How far ahead should you order a portrait for Christmas?

Order a Christmas portrait in early autumn, and ask for the current cut-off date for your region and detail level rather than guessing from a number on a website. A painted portrait is not a print: it is painted, dried, proofed, adjusted, varnished, framed if ordered, packed and shipped through customs, and every one of those steps takes real time that no one can promise to the day. This article shows where the time goes and what to do if you have left it late.

Where the time goes

Stage	What happens	What you control
Photo and quote	You send the photo; we confirm the size, detail level and timeframe	Send a good photo the first time — see the photo guide
Painting	One painter, sketch to final detail. Hyperreal takes longest, Painterly shortest	Choosing the detail level
Drying	Oil paint cures before it can be proofed and varnished; this is never rushed	Nothing — and it should not be
Digital proof	Photographs sent for approval; adjustments made and re-proofed	Reply quickly; give all feedback in one message
Varnish and framing	Varnish applied and cured; framing if ordered	Rolled skips framing entirely
Packing and dispatch	Tube or crate, tracking issued	—
Transit and customs	Carrier transit plus clearance at the destination	Destination; framed or rolled

The stages you can shorten are the ones at either end: send a usable photo the first time, choose a detail level that suits the deadline, respond to the proof promptly, and consider rolled delivery with local framing if a crate would push the date.

Why the cut-off moves every year

Two of the stages — transit and customs — depend on carrier capacity, which changes every year and is worst in the weeks before Christmas. A cut-off date that was safe last year may not be this year. That is why we publish a cut-off each autumn, by region and detail level, and confirm it per order rather than printing a fixed date that would have to be wrong for someone.

Ask for this year’s date when you request a quote; if your deadline is not realistic for the level you want, we say so and suggest what is.

If you have left it late

• Ask anyway. A rolled Painterly piece to a nearby country is a very different proposition from a framed Hyperreal group portrait shipped across the world.
• Choose rolled. It skips framing and ships in a tube; a local framer can frame it in the new year, and many people prefer to choose the frame in person.
• Choose Painterly or Refined. Both are faster than Hyperreal and both are real, finished paintings.
• Give the proof. If the painting is done but transit will miss the date, the digital proof — the finished painting photographed under even and raking light — can be given on the day, with the painting following.
• Give a certificate. A gift certificate for a portrait lets the recipient send their own photo and choose the size and level themselves. It is often the better gift anyway.

For the trade

If you sell portraits, publish your own cut-off early and conservatively, based on the range we give you for your usual size and level plus your handling time. The trade page has the program details; the sourcing guide covers listing set-up.

Actual transit times vary by destination, carrier and customs clearance, and we do not promise fixed delivery days anywhere on this site.