The Best Thing at Your Holiday Gathering Isn’t on the Menu
One picture, a room full of relatives, and stories nobody’s heard in years. Here’s a holiday idea worth using.
Here’s something fun to try when everyone gets together for the holidays. Ask each person to bring old family photographs that they digitized. It doesn’t have to be a great picture. In fact, the stranger or more embarrassing, the better. A family vacation from 1978. Your brother’s spectacularly bad haircut. Mom standing next to a car nobody remembers owning. Whatever they find.
Holiday Family Photo Idea to Get Everyone Talking
Put the pictures on a table and don’t say another word. Or display all the scanned pictures, slides, and reels of home movies on the TV. Just wait. Someone will pick one up, squint at it, and ask, “Who IS that?” Then someone else will yell, “That’s your father!” And suddenly the entire room has an opinion about a photograph nobody’s seen in forty years. That’s when things get interesting. Someone remembers the house. Someone recognizes the wallpaper. Two people argue about what year it was taken. Your younger relatives can’t believe anybody actually dressed that way. Meanwhile, the person who brought the photograph is having the time of their life watching everyone react.
But here’s what I especially like about this idea. Every so often, somebody recognizes a face that hasn’t been part of a holiday gathering in years. Maybe it’s Grandma, who always insisted everyone eat more. Or an uncle who told the same terrible jokes every December. For a few minutes, they’re part of the conversation again. Somebody remembers something funny they said. Someone else shares a story the kids have never heard. That’s a pretty wonderful surprise to find sitting on a holiday table.
Bring those forgotten family photos back to life this holiday season with ScanMyPhotos.com, so everyone can see, share, and enjoy them again.
And while everyone’s talking, do something that could become even more valuable years from now. Take out your phone and record a few of those stories. Ask who took the picture. Find out where everyone was. Let the people who were actually there explain what was happening. You might discover that the story behind an ordinary photograph is far more interesting than the picture itself. After 36 years in the photo industry, I still get a kick out of how much excitement one forgotten photograph can create. At ScanMyPhotos.com, we help families turn their old printed pictures into digital images so they can share them with everyone. But this particular holiday idea doesn’t require a computer, an app, or even a photo scanner. All you need is a picture and a few people who remember it.
One more thing. Before everyone heads home, take a new group photograph. Get everybody in it. Even the person who always hides when a camera comes out. Then make a deal to bring another old picture to next year’s gathering. Imagine how much fun that could be. Every year, a different picture. Every year, another story nobody knew. And maybe a few more embarrassing haircuts that really should have stayed in the 1980s.
Happy holidays!
