to 2025 by studios using Fotostudio (more than 1,200 studios in 2025), mainly in France, as well as in Belgium, Switzerland and Spain. Aggregated, anonymous data: no studio can be identified.
• Vouchers included: vouchers sold, either paid online through the shop or sold in person and then recorded by the photographer. Free vouchers, loyalty rewards, internal accounts and online payments that were never completed are excluded.
• Date: date of the online order, or date of entry for a voucher sold in person. Times are in Paris time.
• Amounts: amounts including VAT, for accounts in euros. By country, in the account's currency. Only countries with at least 20 studios are mentioned.
• Time to the session: calculated on vouchers linked to a session in Fotostudio.
• Extraction date: 20 October 2026.

You can quote these figures as long as you credit the source: "Fotostudio study on photography gift vouchers, 2021 to 2025", with a link to this page.

Conclusion: gift voucher season starts now

Photography gift vouchers sell over a few weeks, and mostly at the last minute. The studios that benefit are the ones whose shop is open when the client thinks of it: in the evening, over the Black Friday weekend and on Christmas Eve.

There are a few weeks left before the first peak. Now is the right time to prepare your gift voucher design, your amounts and your reminder messages.