Monday Memory Makers: A Christmas Memory Book

Okay, I know it's a month past Christmas but I wanted to write this post for those of you who might want to record your Christmas memories from 2010 before you forget many of the details. If you don't remember the details, perhaps you can work on finding a book to use for Christmas 2011 during the coming year.

Can you tell me what you did for Christmas three years ago? Who you celebrated it with? What special memories you made that year? How about seven years ago? The Christmas holidays are a special time for so many of us and we make wonderful memories each holiday season. However, unless we document the details, many of these memories will soon be forgotten.

I am not a person who likes to journal. Even with the best intentions, every journal I've ever started has failed within a week or two. This Christmas Memory Maker is a type of journaling but what makes it so great is you only have to do it once per year! 

I got married one week before Christmas in 2004. One of the most special wedding gifts I received was a book titled "Our Family Christmas." It had a little tag attached that said, "The elegant place to record ten years of holiday happenings and highlights...Joy."

"Our Family Christmas" has enough room to record 10 family Christmas'. You write the year in yourself so anyone can use the book starting in any year. The first page is a spot for your family Christmas card photo. The following pages consist of little phrases that you finish filling in to record your Christmas memories. They say things like, 

"The Night Before Christmas..."

"Our Christmas Eve Dinner..."

"On Christmas Day..."

"Was it a white Christmas?"

"Santa Sightings?"

"Our Christmas Feast..."

"Favorite gifts we gave and received..."

"Holiday Highlights..."

"We Welcomed the New Year..."

"Wishes for the New Year..."

...and a few other things. 

I have faithfully taken an evening or two to each holiday season to record our Christmas memories. After the holidays, I print a few photos to help remember that year as well and paste them into the book. I try to take pictures of our tree and Christmas decorations each year. I also make sure to put in our Christmas card photo as well as our Christmas letter (provided I wrote one that year). 

I can easily look back and remember what my husband and I did on our first Christmas together while on our honeymoon in Whistler, Canada. I remember details I surely would have forgotten of when my daughter was born the day after Christmas. I remember the family members who traveled to see us or when we traveled to see them. I remember where we got our Christmas tree from and if we cut it down with friend or picked it up at a tree lot. These little details are precious memories and always bring a smile to my face when I read back through them.

Have I convinced you it's worth it to record your holiday memories? I have good news and bad news. Let's start with the bad news. The book I used, "Our Family Christmas" is out of print. I looked to try to buy another one but have been unable to find it in print anywhere. 

The good news? You can easily make your own book using a nice journal. The great thing about this is you can customize it to yourself and only include the questions you want. You can also make room for whatever pictures you'd like to use. 

You might be able to find something similar to what I used on Amazon. I haven't had a chance to look at all the books listed, but if you search for "Our Family Christmas." You'll find ideas similar to what I used.

Do you do anything to record your family holiday memories? Will you start a Christmas book to record your memories? 

Monday Memory Makers: Christmas Cards

Do you get lots of Christmas cards each year from friends and family? Do you feel bad just throwing them in the trash each year? Here's a simple idea of how you can save some of those cards to help you remember friends from over the years.

Each year, when Christmas is over, I collect all the Christmas cards I received and pull out the cards that I received with pictures of my friends and family. I do not save all the letters and generic cards; only the ones with pictures of people I know on them. I then file the Christmas photo cards in a simple box with a divider marking the year separating each year. Someday, I'd like to find a prettier box but for now, it's just a simple filing box.

Before I file the pictures, I try to make sure the year and the names of the individuals are either printed on the photo or written on the back by me. It's so easy to forget the year and even a friend's name a few years down the road. When I design my family Christmas card, I intentionally try to make sure it is a family picture with all our names and the year printed on the card.

This Christmas card box is not something I pull out and look through all the time but it is fun to look back through past years and remember the friends we were close to or how much our friends and family members have changed and matured over the years. I usually also put baby announcements, school pictures and wedding announcements in the Christmas card box if they have personal photos on them.

Do you save Christmas cards? Do you have any tips to share about making/saving Christmas cards?