Somewhere in your phone is the whole year: the first bike ride, the stomach bug, the beach, the haircut you all agreed not to discuss. These family year in review ideas pull the best of it out and put it on the table, so you can laugh about it together before the new one starts.
Some take ten minutes over dinner. One takes twelve photos and turns them into a game you will play all winter.
Family year in review ideas for one evening
Start simple. Any of these fits between dinner and dessert.
The family awards
Make up categories and vote. Best meltdown. Most improved at chores. Funniest thing said in the car. Hand out paper medals. Kids take this extremely seriously, and the speeches are the best part.
The top ten list
Everyone writes their ten favorite moments of the year on scraps of paper. Read them out and count which moments show up most. The winner is usually something small, like the night the power went out.
The letter to next year
Each person writes or draws a note to their future self. What do you hope happens? What are you scared of? Seal it in an envelope and open it next time.
The shoebox time capsule
Everyone adds one object that sums up their year. A ticket stub, a lost tooth in a baggie, a drawing, a swim badge. Tape the box shut, write the year on the lid and put it in the closet. Opening old boxes becomes its own tradition.
The two minute slideshow
Pick one photo from every few weeks of the year and let your phone stitch them together. Play it on the TV with the lights off. Two minutes keeps it sweet.
12 months, 24 cards: the photo deck
Here is our favorite version, because it keeps going after the evening ends. Pick one photo from each month of the year. Twelve photos, twelve moments. Turn them into a 24-card memory game, and the whole year lives in a deck of cards.
Matchy Matchy Memory keeps your real photos, from $19.99. You upload from your phone and see your first card before you pay. When you play, every match is a month. Flip the snowman and the sunburn in one turn and everyone remembers how long a year really is.
The rule that makes it a review: when you find a pair, say one thing that happened that month. Little kids remember strange details. Grown-ups remember the big ones. Together you get the full story.
Got very little ones? Start with 12 cards, one photo for every two months. It is a shorter game with the same idea, and toddlers can win it outright. Older kids and grown-ups usually want all twelve months in 24 cards, or even 48 cards with two photos for every month.
Picking one photo per month
Scrolling a whole year of photos is the hard part. Go season by season and it gets easy.
Winter
Snow days, sick days, the cozy stuff. Look for faces bundled in hats, a fort in the living room, a birthday cake indoors.
Spring
First warm days, muddy boots, a school play. Spring photos tend to have great light, so they look bright on cards.
Summer
You will have too many. The beach, the camping trip, the ice cream face. Pick the one that makes everyone groan or laugh, and let the rest go.
Fall
New school shoes, leaf piles, costumes, the big family dinner. Close the deck with the newest photo you have.
If a month is empty, use a screenshot of a funny text or a photo of the kid's drawing from that time. Gaps tell a story too.
Ask the rest of the family for help. Grandparents and aunts often have photos you never saw, taken from the other side of the table. A quick text asking for one favorite from the summer gets you a whole new angle on your own year.
Questions to ask while you play
The cards start the conversation. A few good questions keep it going.
- What surprised you this year? Kids answer this one with total honesty.
- What was hard? A gentle way to talk about the tough months together.
- Who did we meet? New friends, a new teacher, the neighbor's new puppy.
- What should we do again? Write the answers down. That is next year's plan, done.
- What would you change? Expect at least one vote for more dessert.
Keep the answers in a notebook with the deck. Next winter, read last year's answers before you play. Kids love hearing what they wished for, and grown-ups get a quiet check on how the year really went.
Make the year in a deck a tradition
One deck is fun. A shelf of them is a family history you can play. Make a new deck every winter and keep the old ones in a drawer. In a few years, the kids will pull out an old deck and see themselves missing teeth, wearing that costume, holding a puppy who is now a very large dog.
For a twist, alternate between real and re-drawn decks. Matchy Matchy Magic re-draws your photos in 3D Film, Watercolor or Anime, from $29.99. A Watercolor year next to an Anime year makes a fun shelf. Write the year on the back of the first card in each deck, so nobody has to guess which winter had the epic snowman.
Make your family's deck
Pick one photo from each month. Choose real photos or re-drawn ones. Choose 24 cards for one photo a month, or 48 cards for two photos a month. You see your first card before you pay.
Start with Matchy Matchy Memory for your real photos, or Matchy Matchy Magic to see the year re-drawn. Questions? Write to us at hello@matchygame.com.