Happy Holidays How to Make a Video Holiday Card
by
Jamie Sumner 
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Happy Holidays How to Make a Video Holiday Card
Tis the season! The holidays are approaching and chances are your Costcos and Krogers are already full of Christmas trees and inflatable snowmen. I love the holidays. I love the warm foods and the twinkle lights and the work parties that serve as built-in date nights. But the card thing is stressful. Each year the annual mail-out to friends and family only gets larger and more expensive. If you want a good picture, they say hire a photographer. But photographers are expensive and so are stamps for that matter. And capturing the actual photo feels nothing short of impossible. With a son with special needs who is in a wheelchair and also sensitive to certain sounds and situations, “saying cheese” isn’t so simple for us.
Our solution, after years of wiping tears away just before the photo and rechecking everyone’s mailing address and spending more time and money than we’d care to admit on a one-time “happy holidays” card, was to go digital. Making a video and hitting send is so much easier on everyone and it’s free if you do it right.
Here’s how to make your own holiday video card:
Be the director.
Before you start making your card, you’ve got to decide what direction you want to go. Santas? Religious? Clips from your kid’s holiday program? A photo montage of pictures over the last year? Pre-formatted animation with a typed message?
The great thing about this type of card is that you can go any direction you like using pictures and videos you already have. Do what sounds fun and meets your needs.
Find a free site.
There are many, some with cards already formatted so you can just add animation and a photo you already have. Here are a few to get you started:
If you’re tech savvy, make your own video on
- Lightworks: www.lwks.com
- Shotcut: www.shotcut.org
- HitFilm: https://artlist.io/
- VSDC Video Editor: www.videosoftdev.com
If you want a pre-formatted card, look into
• JibJab Holiday e-cards: https://www.jibjab.com/browse/holiday-ecards
• 123Greetings.com: http://search.123greetings.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?query=Christmas
• e-Cards.com: https://www.e-cards.com/area/christmas/
• Llerrah.com: https://llerrah.com/pages_christmas.htm
• Regards.com: https://www.regards.com/
Consolidate and Create
Put all your pictures and videos into one file folder. That way you can sift through and re-size and cut as much as you need without having to hunt for it over and over again. And then, using your video editor or e-card site of choice, get creating!
Share
There are plenty of ways to send your card once you make it. Consider what will reach your intended audience. If you have a big group who doesn’t go on social media much, send them their card by email and then share with everyone else on Facebook or Twitter or YouTube or Pinterest. The beauty of this kind of card is that you can customize it to meet your needs in ways you cannot with the traditional staged and printed photograph.
If your child hates having his or her picture taken, use candid shots you already have or a piece of art from school you could snap a picture of and share. If you have a great milestone—a first step, a new food, a new word, a first day at school, and you’ve captured it on film, center your video on that. Let friends and family celebrate your child’s successes with you.
If this season really is about spreading love, joy and celebration, then the card should be, too. It should be a way to rejoice with the rest of the people in your life over the good things in the year that is passing and the hopes for the year that is to come.
Jamie Sumner is a writer and author of the website, The Mom Gene (https://jamie-sumner.com/) and the mother to a son with cerebral palsy and twins.
FREE DOWNLOAD: PSN Holiday Tip Guide
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This post originally appeared on our November/December 2017 Magazine
