5 Fun Things to Film this Holiday Season
With the holiday season upon us it’s easy to get swept up in all the busyness and preparation and forget to pick up our cameras. But when it comes to filming YOUR story, Christmas & the holiday season is the perfect time to switch over to video and start recording your favourite memories.
It doesn’t have to be a full film, you could film a few clips each day and then put everything together after the season to create a film that showcases all the fun you had, or you could pick one of your favourite activities or traditions and create a film around that.
Whatever you do, don’t worry about perfection, focus on the feeling of the moment and you’ll create something that will bring much joy to you and your loved ones when you watch it back in the years to come.
To get you thinking about how you’ll film your story these holidays, here are 5 fun things you can film…
Trimming the Tree (or choosing it!)
Probably one of the most favourite thing for kids to do at Christmas is choose and decorate the tree. This is a fabulous activity to film, with many opportunities to include clips of special ornaments and other Christmas keepsakes that have special meaning to your family. Not to mention those twinkle lights!
FilmingLife® member Jennifer Magnuson has captured her family’s quest to find the perfect tree…
Christmas Baking
If baking gingerbread is one of your family’s favourite traditions you should definitely try to capture it on film. As well as getting lots of clips of little hands mixing & shaping the dough, try setting your camera up on a tripod and getting in the frame yourself.
Watch the film below by FilmingLifer Nora Mullen for some delicious Christmas cooking inspiration…
Advent traditions
Many families like to get together at the beginning of Advent to decorate the house and read the Christmas story. If you’re family has special traditions around lighting the advent candles and hearing about the first Christmas this is a great chance to get some lovely audio to use in your Christmas film.
FilmingLife® Community Manager Kylie Purtell loves to have fun capturing her family’s annual Advent & tree decorating celebrations and takes the opportunity to create videos that capture the spirit of her family…
Family gatherings
The holiday season is all about family and being together with those we love. Whether it’s a catch-up in the weeks leading up to Christmas, getting together to light the candles of the menorah at your Hanukkah celebration, Christmas lunch or playing beach cricket on Boxing Day, switch that camera over to video and capture your loved ones.
FilmingLifer PRO Ashley Lewis has a real knack for capturing the traditions of her family Christmas celebrations with so much life & humour…
Christmas crafts
Christmas craft is a really great activity to have some fun with the kids and your camera. You can document the craft process from start to finish, and make sure you capture the crafts in action as they’re put up around the house for decoration.
There’s so many amazing things that happen at this time of year for you to film. From the activities listed above to ice-skating, playing in the snow, heading to the beach or to the local shops to visit Santa & see the decorations, let your imagination run free!
And to inspire you further, here are some more holiday films made by the members of the FilmingLife® Academy…
You don’t need to have kids to get in on the Christmas fun and document your special traditions with video.
FilmingLifer Sarah MacClary from Corvallis Video created this gorgeous Moving Christmas Card for this beautiful couple.
A short sweet Christmas video that includes the Gradnparents by FilmingLife® member Jennifer Magnuson of Baby Viking Films
FilmingLifer Sarah Kasuba Muratore loves to capture not just Christmas but everything she loves about the fall & winter seasons in her films
This super fun video by FilmingLifer Carmen Dunham is filled with fabulous Christmas quirkiness
This film from FilmingLifer PRO Amy Murgatroyd is great inspiration for capturing your holiday traditions
These filmmakers all recognised this special time in their lives as one they wanted to capture forever, and they put aside the idea of perfection and just went for it! In the wise words of our founder, Courtney Holmes…
“When it comes to your own family film, it isn't about perfection.... its simply HAVING the memory preserved. Don't over think it. Keep those cameras out and ready.”
If you’d like to learn more about how you can start filming YOUR story today, join the FilmingLife® Academy and get instant access to everything you need to know to start capturing your family’s story in video.