How to

Make a Christmas Memory Book

If you love the idea of using scrapbooks to display photos and other important keepsakes, consider making a Christmas memory book. These special scrapbooks allow you to commemorate each year’s holiday season and keep all your treasured memories in one place. Follow these simple steps from us at Pottery Barn to start a wonderful new family tradition that you can pass down through generations to come.

Choose Your Format

There are a few different Christmas memory book styles to consider. First, decide whether you want to make a DIY scrapbook-style memory book from scratch, or if you want to purchase a premade blank memory notebook. Both have their benefits. If you love crafts and like to decorate and customize your family memory books, a DIY scrapbook approach may be an enjoyable option. If you’d prefer to make the process more efficient, buying a premade Christmas memory notebook can be a good choice. These often come with fully decorated pages and covers, meaning you’ll simply need to fill in the photos and spaces for other keepsakes.

Also, consider whether you want a single Christmas memory book to cover multiple years, or if you want to create a scrapbook for each year’s holiday season. Both approaches work well. It really depends on how many photos you tend to take and how many other items you’d like to save, like holiday cards, play or concert programs, gift wish lists from the kids and wrapping scraps. If you want to commemorate lots of details, a single-year memory book is likely your best option.

Keep in mind that if you choose to go the DIY route, you can determine how many years you want to include in a multi-year memory book. You can see how many pages you fill your first year. Use that to determine how many years you want to include in each memory book. You may not have this option if you choose a pre-made book, since they usually include a set number of pages and may even have sections marked by specific calendar years.

Pick Your Important Memories

There may be room for more than a few photos in your Christmas memory book. However, even if you bring home a large single-year DIY scrapbook to customize, you may not be able to fit every single photo, card and memory into the book. Collect what you think might be a good choice to include in the book throughout the holiday season. Set aside your most meaningful cards. Save your favorite digital photos to a specific file for later printing and generally keep the book in mind as you celebrate. Then, when the season is over, take a look through all your collected options and choose your favorites. This will make it easier to decide what to put into the memory book.

Decide When to Update

You don’t have to put everything in your memory book when the season ends. You can set aside your favorite memories and bring them back out when the calendar turns to the winter months once again. This can help you build up some excitement for Christmas, and it may even be a fun activity to do with your family following Thanksgiving. If you do choose to complete the memory book before packing up all your Christmas decorations, you’ll be able to look at it throughout the year. If you’d like, you can even write notes in the book to accompany your keepsakes.

Store and Display for the Future

A collection of Christmas memory journals may be full of icons and reminders of the holiday season, but that doesn’t mean these sentimental treasure troves need to stay in storage with the rest of your favorite holiday decor. Keep your Christmas memory books on a bookshelf in your living room or bedroom. You can pull them off the shelf in the years to come and get a heartwarming glimpse into the joy of holidays past. Christmas can be a big part of a family’s shared experience. If your family likes to get into the holiday spirit at Christmastime, these books are a fantastic way of reminding the family of your favorite holiday mome