By keeping and sharing memories, making a memory jar is a simple and enjoyable method to strengthen family ties. With these suggestions, ideas, and advice, get started making a straightforward family memory jar to strengthen your bonds as a unit.
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A Memory Jar: What Is It?
A memory jar is an assortment of individual or familial recollections that are kept in a sizable, robust jar—typically one that holds sentimental or artistic value. Memory jars may hold recollections of a particular someone, maybe a beloved who has sadly passed away. They could also serve as a storehouse of family customs, prepared to pass on to the following generation.
Imagine your memory jar as an alternative to a scrapbook or photo book, filled with physical memories you can pull out and look at again and again.
Methods for Making a Memory Jar
Pick a jar that can accommodate trinkets, pictures, and anything else you might want to add.
Verify that it is entirely dry and clean. You might wish to disinfect the jar if it was previously used to store food.
Decide on a subject for your memory box. Will they be memories of the whole family or specific to a location, someone, or occasion?
Select images and objects that bring your topic to mind.
Gently put them into the container.
Put the jar in a location that is accessible to everybody.
It would be simple and quick for someone to jot down a recollection and add it to the jar if you placed a little notebook and some colored pens next to it.
Including Your Family in the Project Memory Jar
Including the entire family in the creation of your memory jar will make it so much more meaningful. Selecting your top memories as a group may be a really powerful way to strengthen your bonds.
Take out a pile of old pictures and go through them, asking people to identify themselves with certain occasions, trips, or school plays. Alternatively, establish a WhatsApp group and invite all family members to share their greatest photos from a memorable day. You might also ask your family to go through old photos or select a sentimental object.
Over time, your family will value your memory jar project more the more involved they are in it. The process of making picture memory books follows the same guidelines. Participating from everyone increases the enjoyment and significance of it.
Using a Memory Jar to Foster Family Ties
In addition to strengthening your bonds with your own family, you may bring your memory jar with you when you visit distant relatives and even show it off to family and friends.
A memory jar filled with pictures of happy occasions or sentimental objects like the ticket stubs from a movie you liked is a terrific way to strike off a discussion. This might help you patch things up with relatives you haven’t spoken to in a long time. Reminding other family members of their affection for one another through pictures and recollections might also aid in their reconciliation.
I love giving memory jars as heritage presents. Your family’s children will grow up adding to that memory jar, and when it becomes their own, they can engage their own children as well. Memory jars may become a source of family history or even a multigenerational pastime.
Customizing and Adding Decorations to Your Memory Jar
Although a straightforward family memory jar might be lovely, customizing your craft is a lot of fun. Choose whether you want your jar to be opaque or transparent first. You can paint, wrap, or adorn the jar’s outside using stickers, glue, or paint if you want the contents to remain concealed until it’s opened. You may also think about decorating your memory jar with a unique piece of cloth, like lace.
Using and Presenting the Recollections in Your Memory Jar
You may keep your memory jar out of the way at all times, ready for fresh memories or as a keepsake of a loved someone. People are prompted to offer their own unique moments as a result. Pick a visible yet secure location—you don’t want the jar to be knocked over or broken!
Select a room that is free of clutter and open when you gather with family so that you may share those memories and open your jar.
Alternatives to Memory Jars
Though they’re not for everyone, memory jars may be a terrific activity to strengthen family bonds. Some people would rather live in the present than ruminate on the past. Some people could want to use digital media, sending slideshows via email or using social media to share news and recollections.