The holidays are a time for family bonding and creating memories that last a lifetime. But sometimes your loved ones don’t have more than a few days to spend with you or live too far to visit.
Despair not. There are lots of ways you can preserve and share those special moments with family and friends. And these days, you can even use modern technology to make it easier to share family traditions.
Make a Chore a Tradition – Holiday activities like decorating, cooking and wrapping presents don’t have to be stressful chores on your to-do list. They can become fun traditions with a little holiday pop music and a photographer at-the-ready.
Kids and grandparents will usually think of silly ways to mug for the camera, and you’ll definitely want to share those photos immediately, so use a digital camera. Better yet, get a memory card that lets you wirelessly upload photos directly from your camera to your computer, such as an Eye-Fi wireless memory card. You can then turn those digital photos into a family holiday card or kitschy decoration like tree ornaments.
Memories Are Free – Unlike toys and gadgets, memories are free. They’re also a great gift. If you’re tight on cash or your child wants to make something special for grandma, check out web-based tools like Animoto.com. The online service lets you create free, 30-second video greetings from personal photos and video clips gathered throughout the year.
Imagine giving your loved one an energetic video with the emotional impact of a movie trailer. Who wouldn’t love a virtual keepsake, easily shared with the click of the mouse?
Share and Share Alike – Gone are the days of family holiday newsletters. Or rather, the family newsletter in print. Nowadays, if you’re looking to share memories and photos with loved ones, you can e-mail them as a group or create an e-newsletter. Or, you can simply blast the news through your social networks.
Thankfully, there are services that help you post photos and videos online, such as yfrog.com. For example, through yfrog, anyone can instantly share photos, such as images from holiday parties, videos from family get-togethers or clips of the kids’ faces as they open their presents, to their social networks and directly from their mobile device. To find out more, visit yfrog.com.
Just remember to use good judgment when sharing photos of loved ones. No one wants their home address or most embarrassing moment available for the world to see!
– Courtesy of StatePoint Media
