Guest post by Sara Stringer.
Just under four months left before the Christmas holidays bring the whole family together to share a wonderful meal and some joy – and create new memories together.
Families need keepsakes. Keepsakes work like glue: they keep things together: And a bit like sugar; they sweeten. Regardless of your role in the family, you need to have intent about memory-mongering in the house so your family can reap the long-term benefits of Christmas keepsakes.
Holiday time is perfect for capturing those special moments. Preserving these memories is also a great way to relive the past celebrations at any time in the future, and it keeps you looking forward to creating more.
So, how will you create and treasure family memories on this year’s Christmas? Here are a few suggestions:
Record a video
A video biography can help in capturing Christmas stories, as well as the voice, image and personality of all family members – something only a video can reproduce. Talking at the festive table will also be easier for elders than writing down memories, and you’ll be glad that you saved everyone’s likeness and voice in addition to stories.
It could be a simple effort of recording a video through a hand-held device such as your smartphone, while the family sits around the dinner table telling stories and sharing their favorite moments spent during the year. Or, it could be a professional session, where a professional comes to your home with camera, lightning and recording equipment. The session can also be help at a restaurant or another relative’s house.
Unique picture ideas
If your family likes to engage in games, take images of your Christmas activities and create a scrapbook full of images to capture and preserve family memories. Take photos of every family members, the Christmas tree, letters sent to Santa, gifts received and all other essentials. If you don’t have the creative bone, create albums online. Use an online tool with a standard design and use frames and borders to customize it to your liking.
The holiday season is a time of sharing with family and joyous celebration. By taking Christmas family pictures and preserving them in the form of portraits, you can capture those special moments and keep them forever. You can also use the pictures in holiday photo card designs, making it easy to share the spirit of the season.
Handmade Christmas gifts
Handmade gifts have a charm of their own, and they are likely, over the years, become objects that everyone receiving the gift wants to treasure. You can get the young members of the family to join in on knitting and sewing and crafting as well as remind everyone working on the gifts to pour as much love into them as possible.
Also, take into account the interest, skills and abilities of the family member who will be receiving the gift, so each present could be a reflection of their personality at the stage in life when they are receive the gift. For example, you could paint wooden peg people and some wooden pots for your grandmother, as she may be in a stage where she likes to pull things apart, so such a present would be a fun reflection of her personality.
Got more ways to preserve Christmas memories? Feel free to share them in the comments section below.
