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My dad turned 60 this year, and I wanted to do something special for him. Years ago I saw the awesome idea to fill 60 envelopes with memories. I couldn’t wait to do it myself. I worried that I wouldn’t get enough participation or that it would seem silly to people. But it had such potential that I couldn’t help but try.
I emailed a bunch of my extended family. I texted. I posted on Facebook. I pestered.
I asked for each memory to be separate, and I’m so glad I did. However, some memories were short blips (like cute one-liners from the grandkids!), so I felt like the envelopes were too much. Instead, I printed all of the memories, cut them into strips, rolled them up, and tied them tightly with ribbon. Some memories were a little long, so I folded them before I rolled them.
I found a jar and started filling it up. I added a chalkboard sticker and tied a quote to the jar. It turned out so much better than I could have hoped! It was fun gathering memories, and I loved having the opportunity to write about some of my favorite times with my dad.
Here are a few things I would recommend:
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- Start early. Start making lists of people you want involved. Start writing out your own memories. Start asking around about who else you should involve. Just start.
- Keep it a secret. I was lucky enough to not worry about my dad seeing my Facebook posts, but if your person is on Facebook, block them from the posts. Remind everyone to tell everyone who might have a memory… but not the recipient!
- Finalize memories as soon as you have some. Because I printed, cut, rolled, and tied each individual memory, it took hours. I was up late most nights that last week finalizing as much as I could. Each day more memories would come in, but if I’d waited till I had them all, I wouldn’t have finished in time.
- Encourage multiple memories. A lot of people who responded gave several memories, and my siblings gave quite a few. I found that the more people thought of, the more interesting the memories that came out.
There are a few things I would have done differently:
- Started earlier. Life was crazy at the time, so I only gave people maybe two weeks’ notice. I figured it was plenty of time seeing as people often forget if they have too long. However, I think I would have reached more people if I had started even just a week or two earlier. You may just have to send reminders!
- Standardized. I asked for memories and left that up to interpretation. I was impressed by what I got, but it would have been nice if I had told everyone to address my dad instead of me. Sometimes the wording was awkward, but I didn’t want to change anyone’s memories.
- Given examples. I didn’t think of this until after the fact, but I think examples would have been helpful. Everything from writing out my own memory to listing things people could write about to get them thinking. I felt like the specific memories were best.
- Included more than memories. My husband thought to include song lyrics that reminded him of my dad. I thought that was a great idea and wished I’d have thought to do that!
This kind of jar would be perfect for so many occasions. You could do it for a graduation, a wedding, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, a birthday, or Christmas. What would you collect memories for?
