Christmas is the season of magic. The whole world is coated with happiness and glitter at this time of the year. After working hard throughout the year, it undoubtedly is one of the most celebrated festivals people look forward to during the holiday season. An important part of the Christian tradition is people singing the famous Christmas carols and the popular Jingle Bell song that usually marks the celebration. Some of the important features of this festival include church services, family dinners, and community gatherings too. But one of the most important customs of all would be the exchange of gifts and thoughtful greeting cards with loved ones.
Moreover, 2020 failed all our festive plans. It won’t be wrong to say that 2020 as a year took a 360-degree turn. One great example of that is that festivals became more about family bonding than splurging on meaningless gifts. Friends and families have come a long way and come closer than ever in 2021. The new Christmas mantra became all about staying at home and having fun with the family.
So to convey your sincere love for someone, nothing can ever come closer to the appeal of personalized gifts. A video gift by a group of people who mean a lot to that person can make an ordinary greeting extraordinary.
It’s also easy to turn your video clips into a personalized video that will show how much you care. Just check out our step-by-step instructions for how to create and share your own Christmas video greeting in minutes. In this guide, you’ll also get different message ideas that you can give to everyone who you want to contribute to your surprise video gift.
How to Compile Merry Christmas Messages Into One Surprise Video Gift
Create your group video in just 4 easy steps:
Step 1: Create a Celebration
You are the one who is initiating the whole process and also choosing the cast for your video gift. So without a question, you are the producer and the director of the show. The “Create a Celebration” refers to the step when you have to choose the following:
First of all, fill in the name of the person who is going to receive the gift.
Next, make sure you are choosing the occasion of the celebration, which in this case is Christmas.
You will further have an option to select the day you want to share the video with the recipient, which in this case would be the 25th of December.
Then, choose the deadline for the contributors of your video gift. It’s recommended that you choose a deadline several days before the 25th of December so that everyone in your family and friends gets enough time to contribute to the gift and you get enough time to edit it.
Once you have chosen the dates, you can choose the style of the video you want to create.
Single video clip per person: One is the ‘single video clip per person’ style which is perfect for getting one response each from many people and then merging them all into one video. It is ideal for birthdays, anniversaries and festival wishes, etc.
Q&A: The second is the ‘Q&A’ style which is perfect for getting many responses each from one or only a few people and merging them all into a single video. In this style, each person is asked a series of questions and they respond to each one with a separate video clip. The Q&A style is ideal for use as a game for bridal showers, baby showers, etc.
Step 2: Invite friends and family to contribute
A producer and director is nothing without its cast. So it’s time to cast for your show now so that they can contribute to the video with their mini clips that will end up in the compilation. The “Create your Invitation” step is about inviting friends and family that you want to contribute to your video gift with an e-card. In this step, you’ll have to:
Name the e-card that you want to send to the cast so that they understand what it is about from the name itself.
Add a picture of the person you are going to send the final Christmas gift to so everyone gets an idea about who the video gift is for. This image will be shown on the invitation you send to your ‘cast’ when you ask them for the clips with their messages.
Next, you can select one or many ideas that your contributors can talk about in their videos. There are two options and the good news is you can choose one or both at the same time. You can write your ideas and also select from the ideas suggested. Here are some examples that the tool will help you with:
Fun ideas
How did you meet Jane?
What's your favorite inside joke with Jane?
Meaningful ideas
What accomplishment of Jane inspires you?
What do you appreciate most about Jane?
What is Jane's most inspiring trait?
What makes Jane wonderful?
How has Jane impacted your life?
Holiday-related ideas
Share an all-time favorite family memory
Share an all-time favorite memory with Jane
Share a holiday story with Jane
Share a seasonal recipe with Jane
The next step after you have selected from the ideas suggested and have shared your ideas with friends and family, is about fine-tuning the written part of the request. This text will be included in the invitation as guidance to what the video gift is about and what you are requesting from them. You can use the example below as is or you can edit it as you want:
“We're creating an extra-special surprise gift for Jane — a group video from all the people who matter to Jane.
As you’re one of those people, would you please do a short video clip 😄
It's really easy! Just tap the link below to send your video message. You can use this link to record now or to upload a pre-recorded video from your phone or computer.
Please do your video today so you don’t forget 🙏
And thanks!!”
If you think that the text and the ideas you have sent are not enough, you can record your video request. It’s optional but your friends are more likely to respond to your request quickly if you send them a short video. You lead by example. Not only a video will show them that their message will be as impactful but also it'll be encouraging for them as you are doing it yourself. The best part is that you can do as many retakes as you wish until you are happy with your video message and you can also change it in the future. You can consider including the following message in your video:
“Please don't say anything … it's a secret
What accomplishment of Jane inspires you?
Please do it today. It's so easy to forget!”
You can then preview how your invitation will look like to your friends and family.
And do not worry because you can edit the invitation by going back or you can return to edit any time you want.
When you are done with the invitation text and video, you can choose from two ways to send. You can either Tap to send an email or Tap to copy the link to the invitation.
Once you send them the invite, your friends can tap on the link on any device and they will be able to create a video clip without having to create an account and you will be sent an email whenever anyone responds.
Step 3: Create the final video
Once you receive the video clips of family and friends you can go on to become the decider on who takes which place in the video like a true editor to the director. It’s time for you to use the editing suite and create/edit the group video. In the editing suite, you will be able to see the following:
A Preview pane where your video preview will play after you’ve added clips to the timeline.
The Timeline is where you can add video and pictures from your clipboard. You can drag and drop to reorder and also tap a clip to edit.
The Clipboard is where your clips are first added. You can click them to preview and also drag them to your timeline to add to your video. The final video will only include clips that are shown in your timeline.
Also, there are different features you can play with at the editing suite:
Record Video
Add Videos
Add Photos
Add Card
Add GIF
Browse Song Library
Upload Song
Add Credits
Step 4: Share!
Once you have edited the video and compiled it into one group video, it’s time to get ready for laughter and happy tears by sharing it.
Now it’s time to process your video. It generally takes about 4-5 minutes for every minute of video to process. To process the video, you’ll have to buy credits. After you’ve paid, your processed video will differ in three ways: 1. It will be in HD, 2. The “draft” watermark will be gone, 3. Any black bars on the screen will be replaced with a blurred background if you use the Blurred background feature.
Please note:
You can make changes later and reprocess at no extra cost.
Further, you can also normalize clip volume for times when people have recorded their video clips at different volumes. Setting the Normalize Clip Volume to ON will automatically balance all your video clips at the time of processing the merged video. In this case, any music that you add will be muted during video clips by the contributors but will still be heard at the volume you select for pictures, cards, and GIFs. You can also set it to OFF and fine-tune each video clip on your preferred volume level. In this case, the music on videos, as well as all other video clips by the contributors, will be at the volume levels you choose.
Finally, choosing the credits feature will mean that your video will display the name of all the people who took part in the video. It will look like the credits of a movie.
Contributors who have specifically requested to see the final video must have provided their email addresses, you can share the group video with them. You can still check the boxes of the people you want to share the final video with though.
When you are finally ready with how the video has come along you can tap the email video link button. You will see a pre-filled email with checked email addresses in the ‘to’ field, a ‘from’ address, a suggested text, and the link to the video. You can send it as is or even edit it before sending it.
Another way to share with people would be to copy the link and send it via any other messaging app like email or social media.
So choose who you want to share it with but do not forget to share it with the person to whom this gift belongs!
Easy to Create, Fun to Give, Joy to Receive
In case you are still not done with your Christmas gift shopping yet, you can leave your worries behind because compiling Merry Christmas messages into one surprise video gift is one of the most sought-after and at the same time one of the most thoughtful last-minute Christmas gift ideas.
In fact, in these trying times where travel is uncertain, compiling Christmas messages into one surprise video gift is one of the most mesmerizing gifts one can choose to give. It will save you when you are hunting for a nice gift not only in the eleventh hour but also in these times when gifting has to be more meaningful than ever. It’s the time to cherish old memories, live on while remembering the best of the past, and hoping for the best in the future. Also, with group video gift maker tools, it can never be too late to give a creative, from-the-heart gift. Merry Christmas and Happy holidays!
Also Read: How To Compile Happy Birthday Messages Into One Surprise Video Gift
