# A Christmas present that is still being opened in March

Christmas is the one time the whole family is in the room, and the one time the person with all the stories is busy with the potatoes. A gift under the tree that opens with your voice and then keeps going all winter gives them the floor for once, and gives everyone else something to read in January.

## What you give

It opens with you. A thirty-second voice message, recorded before the day, is the first thing they hear. No app to learn and no password to lose.

The first visit can happen on Boxing Day, by voice, fifteen minutes, with the family nearby. After that, two or three short visits a week through the dark months, when there is time to talk.

The chapters arrive one by one and everyone who was at the table can read them. By the time the clocks change, there is a book, in their words, ready to print.

## How to give it

1. Buy it once. It is one present, not a subscription that renews in the new year.
2. Record your message somewhere quiet in December. Name one Christmas story you want the true version of. For example: "Mum, I'd love to have your stories. Start with the Christmas the turkey went out the window, because Dad's version and yours have never matched."
3. Wrap something. A printed card with the first question inside goes under the tree, so there is something to open.
4. Do the first visit together over the holiday, then let them carry on alone. Read the chapters as they come and send a question back when one lands.

## Questions to start with

See also: Questions to ask your parents about their lives (/questions/parents)

- What was Christmas morning like in the house you grew up in?
- What was the best present you were ever given, and who gave it?
- Which year did everything go wrong, and who saved it?
- What did your mother cook that nobody has managed since?
- Who used to sit at the table who is not here now, and what did they always say?
- What was the first Christmas after you left home like?
- What did you want us to believe about Christmas when we were small?
- What tradition did you start on purpose, and which one started by accident?

## If they are hesitant

The day itself is a bad time for persuasion. If they shrug, put the card on the mantelpiece and say nothing more until the quiet week after New Year. Then offer the first visit with you in the room, fifteen minutes, their choice of question. If the answer is still no, it is a present they did not want, and that is allowed. The money is not wasted if it stays unused; it does not expire.

Related: Your parents' story, finished (/for/parents); How to interview a parent about their life (/write/interview-a-parent).

Tellforth: Your story, told in full, in your own voice, for the people who come after.