Homemade Christmas Gift: Slide Show Kids Activities Blog

I love giving a homemade Christmas gift to my friends and relatives, but being that I am not the crafti-est of mommas, I always struggle with making something adorable and “Pinterest-worthy”. I finally learned to take something you are interested in or good at and figure out a way to use that gift, for others. Check out this idea for slide show movie gifts. This is just one of the creative holiday gift ideas you’ll find here at Kids Activities Blog.

A few years ago I started playing around movie making software on my computer making movies of my kids. I started to get pretty good with it and really enjoyed making movies. And since have come up with a few fun ideas for Christmas gifts that the recipients have really enjoyed. For the record, I use iMovie on my Mac and it is extremely user-friendly. So much so that if a person has never touched it, they could create a pretty fun movie in less than an hour. I also hear that Windows has an excellent, easy-to-use program too.

Homemade Christmas Gift

Year-in-Review Recap – Now that we all have movie cameras in our pockets (thanks to our phones), we are taking a lot more pictures and video of our family events and milestones. For all those grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends who live far away, a movie that re-caps all that your family did over the year is a fun gift that lasts a lifetime. Another version could be to use all the amazing photos you took over the year. What about a movie featuring all of your Instagram shots? Here is an example of one we made a few years back: 2011- A Good Life! from Rebecca Darling on Vimeo.

Slide Show

Another fun idea for a family gift would be to gather family photos through the years for a movie. This might take a bit of time to bring together and you might need to scan any older pictures in, but I promise you, it is so absolutely worth it. My 90 & 85 year old Grandmother & Grandfather still talk about the family movie I made for them over 5 years ago. You can put the photos in chronological or random order, add some fun effects to the slideshow (Ken Burns slow panning is my favorite) and everyone’s favorite songs. It’s an instant tear-jerker.

Movie Gifts

My children’s cousins live across the country and we only get to see them about once a year, so we decided to make them a movie that could satisfy their “cousin fix.” I videoed my children doing various activities and talking directly to their cousins in the camera. For example, my daughter quizzed them on their colors and shapes, my son showed them how to build a train track, they did some Just Dance dances, and each read them a few stories. We put the movies together and created a DVD, complete with menus to select what “show” they wanted to watch. I hear it is one of their favorite movies still to watch and my kids had a blast making it! If you don’t have the capabilities to burn DVDs, simply upload your creations to a movie-sharing site such as Youtube or Vimeo and share the link with your recipients. Happy Movie Making!!