GeekMom Holiday Traditions: Holiday FaceTime

You know how that classic song goes: “There’s no place like Skype for the holidays…” or something like that.

With little kids in the house, we’ve found it increasingly difficult to travel at Christmastime. The Santa logistics alone are mind-boggling, so we usually stay home with the kids and miss our family far away. Thanks to more ubiquitous technology among my family members, though, we can be at holiday celebrations virtually.

It feels more festive if we make it different than our usual Skype or FaceTime calls. We’ll pick a time to gather everyone together like it’s a special event. The grown-ups will all make themselves a festive cocktail. (Bonus points if you make the same drink on both sides of the call.) The kids will wear their Santa hats and sing the latest holiday songs they’ve learned.

We even do our annual gift exchange this way. Often the gifts are all in one location, and all available kids are only too happy to unwrap presents on behalf of someone on the other end, and then we have them shipped afterwards. Just this week we did an early gift exchange for the kids, and I got to see the look on my niece’s face when she opened her personalized, autographed copy of N.E.R.D.S by Michael Buckley, her favorite author. My sister got to see my son dig in to his new trucks, showing off what they can do.

With family in Illinois, Arizona, California, and soon Hawaii, this technology is a valuable resource to stay connected to our loved ones.