The holiday season involves some of my all-time favorite things: family, friends, good cheer, giving gifts, and sugary treats. And butter. But one of drawbacks of this time of year, for me, has to be the shipping stress. My family is close-knit, but we live all over the place, so I have to rely on the post office and shipping services to help deliver all things merry and bright.

Shopping for gifts online, it’s become standard to tack on a gift message. It’s free, right? But one mother decided to upgrade that whole system. She created the very clever GiftGram, a video gift message service. And guess what? It’s free, too.

 

GiftGram app: send personal video gift messages

 

Talk about being super easy; all you do is take your tracking number, head to the GiftGram site (or download the app — free for iOS and Android), and record a 30-second video greeting or upload a video you already have in your Camera Roll. Then enter your package’s tracking number, and choose whether you want your personal video gift message to be delivered immediately, or at some date you specify in the next month.  Your GiftGram will appear in the recipient’s email inbox at 9 a.m. ET on that date.

Even better, opt to have the message arrive at the same time your package hits the doorstep. Kind of nicer than the typed “Dear Aunt Marsha…” card that comes with flowers or boxes from Amazon, right?  Now that’s how you get the message across.

GiftGram is a free service for sending video gift messages through their website. It’s also a free download on iTunes and Google Play.