The sample calendar shown here is one I made as a last-minute Christmas gift for my adult daughter Danna in 1997, and I completed the whole thing--from concept to finished, bound calendar--in just one evening (Christmas Eve!).  Danna had forgotten my birthday that year, so I thought a calendar was in order.  Have a look at the large views of the November and December pages below to see my "subtle" birthday reminders. <G>

I decided to center the calendar design around the theme "Have yourself a merry little Christmas"  in remembrance of a special Christmas from my daughters' childhood years ago.  (I have to interrupt the calendar instructions to tell you the story of that Christmas so you'll understand how a gift as small and inexpensive as a homemade calendar can be a treasured gift and why Danna cried for 30 minutes after opening it.)

I was a young, struggling single mom barely making ends meet, and had been telling my daughters for weeks that I wouldn't be able to buy a tree that year and that they shouldn't expect much in the way of gifts.  They weren't the least bit upset by this news.  Instead, they told me, "Don't be sad, mommy.  We asked Santa for lots of presents, and that will be enough, and we'll ask him to bring us a Christmas tree too!"

I couldn't dash their dreams.  I borrowed a little money from my aunt and bought a bunch of tiny little gifts so they'd have lots of presents to open, and I bought a little Christmas tree.  When they were fast asleep on Christmas Eve, I brought the tree in and decorated it on a raised shelf next to a recessed mirror on our living room wall (you can just see the bottom corner of the mirror in the calendar cover photo, which is a picture from that special Christmas).  With white tempera, I painted in big letters on the mirror "Have yourself a merry LITTLE Christmas.  Love, Santa" as an explanation for all the gifts being so tiny.

They didn't get any gifts from me that year, but they thought Santa did a super job; and 20+ years later they still remember it as their best Christmas ever.

Open a new blank page in PA, 11" wide x 8.5" tall.  If desired, place a simple border around the entire page to help frame the photo(s) and text you'll be using for the picture-page portion of the calendar.  Because this calendar was a gift of memories for my daughter, all of the photos I chose were childhood pictures of her.  October was the only exception; that was a photo of my daughter with her daughter, Briana, which was taken at Briana's birthday party (Oct. 19) that year.

How you design and lay out your pages is entirely up to you.  I added quotes and poetry relating to daughters and mothers to go along with the memories theme of Danna's calendar, but you might want to just use photos. 

The only "tricky" part of creating your calendar is the print order of the pages when you want specific picture pages to appear above specific months in the open calendar.  Here's the easiest, least confusing way I've found to do that:

1. Print out the 12 calendar pages (the months pages, not the photo pages).  You must use an excellent quality, heavy weight paper so there is no bleed-through since pages will be printed front and back.  You can't go wrong with Great White Consumer Coated Ink Jet Paper, 93 Bright, 37 lb. It's heavy and durable, and the coating it's finished with makes the colors of your design more vibrant.
2. Once your calendar pages are printed, stack them in order from January to December.  Now, on a blank sheet of paper, print the photo page that will appear above the January calendar page.  When it comes out of your printer, note if the top of the photo comes out to the left or right (since the pages are designed in landscape/horizontal orientation, they'll print sideways because paper feeds through printers in portrait/vertical orientation). 
3. Pretend that your stack of calendar pages have already been bound, and lay your January photo page above the stack of calendar pages (your 2 stacks will look like the photo here without the binding between the 2 stacks).
4. Keeping in mind that you have an imaginary binding spine between your 2 stacks, flip your January calendar page over, bottom to top, and place it on top of the top stack (photo pages).  You'll now see a blank sheet on your top stack (the back side of your January calendar page) and the February calendar page on the bottom stack.
5. Place the January calendar page back in your printer orienting it so that your next photo page will print on the blank (back) side of the January calendar and the top of the photo page is flip-flopped from the top of the January calendar page.  Sounds a little confusing, but it isn't if you are imagining the binding and how the finished calendar pages flip.
6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for all the rest of your pages.
7. In PA, create your front and back cover designs and print them on  a good quality, medium-weight cardstock.

Once your pages are all printed, place them in one stack, in order, including the front and back covers.  Lay your stack on a table, pretend that the binding spine has already been added, then flip each page up (like you're opening the calendar to each new month) to make SURE the pages are all in the right order and nothing appears upside-down when each page is open.  If it all looks good, you're ready to finish it up with the binding!

Spiral coil binding produces the most professional, beautiful finished product.  When I made Danna's calendar, the affordable Spiral Coil Binding System hadn't yet been invented, so I used my comb binder.  My comb binder is now history. 

If you're planning to make a lot of family photo calendars for gifts, or other projects that require binding, do yourself a favor and buy the Spiral Coil Binding System.  You won't be sorry!  It's one of my favorite crafting tools.  Whether for gift-giving or custom jobs through a computer crafting home business, you'll find many ways to use plastic spiral coil binding.  Scrap booking, sticker collection books, blank art pads for birthday party favors, family cookbooks, address books, and all sorts of calendars are just a few ideas.  My Perpetual Birthday Calendar shown here (click photo for more pictures!) will work for anyone on your gift-giving list... one design fits all.

Your other binding option is to take your printed pages to an office supply store like Staples and pay to have it comb bound.  There are far fewer color choices for comb binding spines than the spiral coils (5 comb colors as opposed to 45 coil colors!), and the results aren't quite as pleasing, but it's an affordable option.

NOTE:  If your calendar is to be hung on a nail on a wall, use a small single-hole paper punch and punch a hole at the bottom center of each page after your calendar is bound.

Hope this project has inspired you to get crafty with calendars for holiday gifts this year.  They are truly a gift from the heart your family and friends will treasure!