DIY Family Times Newspaper Keepsake Gift

The day after Thanksgiving is the perfect times to start making a Family Times newspaper (that is if you haven't already) to give as as Christmas gift. The stories and perhaps antics that happened on Thanksgiving are fresh in your mind and perhaps you talked about many other events of the year yesterday as well.

My husband and I have been making Family Times newspapers for several years now. It started as a present he and his sibling gave to their parents one year, but a few years later after we married we picked the idea up again and made it as a couple. My brother now helps us write a version for my side of the family as well.

Basically we try to give little snippets of what is happening in the lives of everyone in the family that year. And we try to interject some humor as well.

Now we try to record good ideas for "news stories" throughout the year so we don't forget, but I also try to consult with siblings close to the end of the year to see if they have anything new going on with them or something we missed along the way.

We use a simple free office program (Open Office) to format it and convert it to a PDF for easy digital sharing. And so it won't explode after we get it just how we want it, as it has been known to do on occasion.

This is a gift that is basically free to make, except it does require a good deal of time. But it is so much fun to look back on all of the years editions that we have, that it makes it totally worth it. And I think our families like it at least a little bit too.