3 Best holiday gift ideas that honor family memories

One-of-a-kind gifts that preserve memories are the best kind of holiday presents!

Are you tired of gifting things that no one in your family really needs? Having trouble finding meaningful ideas for holiday giving? Here are three amazing Christmas or Hanukkah gift ideas, including tips and resources for going the DIY route as well as ideas for getting a pro to handle it all, start to finish. Happy memory-making!

1 - Create a family recipe book.

Not just any recipe book, but one filled with the ingredients and how-tos for your favorite dishes AND the stories and memories associated with them.

Be sure to include:

• the foods’ origins (Who made it first? Who might have changed it over the years? Does it derive from a specific region or culture?

• notes about any special ingredients (and by this I mean how to source unusual spices, perhaps, but also when using a certain brand—like U-Bet syrup or Eagle condensed milk—is crucial to a dish’s success)

• photos of handwritten recipe cards (those grease stains and crossed-out notations add incredible texture to your book!)

• even simple foods if they hold special meaning to your family (Mom’s quick cinnamon toast, say, or Poppy’s three-ingredient holiday egg cream)

DIY family recipe book help

If you’re ready to dive in, these tips for getting the family involved in preserving your food heritage may help get you started.

And if you’re not quite ready but love the idea, these recipe cards have space for recording memories alongside your recipes, and they’re a great precursor to creating a family cookbook (they make a unique and thoughtful host gift, too). Use coupon code HOLIDAY2021 for 25% off at checkout, through the end of this year.

Consider a professionally created heirloom recipe book.

If you love the idea of honoring your family’s food heritage but don’t have the time or inclination to undertake such a project yourself, I’m here for you. Let’s set up a free call to discuss your project.

2 - Get those photos off your phone and into a book.

If your photos are sitting on your phone or computer, then you have a bunch of digital files, not a collection of memories. Get them in print for a gift guaranteed to make them (and you!) feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The hardest part? Believe it or not, it’s not designing your book or finding a printer, it’s curating your photos. Huh? By curating I mean deciding which photos to put into your memory book and which to leave on the cutting-room floor.

Choose photos for your book that:

• show you and your family members as you really are—don’t just choose well-lit posed shots and flattering selfies; rather, pick pictures that convey your personalities and exude real emotion

• hold some special meaning, even if it’s elusive to outsiders

• mark moments beyond the milestones—so, alongside those birthday and anniversary photos, include images from around the dinner table, or sitting under blankets for family movie nights (I guarantee these everyday scenes will grow exponentially in meaning over time!)

DIY photo book help

If you’re ready to get started, I challenge you to add some long captions describing your memories so your family photo book is wonderfully elevated to true memory-book.

Check this page out if you’d like some help with photo book themes.

Hand your photo book over to a pro

Need help with any part of this process? I can help you curate your photos, capture your memories, and design and print your photo book. Set up a consultation or consider buying a gift certificate for future services.

3 - Give them the gift of a generous listener (and time to share their stories!).

Asking someone to share their memories—and then giving them your undivided attention and heartfelt curiosity—is a gift we give not nearly enough. It’s why literally every single one of my personal history clients thanks me profusely for listening to them. For asking follow-up questions and never judging their experiences. For opening my heart and inviting their stories.

And you know what? This gift is free for you to give your loved ones. All it costs is time and a little bit of effort (I’ve even created a free gift certificate printable you can download and present to your loved one!)..

Fair warning: Your mom, granddad, or whomever you plan to bless with this gift, may very well have a look of confusion when they hear what you’re gifting them. Don’t let that deter you—instead, reiterate to them just how much you love them and value their stories, and how spending time together in such a way is as much a gift to you as it is to them. (It really is!!)

A few ideas for giving the gift of listening:

• Be an active listener. Give your family member non-verbal cues as they are telling their stories—nod, show emotion on your face. These cues help them know, deep down, that they are being heard, and will urge them to keep sharing

• Ask follow-up questions. Your curiosity is a wonderful driver of their stories. And by asking relevant, perceptive, timely questions, you will be helping them construct their story.

• That said, be quiet sometimes. There are always times when silence—even an extended, potentially awkward silence—is called for. If you are truly listening and reading their cues, you may feel when this is the case: Do they have a faraway look in their eyes, like they are still inhabiting the world of their story? Give them a few beats to stay there. Have they dropped some profound or surprising insight on you? Just wait. Your patience is a gift, an opening for them to dig deeper and offer up even more out loud.

• Don’t judge. Period. Approach this conversation with an open heart and an abundance of empathy.

DIY resources for interviewing your loved one

Will you be the one conducting the interview (or, if that sounds too “official,” leading the conversation)? This free printable guide has a great array of questions to help jog your loved one’s memory and get the stories flowing.

Will your child be asking the questions? This Kid Kit contains everything a child will need to spend quality story sharing time with their grandparents, from questions to historical tidbits to bonus family history activities.

Okay, the fundamental value in this activity is spending quality time together and learning more about your family elder—that’s really and truly it. However, don’t forget that it’s also a prime opportunity for recording their stories. So if you’d like to capture them for posterity (and I suggest you do!), check out this guide from the Smithsonian with specific tips on setting up a voice or video recorder and preserving your questions and answers.

Get some expert help to preserve their stories

Once you have had your story sharing session, you may want to consider having them professionally edited and designed into an heirloom memory book. If so, please reach out to see how I could help you bring your dream book to life.

More essential reads about Christmas memories:

• book ideas & inspiration
• curated roundups
• dawn's musings
• family history
• food memories
• gift ideas
• memoir & writing
• photo legacy
• remember lost loved ones
• reviews
• the art of listening
• wedding
• why tell your stories?

5 most unique gifts for sentimental loved ones

Shopping for holiday or birthday gifts for the kids in our lives is relatively easy compared with picking a present for an adult loved one who seems to have it all, don’t you agree?!

My feeling in recent years has been to opt for experiential gifts—tickets to a show (even better if we can all go together), an immersive class in a favorite hobby (think cooking or photography), or a surprise outing with a group of family and friends (a sunset river cruise, apple picking, or a day-long scenic hike). The connections and memories made on these occasions are, as that old MasterCard commercial goes, “priceless.”

But when a physical gift is in order, why not focus on ideas that pay homage to those special memories?

Wrapped with Love and Memories

Photo Locket Necklace

Too many of our images live on our devices. Liberate your precious photos from the screen and hold them close to your heart in a customized locket necklace. Elegant modern options abound, like this sterling silver gate design with sapphires from Monica Rich Kosann, pictured ($795, holds two pictures)—this one’s on my wish list! If you or your gift recipient prefer antique pieces with some history of their own, scour the finely curated collection at Luna & Stella (prices start at $250).

Custom Heritage Ceramics

Do you have a handwritten recipe passed down from your mom? Maybe a love letter penned by your grandfather during the Great War? Honor their spirit and incorporate their legacy into your home by customizing a beautiful piece of pottery showcasing their note. Prairie Hills Pottery reproduces your original in warm sepia tones on crisp white platters, suitable for cooking or display. Casserole bakers, jewelry dishes, and decorative jars are also available. Starting at $30.

Permanent Remembrance on a U.S. National Monument

Have your family’s name inscribed on the American Immigrant Wall of Honor® at Ellis Island, the only place in the country where an individual can honor his or her family heritage at a National Monument. Names on the Wall of Honor represent all ethnicities, all years of arrival, all points of entry, and all modes of travel. Consider inscribing names of family members to commemorate the centennial of an ancestor’s arrival, or as a proud marker of becoming newly naturalized. Of course, your next gift should be a trip to this historic island in New York Harbor to find your name on the wall and visit the museum! $150 for single name; $225 for double name entry; one commemorative certificate is included with each name inscription, and additional certificates are available for $15 each; tax deductible donations support restoration and maintenance of Ellis Island.

A Taste of the Past Recipe Card Set

While I wish everyone would have the time and money to invest in an heirloom book preserving their family stories, I realize sometimes that’s not always possible. That’s why I created this one-of-a-kind family history themed recipe card set. It makes a thoughtful host(ess) gift, especially when paired with a bottle of wine, a surprising stocking stuffer come Christmas, or a birthday gift for the chef or family historian in your clan. Set includes 10 fold-over recipe cards with space for ingredients and preparation instructions as well as stories and memories associated with each dish; 10 extra blank cards; and bonus pages with tips for making the most of your A Taste of the Past recipe card set. $30 for set.

AN ARTFUL LEGACY

Need a special gift for an artistic soul (or even just an avid scrapbooker in your family)? Consider ordering a sketchbook so they can participate in The Sketchbook Project. Anyone can fill the sketchbook in any way they like—paint from your imagination, draw scenes from your everyday life, journal about your past and your dreams, whatever strikes your fancy—and whatever you would like permanently archived and available to visitors at The Brooklyn Art Library and its global traveling sketchbook shows. The sketchbooks are catalogued and preserved for visitors to access at the Williamsburg brick-and-mortar location, or (for a bit more money) via the digital archive. “We do not believe in the statement ‘I’m not an artist.’ Because it doesn’t matter. Share your story, draw your stick figures, just own it,” says founder Steven Peterman. “We can promise you a lifelong commitment to keeping your artifact safe, while continuing to act as a time capsule for global creativity.” $30 for sketchbook; $65 for digitization and inclusion in the project’s digital library.