Family Wrapped: The best is saved for last
29/12/2025
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Michael Restin
So much happens in 365 days. We forget most of it, unfortunately including special family moments. To start the new year with good feelings from the old one, I have adopted a lovely tradition.
My aunt always has an open ear for others. Which is not to say that she eavesdrops on strangers. Unless she can't help it. That was the case a good year ago when she took a seat on a bench on her New Year's Eve walk and then came back with a story that has stayed with me to this day.
There was another bench next to hers. A family with two older children took a seat there. And they had something to say to each other, in the best sense of the word. It wasn't about who could sit where, nor about the question of what New Year's Eve would bring. It was about what special things the past year had left behind.
A box for a year
The idea, as simple as it was beautiful, was a box that provided a topic of conversation and a good atmosphere. Inside was a note for every compliment, every success, every special memory that one of the Family members had recorded and posted over the past few months. There, the words were waiting to be drawn and read out in turn.
In this way, the big and small moments of the year came to light from different perspectives: exams passed, nice things that happened or special gestures that meant a lot to someone. What the others perhaps didn't even know. Or what was quickly forgotten in everyday life.
Family Wrapped
I think the basic idea behind this annual box is so good because there is hardly any pressure and the timing is perfect. Nobody has to find big words for a big round with a deadline breathing down their neck. The memories accumulate over a long period of time so that they work like fireworks at the most sentimental moment, when the old year has come to an end and the new one has not yet begun. Each note throws a small spotlight on a special moment, creating a beautiful picture.
When the stress fizzles out like a rocket in the air and the sentences unfold their effect, a glow remains on the faces that I imagine to be beautiful. That's why I want to see if this idea works for us too. I have - slightly over-motivated - ordered a whole letterbox for it. Any other box will do, of course. It's the handmade content that counts, not the content devised by algorithms. It's a kind of family wrap-up, so as not to leave the annual round-up to Spotify alone.
Out of the box into the world
A year ago, between the people, between the benches and between the years, the spark was lit. My aunt, actually uninvolved but touched, joined in the joy. She got up and went to the strangers to give them a compliment. She thought «out of the box», simply joined in and then got me excited about the idea of giving it a try.
Since we should share joy and good ideas, I'll do so here and ask out of curiosity: Are you doing something special for the end of the year that will leave a more lasting impression than pouring tin and setting off firecrackers? As always, my feedback box, aka comment column, is open.
Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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